The Soul of The Great Bell: The Richness of Chinese Culture

The Summary of the Soul of the Great Bell

Introduction

Lafcadio Hearn

                         The Soul of the Great Bell, is one of the six stories in the book “Some Chinese Ghosts” which was published by Lafcadio Hearn during 1887. These stories were originally Chinese legends, but these were adopted and translated into English. Generally, it displayed the value of sacrificing for your loved ones to prevent him/her from troubles. With Hearn’s background, he had went to Japan, with his name being changed to Koizumi Yakumo. Although perhaps he hadn’t learned about Chinese culture and also its language (due to the fact that he had not gone to China), he had managed to translate the stories, but of course there were some flaws and he hadn’t managed to perfect his writing and translation about the Chinese due to the fact, again, of him not learning about the country’s culture and language.

            Overall, this will tackle the kind of things (cultural doings) that are being presented in the story to make it more understandable to people foreign to Chinese culture. This also includes my opinions on some customs and traditions that this story has portrayed and the story itself.

Body

Portrait of Yung-Lo (Yongle Emperor)
(1360-1424)

              Before I introduce the characters, this story happened in Pe-King (present-day Beijing), the imperial capital of China. Yung-Lo rebuilt the city because there were some difficulties that happened in Nanjing.

               The story starts with an introduction of the two characters, Celestial August or the Son of Heaven. According to www.chinaknowledge.de, the Son of Heaven (Tianzi) have the most intimate relationship with the Heaven. Heaven is one of the important concepts of Chinese philosophy, mainly in the religion of Confucianism. According to the same website, Heaven is considered an impersonal deity (meaning a god that doesn’t exist), which controls the world and the society. Yong-Lo, is the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Take note Celestial August, the Son of Heaven and Yong-Lo are all one person.

            Then the he ordered Kouan-Yu to make a bell that can be heard up to 100 ‘li’. ‘Li’ is the traditional Chinese unit to measure miles. Since this story happened during Imperial China, 100 li is equivalent to 64465 meters or 64.464999999...km.

A Chinese bell in a monastery

           A line in the story “And he further ordained that the voice of the bell should be strengthened with brass, and deepened with gold, and sweetened with silver; and that the face and the great lips of it should be graven with blessed sayings from the sacred books, and that it should be suspended in the centre of the imperial capital, to sound through all the many colored ways of the City of Pe-king.”. So it clearly states that the face of the bell should be carved with sayings from sacred books, and its voice should be loud to be heard and it should be hanged at the center of Peking, but its main purpose isn’t explained in the story. Perhaps it is used to gather people in the city for an important announcement or maybe it is used for some traditional routine the city have. According to www.china.org.cn, during the Ming Dynasty, Chinese bells were divided into many types, it could be either for musical purposes, Buddhist or Taoist bells, or bells for sounding the night watches. According to www.dictionary.com, night watches are the periods or divisions into which the night was divided in ancient times. So maybe the bell is for the night watches.

A public execution on China c.1850-1912

          During the part when Kouan-Yu had failed in making the bell for the second time, a letter had been sent to him. It stated: “From the Mighty Yong-Lo, the Sublime Tait-Sung, the Celestial and August,—whose reign is called ‘Ming,’—to Kouan-Yu the Fuh-yin: Twice thou hast betrayed the trust we have deigned graciously to place in thee; if thou fail a third time in fulfilling 10 some chinese ghosts our command, thy head shall be severed from thy neck. Tremble, and obey!”. According to the same book (Some Chinese Ghosts), Fuh-yin means a mayor who governs a city. Killing was at least seen perhaps as a normal punishment in people during Imperial China, but as the present came, these torturing practices are banned. The execution is usually done in public and one common form is to twist its arms and beat the accused up (even though the accused still declares his innocence) and minor crimes will lead to whipping in public. In my opinion, these punishments are very brutal and violent and especially during this time, again, executions were done in public, people might do the things that they saw and they might get violent. In the present, since this practice is banned, I half-support this type of practice only if the person has committed serious and heinous crimes like murder and rape because that’s what they say, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and those serial killers and criminals might get afraid and frightened and change for the better. The thing that I don’t like about it is that those leaders might take advantage of it and start killing people for nonsense reason and to mention me being a Roman Catholic is also why the reason I halfly disagree with this practice. Also, on the letter, it contains a dragon seal, perhaps the purpose is for the person to believe it is an official, not a fake letter from the emperor. The dragon seal in China contains He Shi Bi, a famous type of jade during the imperial times. They used jade because it symbolizes the inner beauty of the humans.

