In ancient times, the clock was not only a musical instrument, but also a ritual vessel symbolizing status and power. Princes and nobles widely use bell music in various ceremonies, banquets and daily Yan music, such as courtship and sacrifice. Zhong is one of the "drumsticks" of Buddhism. It was originally used only for gathering people, so it was also called "letter drum". Before the "bell" appeared in India, most people knocked on wooden horns to gather people.
The clock is also a tool for telling time. There were originally only two kinds of "bells": "numerous bells" and "half bells". Brahma Bell is the so-called "big clock", also known as "fishing (hanging) bell, knocking bell, Hong Zhong, whale bell" and so on. The volume of "half clock" is only half the height of "Brahma Bell", so it is called "half clock".
The size of the clock has its own standards. According to Volume 28 of Guang Hong Ming Ji, the ancient "Fan Zhong" used 10,000 Jin of copper for the "Zhong" of Ximing Temple (built in Xi 'an, Shaanxi). The clock of Fangguang Temple in Kyoto, Japan is 10 foot high, 9 feet 2 inches in diameter, 9 inches 2 minutes thick and weighs 22,000 penetration (always 3.75 kg). The ordinary Brahma clock is about 4.5 feet high and 2 feet in diameter. I wonder if the size on it is the size of China today. )
Brahma clock is hung on the top floor of the bell tower, and half a clock is hung under the eaves of the back door of the Buddhist temple. There is a "deacon monk" in the temple-"Hour", who rings the bell at four o'clock and rings the bell on time.
In ancient times, people knew that there was a "clock" in India. At that time, there seemed to be a "bell" in China, but there was a lack of sufficient literature research. According to the twenty-eighth volume of Guang Hong Ming Ji, there are Zhong Ming Jiao Tuesday (written by Emperor Wu of Zhou Dynasty), Zhong Ming of Xingshan Temple in Datang and Zhong Ming of Ximing Temple in Kyoto (written by Tang Linde in the second year).
"Preface to Luoyang Galand" said: "There are more than 1,000 temples in Zhou's capital; Today is rare, and the bell is rare. "
According to the twenty-ninth volume of Biography of Monks: Biography of Zhilong, "Sui Daye lived in the Zen Temple for five years and took charge of the" Bell "service."
In the poem "a night-mooring near maple bridge" written by Zhang Ji in the Tang Dynasty, there is a sentence "Hanshan Temple outside Gusu City knocks on passenger ships at midnight". There is a record in the third volume of The Journey to the West that Manjusri Bodhisattva once turned into the "Golden Bell Tower" in the Bell Tower Valley of Wutai Mountain.
According to many data quoted above, people in China have been casting "bells" continuously since last week.
"Bell" is of great benefit to monasticism. According to the "Qing Zhang Sentence", "The big clock, the jungle makes the capital begin." Shaw's strike will break the sleep of the long-night police; When you hit it at dusk, you will feel dizzy. There is also a saying in the classic: "Hong Zhong is shocking, and the sound is everywhere. "
Another Agama said, "If the bell rings, all evil ways will suffer and it must stop."
He also sent a copy of Tibet Volume 5 to France, saying: "Gu Yue supported the king and killed 900 million people because of fighting with a peaceful country. Because of bad karma, he turned into a thousand big fish after his death, and his sword was cut around his body. Resurrection with gains is extremely painful. Ask monk Lohan (often) to ring the bell to relieve his suffering. "
Another biography of a monk (Biography of Wisdom and Walking) said, "There was a dead man who dreamed that his wife said," I died of illness and was born in hell. Thanks to the wisdom of the monks in the temple, when the bell rang and the ghost sounded, the suffering people were temporarily relieved. " "
Another book on the Western Regions in the Tang Dynasty said: "King Ganeshu was invited by the dragon to build a temple to ring bells to calm his anger."
