Page 273 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

9i
Chime of twenty-six bronze zhong bells

3
3
Height 23.6-120.4 (8 /8-47 /8), width at lower
!
3
lip 14.8 - 59.7 (5 A - 23 /2), weight 2.8 -152.8
7
(6Vs-^6 /s)
Middle Spring and Autumn Period (c. 550 BCE)
From Tomb 2 at Xiasi, Xichuan, Henan Province
Henan Museum, Zhengshou

This is the largest continuous bell-chime so far
1
known from the Chinese Bronze Age, though other
contexts — e.g., the tomb of Marquis Yi at Leigudun,
Suixian (Hubei province) — have yielded multiple
chimes totaling larger numbers of bells. The twenty-
six bells (yongzhong) were arranged on a two-tiered
wooden rack; each bell was suspended from two
ropes, connected by a bronze pin through the bell's
2
suspension loop. To minimize acoustic interfer-
ence from the vibrating suspension ropes, the ropes
were made of lead.
Long and massive octagonal shanks counter-
balance the bell bodies; the suspension rings are
affixed laterally, causing the bells to tilt toward the
player and permitting greater accuracy in striking
than in vertically suspended bells — an important
feature, since each yongzhong can emit two notes,
depending on whether it is struck in the center
or midway to the side. (The interval between the
two notes usually approximates either a minor or
a major third.) Long forgotten and not rediscovered
until 1978, this acoustic phenomenon is caused by
the bell's almond-shaped (pointed-oval) cross sec-
tion. The inscriptions that identify the tones on
Marquis Yi's bells show that Eastern Zhou bellcast-
ers could determine the pitch of both tones in
advance — a skill that they must have developed
through assiduous experimentation, since the
mathematics then available did not permit casters
to calculate an exact formula for the relation be-
tween size and pitch. 3
This chime still emits tones similar to those
heard during the Bronze Age. Its range extends over
five octaves, with up to ten different notes per oc-
tave (sometimes, the same note can be played on
more than one bell). One can play a pentatonic

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