Zeng Hou Yi Chimes
3 min readZeng Kingdom was a small marquis kingdom in the early Warring States Period, and its monarchs enjoyed grand dukedom of Hou conferred by emperors of the Zhou Dynasty. Zeng Hou Yi refers to monarch named Yi of Zeng Kingdom. This set of chimes is funerary object in his tomb, which is known as King of Chime in Ancient China . This set of chimes consists of a total of 65 chimes. Among which, 64 chimes hang in wooden bell shelf on three layers, and a chime (Xiong Zhang Bo Chime for King Hui of Chu Kingdom) hangs in the middle of lower layer in wooden frame. Every chime body is engraved with inlaid gold inscription in seal script, which was popular art font at that time. The characters on the chime back record many musical terms and prosodic knowledge, which are the precious literature for Chinese musicology in Pre-Qin Period. Zeng Hou Yi Chimes enjoy wide range, good sound quality and accurate sound production, which can still be used to play diffifi cult music works .
This is Xiong Zhang Bo Chime for King Hui of Chu Kingdom. During the Warring States Period, Zeng Kingdom was a vassal of Chu Kingdom, and two kingdoms sat adjacent with each other. In 433 BC, King Hui of Chu Kingdom specififi cally made ritual object, i.e., bronze Bo Chimes for monarch named “Yi” of Zeng Kingdom. Inscriptions of chimes record close relations between the two kingdoms. The monarch named “Yi” of Zeng Kingdom hung this set of chimes in the most prominent position of chime frame in ancestral temple to demonstrate important political signififi cance. After his death, Bo Chime was buried in the tomb of monarch named “Yi” of Zeng Kingdom.
The scale system of chime
According to the acoustics research, scale structure of Zeng Hou Yi Chimes is identical to modern international universal C Major Seven Pentatonic Scale, which also presents the changes in tone and the complete chromatic scale. It not only contains the ancient Gong, Shang, Jue, Zhi and Yu , but also variable Gong and variable Zhi . Between seven tones, there are fifi ve intermediate tones, thus forming a complete Twelve Tonal Serialism. Zeng Hou Yi Chimes range over fifi ve half octaves, which can be used to play a variety of diffifi cult music works.
Matching number of chimes
Chime has many kinds of matching systems. In the Shang Dynasty, 3 chimes or 5 chimes composed a set. In the mid/late Western Zhou Dynasty, 8 chimes composed a set. In the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, 9 chimes mostly composed a set. A set of 13 chimes also existed. During the Warring States Period, Zeng Hou Yi Chimes consisted of a total 65 chimes .
Gold inlaying
Gold inlaying is also known as “inlaid gold and silver “or “gold and silver inlaying”, which is a kind of special bronze decoration process. The operation process is specified as follows: firstly embedding gold and silver wires or gold and silver sheets to form various patterns or characters on bronze objects, and then using inlaying stone to grind such objects to make them smooth.
