Lost Musical Technology Regained in the Duplicating of the Chimes

Text by Liu Yishan Edited by He Sai & Bai Ning

Photos by & Su Zhuolin

All the musical tones of the 65 chimes unearthed from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng were identified.Experts Huang Xiangpeng and Li Chunyi from the Chinese Music Research Institute said that this set of chimes could play a lot of melodies.

Remarks from the experts aroused the interest and curiosity of all those present.The ancient chimes,buried underground for more than 2,400 years,could still play music after being unearthed.It would surely shock China and the world and be a great miracle in the music world.Someone suggested that they should find an auditorium and set up the chimes to test them by playing songs and to put on performances.

The First Performance

After many inquiries,they learned that there was an auditorium at the army base stationed outside the city—the same military unit that had provided the archaeological team with cranes and other facilities.Tan Weisi contacted the head of the army and got permission.

In a short time,the chimes and various components,large and small,filled up the auditorium.

The stage in the auditorium was floored with wooden planks,in order to prevent the five-ton chimes from weighing down the stage,and the soldiers reinforced it with steel bars to ensure that everything was foolproof.

A replica of the chime bells of Marquis Yi was used to perform music during the Event of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Presenting Hubei Province in 20182018年外交部湖北全球推介活动现场，曾侯乙编钟复制品奏响古乐

Experts,scholars,and soldiers now all acted as laborers.With much effort,they finally set up the chimes and restored their original appearance and majesty.

Everything was in place,except that the musicians were still needed.Who would be the performers? At that time,there were no ancient chime bands in China,nor had anyone ever heard of somebody playing ancient chimes.

Tan Weisi said:“It appears that we’ll have to organize our chime band from scratch.We have to do it ourselves,all of us.We have musical experts from Beijing—we are surely able to build up a bell band of our own.It will become the first bell band of New China,and we will also organize the first chime orchestra.” All the experts expressed their agreement with his idea.

The ancient chimes,buried underground for more than 2,400 years,could still play music after being unearthed.It would surely shock China and the world and be a great miracle in the music world.

从曾侯乙墓中出土的65 件编钟，乐音都测出来了。中国音乐研究所研究员黄翔鹏、李纯一等专家说，这套钟能够演奏出很多乐曲。

专家们的话提起了在场人的兴趣。古老的编钟，在地下埋藏2400 多年，出土后还能演奏乐曲，那将震惊中外，创造世界乐坛一个伟大的奇迹。有人建议，找一个礼堂，将编钟架起来，既可以试验演奏歌曲，还可以表演！

第一次演奏

经多方打听，得知驻城外部队有一个带舞台的礼堂，这支部队给考古队提供过吊车等设备。谭维四与部队首长联系，对方十分高兴，一口应允。

一转眼，编钟及各种构件，大大小小，摆满了小半个礼堂。

礼堂里的舞台是木板铺的，为了防止5 吨重的编钟压垮舞台，战士们又用钢筋加固，确保万无一失。

专家学者和战士们都当起了苦力，费尽九牛二虎之力，才把编钟架好，恢复起编钟的原貌与雄姿。

万事具备，只欠乐师了。谁来当演奏乐师？当时全中国没有古编钟乐队，也没听说有谁演奏过古编钟。

谭维四说：“我们的编钟乐队从零开始，就我们这些人，自己来做。我们有北京来的音乐专家哩，我们一定能够把这个编钟乐队搞起来。我们要成为新中国的第一代编钟乐师，我们要组建第一个编钟乐团。”专家们都赞同谭维四的想法。

谭维四打电话，从湖北省博物馆调来两位女青年讲解员，同时经过协商，从部队文艺宣传队选调来三位文艺战士，与王湘等音乐专家组成了一个编钟演奏乐队。黄翔鹏担任艺术指导兼音乐指挥，就这样，1978年7月下旬，中国当代第一支编钟乐队在湖北随县组建成立了。

为感谢驻军部队对考古队的支持与援助，谭维四决定在1978年8月1日，举行首场编钟音乐会，慰问驻军官兵，庆祝中国人民解放军建军节。

黄翔鹏带领队员们日夜排练，短短几天，他们就能演奏一批古今中外的曲子。

8月1日下午，军民观众齐聚一堂，编钟音乐会正式开始。

Tan made phone calls to the Hubei Provincial Museum and transferred two young expositors.At the same time,three soldiers were selected from the military art troupe.Together with Wang Xiang and other music specialists,they formed a chime-playing band,with Huang Xiangpeng as the art director and music conductor.In this way,China’s first contemporary chime band was set up in Suixian County,Hubei Province in late July of 1978.

