Chime bell with inscription “Yi Ze”, Northern Song dynasty (1105)-China Archive

Image Number: C1A000742N000000000PAC
Dynasty: Northern Song dynasty
Category: Bronzes
Function: Ritual vessels, musical instruments
Material: Mineral/Metal/Bronze
Description:
The bell has a flat mouth. Its buttons are made of two opposing dragons, and its body is decorated with interlaced three-dimensional coiled cobra patterns. There is an inscription in Zhengjian, and one side is written with the words “Yize” in the twelve laws. After modern sound test, it is G rising. The inscription on the other side is “Dasheng”, which should have been “Dasheng”. It may be that in the third year of Jingkang (1127), the Jin people plundered the musical instruments in the palace of the Song Dynasty and scraped off the “Dasheng” and changed it to “Dasheng”. The buttons are decorated with gold plated hooks. The gold-plated hook is decorated with a bat auspicious cloud pattern. The middle part is equipped with a dragon tiger jade pendant of Ding Bi, a colostrum of the late Yuan and Ming dynasties. The middle part of the jade wall is flanked by a peach and a chi tiger. A similar jade pendant was unearthed from the Lotus Leaf Mountain in Kunming, Yunnan.