The
story the “ Soul of the Great Bell” is a Chinese Legend retold in English by an
American Journalist, Lafcadio Hearn. Though he had a hard time understanding
the Chinese language, it didn’t stop him from completing the tale. The story
somehow ignited my thirst of knowledge for the traditions and cultures of China
or in other words, my curiosity about my ancestors’ background took over me as
I read the story but then I realized, I don’t have to look up that much of
information in the internet because it is already in the story. It may not be
many but its enough. I can clearly notice how the emperor or the ruler was
called by the people and how the bell is an important history to the people
In
this blog, I will be writing, or in this case typing, down the traditions and
beliefs practiced in the story that the Chinese people applied years ago and
their origin. It may contain some of my opinions and how I felt about the
story. I will show you why it caught my interest, and maybe this will,
hopefully, make you interested in reading the said story.
Body
 |
Emperor Yongle, the third ruler
of Ming Dynasty |
The
story happened during Ming Dynasty, this dynasty was called Illustrious because
during this, many histories were made such as the overthrowing of Yuan Dynasty,
the engineering projects like rebuilding the Great Wall, the Grand Canal and
the Forbidden City. It was mentioned above, the emperors or the rulers were
titled as Celestial August and the Son of Heaven. Both plays important key and
they have different people bearing it. The title “Son of Heaven’ is given to a
ruler to justify his power over people, meaning he has the power over
everything including the heaven. The first monarch who used this term was Qin
Shi Huang or Qin Shi Huangdi (Huang”the
imperial title of high quantity”{di}) and the last one was Puyi. Emperor
Qin Shi Huangdi thought he should apply the virtues of the Three August and the
Five Di but the Chinese can not treat ancient rulers as celestial deities. This
changed under Han, Three Huang were three individuals chosen to later become
important people of
 |
The stamp(dragon seal) is used to
indicate that the letter is from
the emperor. Below is the Chinese
dragon. |
antiquity thus the birth of Celestial August. Rulers hold great power towards the people,
their efforts and great governing made people respect them. No one will be able
to defy an emperor not unless majority believes he is not worth to become
emperor, maybe that’s why Kuoan-Yu can not leave the task that was given by his
master. He refuses to sleep and rest, aside from that, when his daughter
Ko-Ngai jumped into the hot mixture, he couldn’t do anything but be in shock. Despite
that, he continued the given task. In the story, the rulers sent the mandarin
official with a letter that has a dragon seal. Dragon is like the symbol of
China, in fact, the flag of China is a Dragon. What we usually picture
every time we hear dragons are those scaly reptiles that have huge wings from
their back but its totally different when we talk about Chinese dragons. Their
kind of dragons are those serpent like reptilian animal. It is believed that
this animal is associated to bodies of water, they could show as tornadoes in
the water, they hide in rivers, sea and oceans. There are four types of Dragon
King, each representing the four seas: The North Sea, South Sea, East Sea and
lastly, the West Sea. Aside from that, dragon symbolizes imperial authority and
power. Sometimes, the emperors would call themselves as “descendants of the
dragon” and they even named the throne as Dragon Throne. There in the Chinese
palace, statues of golden dragons can be seen. Since the Dragon symbol is for
royalties or outfit for royalties, peasants wearing a dragon symbol is already
a crime.
 |
The Yongle bell was cast in 1403, the bell
is hanged in the Great Bell Temple in Beijing. |
Filipinos
find instruments important especially for the stringed instruments, same goes
in China, bells have been a part of their history. Their bells signify their
tradition and culture, its is believed that when you ring the great bell for a
hundred and eighth time, 108 worries will also be gone. Chinese have this
saying “There are bells at every temple. Without bells, there are no temples.”
