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For the Living and the Dead
The four large bo bells behind you belong to three different sets that apparently included four members each. The largest bell (bottom left) is covered with crisp designs of interlaced dragons and birds created with pattern blocks. This repeated decoration is easiest to see on the bell's flat top, where motifs are abruptly cut off at the outer edge. Pattern blocks were first used at the Houma foundry in the northern State of Jin, where this bell must have been cast. Its superb quality indicates the bell was made for performance. This might not be true with the other three bo.
Look for two identical bells that slightly differ in size (top row). Together since antiquity, they come from the same set. Surprisingly, they are still partially filled with the clay core material that was used to cast them around 500 BCE. Their thin walls and the dulling sound effect of the clay indicate these instruments probably were never played but instead served as extravagant burial objects.
The fourth bell (bottom right) was reportedly found at Jincun, the burial ground of the last kings of the Zhou dynasty. Its decoration is both simpler and less refined than the others. Notice how the horizontal patterns between the raised knobs do not neatly fit their frames. This bell might also have been made solely for burial. |