the SOUL of the GREAT BELL

"She hath spoken, and her words still resound in his ears"

HAO KHIEOU TCHOUAN

hi friends,

  Dont get annoyed by seeing that even I have started using some literary stand, but I have to say that I didn't get any other better quote than this one, to place infront of you the story which I read I don't remember from where ( from internet most probably).  I liked the story very much, so thought of conveying the same to u friends tooo..

  this is the story of the Great bell in the  "Ta Chung sz" ( its in  Peking) written by "Yu Pao Tchen

   Nearly ..... hundred years ago ( I hope that's the style any story should begin), in the Court of the Son of Heaven ( that's vat they call their emperor) Yong Lo of the Ming Dynasty , there was an official named Kouan Yu (who is one of the main characters in our story).

   The emperor commanded Kouan yu that he should have a bell made of such size that, the sound of bell should be heard even from a distance of 100 li (now one li=one third of a mile).  He further ordered that the voice of the bell should be strengthened with brass, 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 coloured ways of the city of Pe king.

   

  To make the order come true, Kouan Yu assembled the master moulders and the renowned bell smiths of the empire, and all men of great repute and cunning in foundry work.  They measured the materials for the allow and treated them skillfully, and prepared the moulds, the fire, the instruments, and the monstrous melting pot for fusing the metal.  They strived hard neglecting their sleep and all the comforts of life, toiling both night and day in obedience to Kouan Yu.

   

  But when the metal had been cast , and the earthen mould separated from the glowing casting, it was discovered that, despite their great labour and ceaseless care, the result was bad.  The metals had rebelled one against the other;- the gold had scorned alliance with the brass, the silver would not mingle with the molten iron.  Therefore the moulds had to be once again prepared, and the fires rekindled, and the metal remelted, and the all the work was repeated to the utter dismay of the emperor.  But the emperor did say nothing but gave them a further chance.

  Second time the bell was cast and the result was even worse.   Still the metals obstinately refused to blend one with the other, and there was no uniformity in the bell and the sides of it were cracked and fissured, and the lips of it were slagged and split due to which all the labor had to be repeated even a third time to the great dismay of Kouan Yu.

   When the emperor heard these things, he was angrier than before and sent his messenger to Kouan Yu with a letter, written upon lemon colored silk, and sealed with the seal of the Dragon, containing these words;-

    "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 our Command, thy head shall be severed from thy neck.  Tremble and obey."

   Now, Kouan Yu had a daughter of dazzling loveliness (our story's heroine), whose name KoNgai was ever in the mouths of poets, and whose heart was even more beautiful than her face.  KoNgai loved her father with such love that she had refused to marry for the fear of moving away from her father.  When she saw the awful yellow missive, sealed with the Dragon Seal, she fainted away with fear for her fathers sake.  And when her senses and her strength returned to her, she could not rest or sleep for thinking of her fathers danger, until she secretly sold some of her jewels, and with the money so obtained had hastened to an astrologer, and paid him a great price to advise her by what means her father might be saved from the peril impending over him.  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 Huang Tao (Yellow Road) and consulted the table of the five Hin (Principles of the Universe),and the mystical books of Alchemists.   And after a long silence, he replied to her "Gold and Brass will never meet in Wedlock , Silver and Iron will never embrace, until the flesh oa a maidn be melted in the crucible, until the blood of a virgin be mixed with the metals in their fusion."  Listening this KoNgai returned home with sorrowful heart, but she kept secret all that she had heard, and told none .

    Atlast came the awful day when the third and last effort to cast the great bell was to be made, and KoNgai ,  together with her waiting woman, accompanied her father to the foundry and they took their places upon a platform overlooking the toiling of the moulders and the lava of liquified metal.  All the workmen wrought their tasks in silence, there was no sound heard, but the muttering of the fires.  And the muttering deepened into a roar like the roar of typhoons approaching, and the blod red lake of metal slowly brightened like the vermilion of a sunrise, and the vermilion was transmitted into a radiant glow of gold, and the gold whitened blindingly, like the silver face of a full moon.  Then the workers ceased to feed the raving flames, and all fixed their eyes upon the eyes of kouan Yu and Kouan Yu prepared to give the signal to cast.

    But as soon as he lifted his finger, a cry caused him to turn his head, and all heard the voice of KoNgai sounding sharply sweet as a birds song above the great thunder of the fires;- "For thy sake, o my Father!"  and even as she cried, she leaped into the white flood of metal; and the lava of the furnace roared to receive her, and spattered the monstrous flakes of flame to the roof, and burst over the verge of the earthen crater, and cast up a whirling fountain of many coloured fires, and subsided quakingly, with lightenings and with thunders and with mutterings.

    Then the father of KoNgai, wild with his grief, would have leaped in after her, but soldiers held hi back and kept firm grasp upon him until he had fainted away and they could take him home.  And the serving woman of KoNgai dizzy and speechless for pain, stood before the furnace, still holding in her hands a shoe, a tiny, dainty shoe, with embroidery of pearls and flowers,- the shoe of her beautiful mistress that was.  for she had sought to grasp KoNgai by the foot as she leaped, but had only been able t clutch the shoe, and the pretty shoe came off in her hand, and she continued to stare at it like one gone mad.
   But inspite of all these things the command of the Emperor had to be obeyed, and the work of the moulders to be finished, hopeless as the result might be.  Yet the glow of the metal seemed purer and whiter than before, and there was no sign of the beautiful body that had been entombed therein.  So the ponderous casting was made, and lo! when the metal had become cool, it was found that the bell was beautiful to look upon, and perfect in form, and wonderful in colour, above all other bells.  Nor was there any trace found of the body of KoNgai, for it had been totally absorbed by the precious alloy, and blended with the well blended brass and gold, with the inter mingling of the silver and the iron.  And when they sounded the bell, its tones were found to be deeper and mellower and mightier than the tones of any other bell, reaching even beyond the distance of hundred li, like a pealing of summer thunder, and yet also like some vast voice uttering a name, a woman's name, - the name of KoNgai.
    
   till date, between each and mighty stroke there is a long low moaning heard, and ever the moaning ends with a sound of sobbing and complaining, as though a weeping woman should murmur "hiai".  And  even today, when the people hear that great golden moan they keep silence,  but  when the sharp, sweet shuddering comes in the air, and the sobbing of "Hiai", all the Chinese mothers in and around the ways of Pe-king whisper to their little ones;
"Listen! that is  KoNgai crying for her shoe!
   that is  KoNgai calling for her shoe!   (the mothers way of keeping the young ones silent) ...

   Now reading all through this story, you might wonder what connection does it have with an indian mind...? then i must say to you that, the affection of  KoNgai towards her father is the heart warming point, which as the indian epics says "Mata, Pita, Guru, Daivam" which means in the whole world any individual should pay heed and respect at first to his/her "Mother" then "Father", then "Teacher" and then to  "God".  
   In this story thought it might sound fictious, it does have the affection and morale which every indian heart is made up of, though at some times it resides hidden in their hearts, without any exposure.
    When the  hi story (though from china), shows you the way to live the life, which is quite common to the tradition and culture which every indian is supposed to follow,
  "Where does the question of enemity rise......?(between our two countries)...


bye for now till we meet again.....(Dont forget to post your comments though anonymously)