The theory of giving up everything and the biography of Buddha (the biography of the wise) also say: "human life will have an end." Hearing bells and bells can give birth to good thoughts and increase mindfulness. "
Another garden map simply says, "There are four silver clocks and four pear clocks (either" glass clocks "or" crystal clocks ") in the impermanence courtyard of the garden. The bell is placed in the temple of impermanence, where the sick monk lives. On the occasion of the monk's dying, the bell rang automatically and the voice announced: "impermanence is the law of birth and death; Life and death destroy oneself, and silence is joy. "When a monk hears a voice, his distress is eliminated. If you enter samadhi, you will get pure land. -The silver clock was made by Shi Tihuan, the king of Li, and the pear clock was made by the son of the Moon Palace. When the Buddha dies, two minutes will die. "
Because Zhong has so many merits, Buddhists should respect him. Therefore, anyone who rings the bell must recite the "wish" (that is, "bell") first. The fable says, "When you hear the bell, you must get up." Goode also said: "I can't afford to lie down when I hear the clock. I am good at protecting the law." Today's blessing is reduced, and later generations fall into snakes. "
The bell cone used to ring the bell is also called the pestle. With the difference between "school" and "field", there is no unified regulation in Buddhism. Even the common meaning of "108 ring" is not consistent. According to Chinese classical musician Tan, "The clock that strikes 180 degrees at dusk is one year old. In the New Year, there are December, 24 days, and 72 days, which is exactly this number. " This statement is a secular fabrication and has nothing to do with Buddhism. Another Buddhist said, "Ring the bell 180 times and wake up 180 times of troubled sleep." This statement is also unknown. The front drum and the side drum of a bell can emit tones of two frequencies, that is, a bell has two fundamental frequencies. These two sounds are generally three-degree intervals. The sound mechanism of a clock is the vibration of a curved plate. Due to the unique tile-shaped structure of the clock body, two fundamental frequency vibration modes are produced. There are six pitch lines when straightening the drum, which are located on four side drums and two milling edges respectively. There are four pitch lines when edging the drum, which are located in two positive drum parts and two milling edges respectively. The edges on both sides of the bell play the role of damping and accelerating attenuation in vibration to avoid buzzing. At the same time, the two kinds of vibration waves restrict each other, so that "buzz" (a long-delayed buzz) can be eliminated as soon as possible. The chip also has the function of accelerating high frequency attenuation. This ingenious and reasonable structural design makes the chime a large percussion instrument that can play melodies.
The ancients mastered the trend of the pitch line in long-term practice, and adjusted the pitch of the sensitive parts of the pitch line by changing the wall thickness of the clock body. The common grooves on the inner wall of the Western Zhou clock and the common convex belts on the inner wall of the Warring States clock are designed for this purpose. The casting of the clock has to go through complicated procedures, and the pitch error should be controlled within 0-5 minutes to ensure good sound quality.
The clock is made of split fan and combined casting. From 1960 to 1963, more than 3,000 pottery patterns, including a large number of internal and external patterns of bells and cymbals, were found in the ruins of the ancient town of Houma Village in Shanxi Province during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, which provided material evidence for the ancient method of dividing lines and casting together. The alloy composition of bronze clock is tin bronze, and contains a small amount of lead and other trace elements. "Zhou Li Kao Gong Ji" records: "There are six kinds of gold, and one of the six kinds of gold and tin is called Zhongding". It shows that the alloy ratio of the clock has been standardized at that time. The clock plays on the shelf. Clock frame, called "hairpin" (Sǔn, Jǖ) in ancient times, with "hairpin" as the beam, also known as bamboo shoots and chopsticks; The post supporting the beam is a "pin", which is also used as a pin. There is a stable "grate seat" under the column. Because the number of hanging bells in each group is different, there are many kinds of shelf systems. Such as one beam and two columns (chimes of Chu Tomb in Xinyang, Henan 13 pieces); Two beams and five pillars (chimes of tomb No.1 in Tianxingguan, Jiangling, Hubei, 22 pieces); Curved-ruler-shaped two beams and three columns (eight pieces of Tomb No.1 in Hougudui, Gushi, Henan); Curved ruler with seven beams and fourteen columns (64 bells in the tomb of Zeng Houyi). Some chimes were unearthed with bell hooks, pins, pestles and clock sticks that hit the bell body. The bell is hung with a hook or rope, and the elbow bell is hung with a nail. Beat small and medium chimes with a T-shaped wooden pestle; Hit a big clock with a long round stick. Take the tomb of Zeng Houyi as an example. Its T-shaped bell pestle is 62 cm long and its wooden stick is 2 15 cm long.
Today, the number of bells in the pre-Qin period has been considerable. According to the incomplete statistics of 1988, there are 903 pieces in 1 16 batches and 174 groups (type, group and pieces are unknown). There are about 400 inscriptions among them. In the middle and late Spring and Autumn Period, chimes are mostly in groups of nine. On the basis of Western Zhou Zhong, the bass horn and business sound were added. When these two notes are both positive drums, the tone of the side drum becomes three degrees. Therefore, the drum sound of the whole set of bells constitutes a complete pentatonic scale, and all the sequences can form a pentatonic scale or a heptatonic scale. For example, a set of bells unearthed from the No.1 Tomb of Sixia in Xichuan, Henan Province (Chunqiu Chu Tomb). In this period, chimes were struck twice at a time, and birds were generally not cast on the side drums.