The 10 Heavenly Stems

                   Ko-Ngai, Kouan-Yu’s daughter sold some of her jewels so that she could go to an astrologer. Chinese astrology is a very important part in their culture. They first invented the 10 heavenly stems and 12 earthly stems but used the 12 earthly stems because during the old times, it was hard to use. They use this to determine their personality (based on your birthday). Astrologers will find out and tell you what will happen to you in the future, or you could also seek advice to find out if your life is going to be good or bad in the future. One line in the book said, “So the astrologer made observations of the heavens, and marked the aspect of the Silver Stream (which we call the Milky Way), and examined the signs of the Zodiac,—the Hwang-tao, or Yellow Road,— and consulted the table of the Five Hin, or Principles of the Universe, and the mystical books of the alchemists.” Firstly, we all know the Zodiac Signs, some of them are Taurus, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Aquarius, etc. The Principles of the Universe consists of 8 priciples: Principle of Mentalism, Correspondence, Vibration, Polarity, Rhythm, Cause and Effect, and Gender. Lastly, mystical books of the alchemists. These are books that are made by Chinese alchemists which use traditional and ancient Chinese science. These Chinese alchemists’ purpose of doing this is mainly to gain immortality by Qigong, which is a holistic system of doing body posture, breathing, and meditation used for health, spirituality, and martial arts training. Going back to the main topic, other forms of Chinese astrology are ‘Wu Xing’ (Earth, Water, Fire, Metal, Wood), ‘Table of the Sixty-year Calendar’, which starts at year 1924 to 2043. Each year corresponds to its element or animal, the first half being the elements of Wu Xing and the other half being the 12 earthly stems (some of which are Rat, Monkey, Dog, Pig, Ox, Horse,etc.)

                     During the part where Kong-Ngai jumped onto the mixture of the bell, her main purpose was to protect her father from getting him killed (because what the astrologer had said, she had sacrificed herself to complete the mixture). It is not that necessary that this situation must be a part of a custom in their culture, in my opinion because it was stated in the story that she loves her father very much, but the Chinese also need to respect their parents and elderly because it is also a part in their culture. In relating to this, the Chinese also do not brag themselves and bring others down in their conversations, instead they encourage the one who’ll they speak to. As I said, one should must respect their elders, so you must follow what they say, like you must go to the school they decided, they must decide for your future jobs, they will also take part during the planning of your marriage (like how many kids should you decide to have), this is called ‘filial piety’. With this kind of custom, filial piety makes you lose freedom, but having freedom for doing bad things is wrong and it can ruin your future.

Shoes for foot binding

                    Lastly, during the part when Ko-Ngai leaped into the mixture, her woman had got her shoe during the time when she leapt. So talking about shoes, during imperial China, there is a practice for women called ‘foot binding’. Foot binding refers to binding the feet of young girls to modify the shape of its foot, and once it’s modified, it is called ‘lotus feet’. This originated during the 10^th or 11^th century (Five dynasties and Ten kingdoms period) and became popular among the elite during Song Dynasty. Women who had lotus feet were considered wealthy and beautiful. During the present, foot binding eventually began to die out as a result of anti-foot binding campaigns and in the present, there are still some Chinese elderly who had survived with their lotus feet. In my opinion, I feel bad for the women who were pressured to do this just to look pretty and wealthy. We are always born beautiful, even if people regard you as an ugly person.

A person with lotus feet

                      After reading this story, I discovered that China is housed with a diverse and unique culture. The concept of the story is very original, but the moral lesson in this story is somewhat common and similar to some moral lessons of other stories. Overall, it’s a very good story and it will make you learn about some of its cultures which also leads you to read some of the country’s legends and folklores.

Conclusion

                  I conclude that the country of China is engulfed with their traditional practices and customs. This story presented various types of things that make up the culture of China and there are still many legends and folk stories for you to read in order to be more informed about the Chinese Culture. The story’s moral lesson is sacrificing for your loved ones, especially to your parents, which I said earlier. Our parents had sacrificed for us during the time when we were born, until we grow older, so you must return the respect they deserve.

References

• https://theartofculturalvivisection.wordpress.com/2012/10/16/the-soul-of-the-great-bell-by-lafcadio-hearn/comment-page-1/

• https://brainly.ph/question/370593

• http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Myth/personsheaven.html

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yongle_Emperor

• http://greatmingmilitary.blogspot.com/p/ming-dynasty-unit-conversion.html

• www.convertunits.com/from/meters/to/li+[imperial+China

• www.convertunits.com/from/li+[imperial+China]/to/kilometers

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_(unit)

• http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/FbiCh/78687.htm

• http://www.dictionary.com/browse/night-watch

• https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=FtFQG79CNR4C&pg=PA73&lpg=PA73&dq=fuh-yin+chinese&source=bl&ots=zJPo4LX0UL&sig=s5hE6md6jLwbchzLwWvgNlBjhG8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjBxMe08p7VAhUHKZQKHYRzAZEQ6AEIMzAD#v=onepage&q=fuh-yin%20chinese&f=false

• http://www.crystalinks.com/chinastrology.html

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_alchemy

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qigong

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_astrology

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_of_China

• https://chinaculturecorner.com/2013/06/05/proper-character-in-china/

• http://www.duhaime.org/LawMuseum/LawArticle-367/Crime-and-Punishment-in-Ancient-China.aspx

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_binding

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heirloom_Seal_of_the_Realm

• storyoftheweek.loa.org/2016/06/the-soul-of-the-great-bell.html