This is how important bells are to them that they can’t consider a temple with
no bell as temple, we can’t really do anything about it because if we are to
interfere their belief its like we are telling people to build a church with no
cross or any image of God, Mama Mary and the saints. Bells were divided into
musical bells, Buddhist bells, Taoist bells, imperial court bells and bells for
night watches. Bells served as
musical instruments, sacrificial vessels and musical instruments used in
Buddhist or Taoist masses. In the story, aside from the main characters the
astrologer plays a great role. The advice that was given to Ko-Ngai was from
the observations he made in the Silver
 |
Zodiac sign is used in Chinese
astrology. |
Stream (Milky Way), signs of Zodiac, the
table of Five Hin and the mystical books of the alchemists. These plays an
important role in Chinese Astrology. Zodiac Signs are very important to Chinese
culture. Before, they would use it as a guide on how people live their lives.
They believed that they can determine the destiny of a person by the positioning
of major planets at the time of birth of a person. The Table of Five Hin is
also known as Principles of the Universe, it consists of 8 principles:
Principle of Mentalism, Correspondence, Vibration, Polarity, Rhythm, Cause and
Effect, and lastly, Gender. The mystical books of the alchemists contains
Chinese alchemy, meaning it is the scientific and technological approach to
alchemy, it focuses on purifying one’s soul and body in hopes of gaining
immortality through the practice of Qigong. As I was browsing I found out that
there are other types of Chinese Astrology, one of these is Wu-Xing.
At the end of the story, it stated that every time
the beautiful bell would be hit, mothers would whisper to their little ones
that “ That’s Ko-Ngai crying for her shoe.” And then I started picturing those
pointy little shoes and I’m not talking about ballet shoes. Those shoes were so
 |
The shoes wore by woman
and her lotus feet. |
small that I believe only babies could fit in those and then I remembered watching
about Chinese women and those awful shoes. Foot binding, that's what it was!
Women before, would tightly bind their feet when they were little to modify the
shape of their feet, feet that were deformed by foot binding are called lotus
feet. I don’t know why they would do that, I searched it up, and I wish I
didn’t know why. It was a very foolish reason, based on an article that I read,
women would do this in order for them to display their status if they are
wealthy (women from wealthy families don’t need their feet to work so they
don’t have anything to loose if they bound it) or poor. This is actually a
symbol for beauty in China, having lotus feet would make their movements more
dainty and having perfect lotus feet would guarantee a perfect marriage, beauty
is indeed painful. In my opinion, it was an absurd way to symbolize beauty. It
had me cringing as I read an article about this topic. It had me asking, is
this really worth it to have a wealthy future? If it was me, I wouldn’t care if
I marry a tribesman as long as I don't have to feel pain growing up.
Like any other wealthy women with bound feet,
Ko-Ngai was desired by all but she turned down every suitor because she truly
cares for her father. Due to the love she felt for her father, she sacrificed
herself to save him. It was heartbreaking and breathtaking at the same time. The
bond and love of a family is clearly shown in the tale. The braveness of
Ko-Ngai is what I really liked in the story. It show’s people that there are so
many ways to show how you love one another and that there are no limitations to
it. However, I’m not saying that you should kill yourself, that’s too extreme. Love
will always prevail even though it is war you are facing. This story is not
only telling its history but it is also telling us lessons, like how we should
not give up and continue on striving, like how Kuoan-Yu did, even though he
failed twice he’s still moving forward. The official knew that in the third trial
there’s a possibility that he will fail
once more but he took the risk, I think the reason for it is because if he will
give up, all the nights he wasted and the hard work he has done will be in vain.
It takes a lot of courage to do that.
Conclusion
The story is a legend told and retold from
generation to generation. It is amazing how one story contains so many
information and lessons. The legend gives us clues on what traditions and
beliefs they practiced. As I dug information from the internet, I learned that
there are so many interesting cultures and traditions in China. Its very unique
and somewhat terrifying and creepy, it gives me goosebumps. Aside from that, we
could pick up different moral lessons, like what I stated earlier. We need to
take risks in order to get what we want, we need to be brave to continue what
we have started and start what we want to do. Love can be crucial but it is
also powerful, though for me when Ko-Ngai jumped to her death, I find it
absurd. Love can make you do things that is worth regretting but at the same
time worth doing.
References
Checked.... OUTSTANDING!!! Keep it up! Congratulations...
ReplyDeleteSummary is too lengthy and difficult to read.
ReplyDelete