In order to express their appreciation to the local army units for their support and assistance to the archaeological team,Tan decided to hold the first concert on August 1,1978,to pay tribute to the officers and soldiers stationed there and to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.

Under the leadership of Huang,the band members started their rehearsals.They practiced days and nights,and within a few days,they were able to play a batch of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign songs.

On the afternoon of August 1,the military and local audiences gathered in the auditorium and the chime concert officially commenced.

The first song was “The East Is Red.” This song was once played by the chime bells unearthed in the ancient Chu tomb in Xinyang City,Henan Province,and carried into space by China’s first man-made satellite.At that time the one-belltwo-tone feature had not yet been discovered,and the Ti sound in the song was replaced by another similar tone.

The band also played the ancient tune “Chu Shang,”which was adapted from “Lord of the East” of Qu Yuan’s “Nine Songs.” The lingering sound of the music lasted for a long time,leaving a pleasant and seemingly endless aftertaste,and giving the audiences a feeling that the majestic music was echoing between heaven and earth.

To exhibit the broad range of the chimes,the band whereafter played “The Internationale,”“Ode to Joy,” “Auld Lang Syne,”the Japanese song “Sakura,” the popular Chinese folk songs “The Rising Sun over the Prairie” and“Liuyang River,” etc.

At the conclusion of the final note,everyone was in awe and their hearts were filled with respect—stormy applause resounded in the auditorium for a long time.

This was the first performance after the original chimes of Marquis Yi of Zeng were unearthed.Appearing on the scene that day were also cinematographers,TV videographers,and recording engineers,who recorded this precious historical moment and unprecedented sound with their lenses and microphones.The Chinese national and local media also transmitted the music and images from Suixian County to the entire country and the outside world.

Duplication Scheme at the Top of the Agenda

As a national-level cultural relic,frequent percussion on the chimes was not permitted.They discussed how to meet the subsequent demand of a large number of exhibitions and performances.The only way out was to make replicas of the exact set of chimes.The plan for chime duplication was then laid on the agenda.

Since the Han Dynasty,due to the collapse of the pre-Qin ritual and music system along with the invention and application of various metals such as iron-ware,bronze-ware witnessed a rapid decline,and the development of bronze bells was thus greatly shackled.Aggravated by the decrease of masters in bell-casting techniques and musicians able to play chimes,the instrument eventually fell into obscurity and the casting techniques were slowly lost.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty,a man called Du Kui,a native of Henan Province,was well versed in the rhythm of the bells and proficient in string and wind music.Cao Cao,who was the prime minister of the Eastern Han Dynasty,admired his talent and made him an official in charge of music performances and ordered him to compose elegant music.

第一支曲子是《东方红》。这只曲子曾是河南信阳楚墓中出土的编钟演奏的，并被中国第一颗人造卫星带向太空，因当时未知一钟双音，曲中的Si 音是用别的音代替的。

乐队还演奏了根据屈原《九歌·东君》改编的古曲《楚商》，余音缭绕，回味无穷，给人一种“大乐与天地同和”的感受。

为了表现编钟音域的宽广，乐队又演奏了《国际歌》、《欢乐颂》、美国电影插曲《一路平安》、日本歌曲《樱花》、脍炙人口的中国民歌《草原上升起不落的太阳》、《浏阳河》等。

演出结束时，所有人肃然起敬，心潮澎湃，如山洪暴发般的掌声久久回荡在礼堂内外。

这是曾侯乙编钟原件出土后的第一次演奏，当天现场有电影摄影师、电视录像师、唱片录音师，他们用镜头和话筒，记录下这珍贵的历史时刻和亘古未有的声音。中国国家和地方媒体，同时向中国和全世界传播了这来自随县的音乐和图像。

复制计划上日程

作为国家级文物，是不能允许经常敲击演奏的。如何解决以后大量的展演需求，唯一的办法就是复制出一模一样的一套或几套编钟来。于是乎，复制编钟的方案摆上议事日程。

中国自汉代之后，由于先秦礼乐制度的崩溃，铁器等各种金属工具得以发明与运用，青铜文化迅速走向衰落。青铜编钟的发展受到了制约，加上掌握编钟铸造技术的工匠和演奏乐师越来越少，编钟最终退出历史舞台，铸造工艺也失传。

Ten-stringed qin in plain lacquer 素漆十弦琴

Having learned that the bells made by craftsman Chai Yu could play music,Du invited Chai to make more of these bells.Not long after,Du dismissed him as he found that the bells made by Chai were useless as the sounds they produced were turbid and inconsistent.

