 Rustee says: The importance of that discovery grows when we realize that it took the West a thousand years to develop the cathedral bell, and we didn't have it until the middle ages. Bells are very hard to make, yet China had these remarkably sophisticated Zhong bells during the Golden Age of Athens. The bells produce a rich tone, they take far less bronze to get it than a cathedral bell, and then they deliver two sounds for the cost of one. It's easy to look right at something that's very sophisticated without seeing the sophistication. It took us eighty years to catch on to these remarkable, but unassuming, bells. The best inventions are like that. In the best inventions, elegance masquerades as simplicity. MAGNIFICENT!!! Indeed. Thanks Rustee. My MIL collects bells - she would like this - She doesn't surf the web I would like to hear them. I would like to hear them.Easy enough...and thanks for mentioning it, since I didn't think to look for it. As stated in the clip, the individual bells are called Zhong bells, but I've learned multiple ones in a rack are called bianzhong. Learning that yielded this: Youtube video There's more examples from that same user, but that video had the bells by themselves. Wonderful! Actually, in Chinese "zhong" just means bell, although it is also now used to mean clocks and for measuring time, since drums and bells, played from centrally located towers, have always kept time in China. Last time I was there, the Shanghai Museum had a great set on display, along with an absolutely amazing collection of neolithic pottery and early bronze works. The Zhou dynasty bronze castings are some of the most intruiging, intricate and meticulous works of ancient art I've ever seen. In terms of decoration, they are quite different from traditional Chinese styles, once again showing how diverse the origins of modern China really are, and how much China has changed due to foreign inf... Here is a cool website on the tuning of these bells and how the system worked. |
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