During the Warring States period, there were still nine bells, and there were thirteen bells and fourteen bells.
The chime of the tomb of Zeng Houyi in Sui County, Hubei Province is the largest chime ever found, with 64 pieces. The third floor is hung on a square clock rack. There are three sets of toggle clocks hanging upstairs, 19 pieces; There are three groups of bells hanging on the middle and lower floors, with 45 pieces in total. The smallest one is 20.4 cm high and weighs 2.4kg；; The largest one is 153.4 cm high and weighs 203.4 kg. The total weight exceeds 2500 kilograms.
This chime has a range of C-C4, about five octaves. In the center of G-C3, a complete chromatic series can be formed, which can be rotated in the palace. Each bell has an inscription of seal script, * * * about 2800 words, which is used to indicate the sequential name of each bell pronunciation and its corresponding relationship with Chu, Jin, Qi, Zhou and Shen Law (tune) (see Table 2 to Table 4). The clock stands are placed in the west and south of the tomb. The clock stands in the west are 7.48 meters long and 2.65 meters high. The south shelf is 3.35 meters long and 2.73 meters high. The middle column and the lower column are six bronze warriors with swords. The full set of bells is magnificent.
The discovery of the chime makes up for the shortcomings and defects recorded in the literature, which has important historical and scientific value. It vividly shows the brilliant achievements of Chinese music culture and bronze casting technology during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. It is a treasure of the Chinese nation and an unprecedented great discovery in the history of archaeology and music in China and even the world. After Zeng Houyi chimed the bells, 36 bells were found in Tomb No.2 of Leigudun in Sui County, Hubei Province.
From the Warring States Period to the Western Han Dynasty, various unique double-angle button clocks and barrel clocks were found in the ruins of southwest China, such as Yunnan, Guangxi, Guangdong and Sichuan, which were musical instruments used by southwest ethnic minorities.
During the Qin and Han Dynasties, the system of rites and music since the Zhou Dynasty completely collapsed, and the prosperity of Zhong You music in the pre-Qin period also ended, and the production of two-tone chimes also disappeared.
According to historical records, Qin Shihuang cast a column of clock stands in Xianyang, and built a clock of a thousand stones and a clock of ten stones. This huge clock should refer to the morning clock. It is a symbol of imperial power and royal power in past dynasties. With the rise of Buddhism and Taoism, after the Eastern Han Dynasty, temples and Taoist temples used Buddha bells (also known as Brahma bells) and Taoist bells. The earliest existing Buddha clock was cast in the seventh year of Chen Taijian in the Southern and Northern Dynasties (575), and is now in Masataro Inoue, Tokyo, Japan. After the Tang Dynasty, the giant Buddha and Taoist bells were often cast by emperors, such as the "Jing Yun Bell" of Jinglong Temple in Chang 'an (Jin 'an) in the Tang Dynasty and the "Yongle Bell" cast by Beijing Dazhong Temple and Yongle (1403- 1424) in the Ming Dynasty. Their practical use is to tell the time. Yongle Bell is 6.94 meters high and its lower mouth is 3.3 meters in diameter. It weighs 46.5 tons. Up to now, the sound is round and loud, reaching dozens of miles. Seventeen kinds of Buddhist scriptures were cast in neat regular script inside and outside the clock, accounting for more than 227 thousand words. This bell is famous at home and abroad for its loud voice, exquisite casting technology and calligraphy art, and it was known as the "king of bells" in ancient times.
Emperors after Qin and Han Dynasties also cast bells and cymbals for elegant music to restore the ancient system of Zhou rites. For example, in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, there were 26 clocks and discs used to play elegant music in Liang Wudi, with a total of 504 pieces, all of which were equipped with twelve laws. The wind of restoring ancient ways was particularly strong in the Song Dynasty. When Song Huizong (11-125) established the Sheng Da House, an institution in charge of music, there were12 sets of chimes, about 300 pieces. Up to now, there are still more than ten records circulating in the world, and their shapes and forms. This device is called a clock, but it is actually a shovel. The existing clock in the Palace Museum is 28 cm high, with double dragon-shaped buttons, flat mouths, pheasants, seals and drums, decorated with flat patterns. The inscription on the front is "Sheng Da" and the inscription on the back is "Yan Bin". Spacing #f 1
The chimes used by the Qing court were 16. Hang it on a two-story clock rack, with eight pieces on each floor. From the era of change to the bell, * * * twelve laws plus four laws.
Manufacturers of national musical instruments, scientific research institutions and national orchestras continue to develop and use antique chimes.