All the subsequent attempts to imitate pre-Qin bells in the following dynasties unexceptionally failed.

It was apparently irrational to regard it as an easy job to copy the process of casting this set of chimes after merely a few glimpses at them.Duplication of the chimes became an important project.

In 1979,with the support of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China,the Hubei Provincial Museum took the lead and established a research group for the reproduction of the chimes of Marquis Yi of Zeng.

The research group started with exploring the casting method of the original bells and found that the casting of the chimes of Marquis Yi of Zeng needed to go through the procedures of designing,modeling,molding,mold-assembling,casting,post-casting processing(gold-inlaying on inscriptions,tone tuning),and other steps.

The casting molds of the whole set of bells were assembled with pottery.The casting mold of niu bells consisted of double-sided ceramic molds and a mud core(i.e.an inner mold),and its sprue was located on the edge of the bell’s mouth.The casting mold of the yong bells was more complex,as each bell was divided into two parts,the yong part (the middle part of the handle-shaped column on top of the bell bodies) and the bell body,and composed of a total of 136 pieces.The 36 pieces of mei(the protruding stakes on the bell bodies) were cast from one mold.

After the prototype was cast,it had to undergo the burnishing and tuning process,and the task of the latter was arduous.The main methods of tuning were grinding and scraping.The file marks occasionally found on the inside walls of the pre-Qin bells were the traces of scraping,and to grind was to smooth and polish.

The proportion of metal contents in the chimes played a major role in their acoustic,mechanical,and casting properties.Though deployment of various modern means such as spectral semi-quantitative,electronic probe scanning,and chemical quantitative analysis,the research group detected the metal components of the bells:copper 77.54%-85.08%; tin 12.79%-14.46%; aluminum generally less than 2%,some as high as 3% in individual cases,and content of other elements were rarely found.They also found that a reasonable ratio of copper,tin,and lead alloys would help reduce casting defects and make the bells more precise and normative,smoother on the surface,richer in color,and more durable.

Another hard nut to crack in the duplication of the chimes was how to keep their one-bell-dual-tone feature.

Exquisite details of the chime-bell set 曾侯乙编钟细节精美

东汉末年有河南人杜夔，通晓钟律，丝竹八音，无所不能。曹操很欣赏杜夔的才华，封他为军中乐官，并令其制雅乐。

杜夔得知工匠柴玉所铸之钟可奏乐音，就把柴玉请来，让他铸钟。后来，杜夔发现柴玉铸的钟，声音清浊不均，派不上用场。

以后各个朝代均试图仿制先秦编钟，均未成功。

如今仅看着这套编钟就想模仿铸造，谈何容易！

复制编钟成了一个重要的课题。

1979年，在中国国家文物局的支持下，由湖北省博物馆牵头，联合多家单位，成立了曾侯乙编钟复制研究组。

研究组从探求原钟的铸造方法入手，找出了曾侯乙编钟的铸造，需经过设计、塑样、制模、作范、装配铸型、浇铸、铸后加工（铭文错金、调音）等工序。

全套钟的铸型均用陶范组合而成。钮钟的铸型由双面陶范和泥芯（即内范）构成，其浇口设在钟的口沿上。甬钟的铸型较为复杂，每件钟的铸型分甬部和钟体两大部分，共由136 块范、芯组成。每件钟的36 副枚（钟体上的突起）范，均由一个枚模翻制而成。

冶铸雏形后，需要对铸体进行加工打磨和调音，后者的任务十分艰巨。调音的主要办法是磨和剡。剡就是刮削，先秦钟内壁少数略见锉痕，是剡的痕迹。磨就是打滑抛光。

After repeated practice and trial-manufacturing for three years,they finally reproduced 2 large bass yong bells,14 mediumsized yong bells,and 12 niu bells,totaling 28 pieces.

On January 7,1983,the State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China held an appraisal meeting on the research results of chime duplication in Wuhan.Experts believed that the duplicated chimes were not only similar to the original in shape and decorative designs,but their pitch,audio frequency,and timbre also met the requirements,which laid a solid technical foundation for later reproduction of the entire set.

In August of 1984,after more than a year of hard work,the research group completed the duplication of a full set of the chime-bells of Marquis Yi of Zeng.On September 5 of the same year,the Ministry of Culture of China organized an appraisal committee composed of multidisciplinary experts to appraise and accept the full set of duplicated chimes,and after confirming that the duplication met the requirements of “similar both in appearance and sound,” they issued an acceptance certificate.In the following year,a first prize for achievements in scientific and technological research was awarded for their research results in the duplication of the chime-bells of Marquis Yi of Zeng.

After the successful reproduction of the first set of chime-bells and with the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage,Hubei Provincial Museum joined a number of units and duplicated another two sets of bells.The three sets of replicas were respectively stored in the Suizhou Municipal Museum,the Chime Performance Hall of Hubei Provincial Museum,and the Taiwan Hongxi Art Museum.The three replication practices formed a complete set of feasible bell-reproduction processes and formulated a set of identification standards in reproductive technology of ancient musical instruments.

The scientific research value of the successful reproduction of the bells and the value of the original chimes were equally regarded as “national treasures.” Wang Zhenduo,a famous archaeologist,commented:“The study of chime reproduction has great scientific value in archaeological research,which has surpassed the ancients,marking an era and a milestone in the study of the reproduction of cultural relics.The outcome of this study is also the result of the collaboration of various departments and disciplines of natural and social sciences.”

Since the 1990s,dozens of chime-bell sets of Marquis Yi of Zeng have been reproduced and displayed in the famous tourist spots of more than a dozen provinces and cities,including Beijing’s Great Bell Temple Museum,Sun Yat-sen Memorial Museum in Taiwan,Hong Kong,the New Yuanming Palace in Zhuhai City,Jingzhou City of Hubei,the Yellow Crane Tower in Hubei,Wuhan East Lake Scenic Area,as well as in the provinces of Hunan,Guangdong,Henan,Hebei,Shaanxi,Anhui,Jiangsu,and Hainan.

More than two thousand years later,the chime-bells began swinging again with another wave of mass fervor in China.

(Translation:Luo Dongyuan)

Exquisite details of the chime-bell set 曾侯乙编钟细节精美

编钟的含金比例对其声学性能、机械性能、铸造性能的变化有着重大作用。研究组利用光谱半定量、电子探针扫描和化学定量分析等多种现代手段检测，得知编钟金属成分比例是：铜77.54%～85.08%，锡12.79%～14.46%，铝一般少于2%，个别高达3%，其他元素的含量都很少。他们发现，合理的铜、锡、铅合金比例，还会减少铸造缺陷，使编钟更加精确规范，表面光洁，纹路清晰，色泽富丽，经久耐用。

确保“一钟双音”也是复制的一大难点。

经过三年的反复实践与试制，到1982年年底，他们终于复制出低音大型甬钟2 件，中型甬钟14件，钮钟12 件，共28 件。

1983年1月7日，国家文物局在武汉召开了编钟复制研究成果鉴定会，专家们认为，复制的编钟不仅形态和纹饰与原体很相似，其音高、音频、音色也达到了要求，为复制全套编钟打下了坚实的技术基础。

1984年8月，研究小组又经过一年多的努力和奋斗，完成了全套曾侯乙编钟的复制和研究工作。文化部于同年9月5日组织多学科专家组成的鉴定委员会，对复制的全编钟进行了鉴定验收，认为达到了“形似、声似”的复制要求，并颁发了验收证书，第二年，又对曾侯乙编钟复制研究成果，颁发科技成果一等奖。

编钟复制第一套获得成功后，经国家文物局批准，湖北省博物馆又先后联合多家单位，复制了两套编钟。三套复制品，分别存放在随州市博物馆、湖北省博物馆编钟演奏馆、台湾鸿禧美术馆。三次复制实践，形成了一整套完整可行的编钟复制技术和工艺流程，制订出一套古乐器复制技术鉴定标准。

复制编钟成功的科研价值同编钟原件价值一样，同样是“国之瑰宝”。著名考古学家王振铎说：“编钟复制研究在考古学研究上有着重大的科学价值，这一工作超越了古人，在文物的复制研究方面划了一个时代，是一个里程碑。这项成果的取得，又是自然科学、社会科学各部门、各学科协作的结果。”

20 世纪90年代至今，几十套曾侯乙编钟被复制出来，摆放在北京大钟寺古钟博物馆、台湾孙中山纪念馆、香港、珠海圆明园、湖北荆州、武汉黄鹤楼、武汉东湖风景区等地方，湖南、广东、河南、河北、陕西、安徽、江苏、海南等10 余个省市的著名旅游景点都有陈列。

2000 余年后，中国编钟热重新到来。