Chapter 5 Second quarter midnight bell

In the early Buddhist temples of the South Asian subcontinent, a rattle was used to gather monks. It is said to be made of wood and struck with a wooden stick.Its Sanskrit name is ghanta, which translates as "beating wood", which is close to the original meaning.The transliterations include "贾〔jian炒〕精", "贾虹", "费运", "费地", "草霸" and so on.Hitting the gong to gather the crowd is called pita-ghant ika in Sanskrit, which is transliterated as "arm ghant ika".As recorded in Volume 24 of Zengyi Agama Sutra, on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, the "Shou Sui Day" (the day when monks in the South Asian subcontinent complete the 90-day Xia Anju and grow Fala one year old), Sinicized Buddhism also Follow it) Early in the morning, Shakyamuni Buddha told Ananda to beat the mallet quickly on the open ground and gather the crowd.Here is an example.Buddhism entered China via the Western Regions and other places, and along the way, it received some percussion instruments and clappers, plus the inherent Chinese bells and drums, etc., which enriched its own magical instruments.However, ghanta in Sanskrit has only this word, so in the free translations of Buddhist scriptures, it is translated into bells, drums, cymbals, bells and other utensils.This reflects that the ritual instruments of Sinicized Buddhism are quite complete, and most of them are purchased by ourselves.Below we introduce the "bell".

Zhong is a traditional Chinese percussion instrument.The characteristic of Chinese clocks is that the clock itself does not move very much when it is hit by wooden vertebrae from the outside of the clock; unlike most Western clocks, there is a long bell tongue inside the bell, and the bell and tongue are pulled, and the two are shaking. Contact vocalization. After continuous development, the bells in modern Sinicized Buddhist temples are basically stereotyped into two types: big bells and small bells. The big bell is generally hung in the bell tower.The individual is relatively large, roughly speaking, it must be at least about 1.5 meters high, and its diameter is about half of its height.Both copper and iron castings are available, and most of them are copper castings, often weighing more than 10,000 jin.A typical example: the existing "Yongle Bell" in Juesheng Temple (commonly known as "Dazhong Temple") in Beijing is a big bronze bell with a height of 6.75 meters, an outer diameter of 3.30 meters and a weight of about 46.5 tons.A large bronze bell in Xiantong Temple in Wutai Mountain, Shanxi Province, which is inscribed as "The Nether Bell", weighs 9999.5 jin.In addition, the big iron bell at Wanghai Temple in Mount Wutai can be called a masterpiece of iron bells.These three bells were all cast in the Ming Dynasty.

The big bell has several aliases: one is "Fan Zhong", which means the bell of a pure Buddhist temple; the other is "Hong Zhong", which is a good name for the big bell with "vibrating sound far away" in ancient China. Its scope of use is not limited to the bells of Buddhist temples; it is also called "fishing bell", and it is called "strike the bell", which means to catch (commonly "hang", hang) on ​​the bell frame and hit it; Whale Bell", but there is an allusion: According to the fourth volume of "Zu Ting Shi Yuan" compiled by Shi Shanqing in the Northern Song Dynasty, "The History of Objects and Symmetry" (this book was written by Su Shi), there is a kind of beast on the seashore. Its name is "Pulao", and it often looks for food on the shore.It was very afraid of whales. When the whale jumped out of the water and jumped into the air, Pu Lao saw it from a distance, and it screamed in fright, and the sound was like a bell.Therefore, people cast the image of Pulao on the bell, and made the hammer of the bell into the shape of a fish to symbolize the whale.In this story, the whale did not call at first, but people called the call caused by it "whale sound", and the big clock was also called "whale clock".

A big clock hangs in the bell tower.In the temples below the Song Dynasty, the arrangement of the halls was gradually finalized: a small courtyard was formed between the mountain gate and the Temple of Heaven, with a bell tower on the left and a drum tower on the right.That is to say, if you press the direction of facing south and backing north, there will be a bell in the east and a drum in the west.The Bell Tower is also known as Bell Hall, Bell Tower, and Diao Bell Hall.However, at the end of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, there was no Drum Tower in the temple, and the Sutra Tower was opposite the Bell Tower, which was the place where Buddhist scriptures were stored.According to the article "Pingkangfang Bodhisattva Temple" in "Temple Pagoda Records" in "You [you You] Yang Zazu [zu Zu]" written by Duan Chengshi in the late Tang Dynasty: "The system of the temple is that the bell tower is in the east. Only this On the edge of the temple, Li Youzuo and Lin Fu's house are in the east, so the bell tower was built in the west." As seen in the Dunhuang murals, the temple in the disguised painting of the "Guan Wuliang Shou Jing" on the south wall of Cave 91 in the Tang Dynasty, left Jinglou and right bell tower; On the north wall of Cave 85, the temple in the disguised painting of the late Tang Dynasty "The Medicine Master's Sutra" has the bell tower on the left and the scripture tower on the right.

Small bells are a general term for bells that are not hung in the bell tower but placed elsewhere.In Buddhist temples, the bell hanging on the bell tower is the largest. Compared with the big bell, the bells hanging elsewhere are smaller, so they are collectively called small bells; they are roughly half the size of the big bell, so they are called "half bells".The most common ones are hung in the Daxiong Hall, usually on the left side, that is, the east side.There are also bells hanging on the east and west sides, one bigger and one smaller.It is often used to ring to announce that Buddhist events such as Dharma meetings are about to start, so it is also called "action bell".There are also two small clocks.One is hung outside the abbot's door, used in Zen monasteries, and the attendant beeps to call scholars to come in and study alone.It is rare now.It is specially called "calling the bell".The other is a small bell hanging under the eaves of the library, which rings when the monks are called to have a meal, so it is also called "rice bell".Because Wang Bo of the Tang Dynasty wrote two poems about "the bell after dinner", the reputation of the bell was greatly enhanced. Monks use long, fish-shaped wooden fish for fasting meals; in modern and contemporary monasteries, even this kind of wooden fish has become a decoration. Everyone has a watch and works on time.The working clock and the meal clock can also be collectively referred to as the calling clock, because they are both used to call people.In addition, among the service clocks, the hall bells hung in Buddhist halls, the monk hall bells in monastic halls, and the Dharma hall bells in Dharma halls are all called according to their locations.

Small bells are mainly used for paging. Except for the rice bell, they do not necessarily strike at a certain time every day.But the big clock had to strike every day at regular intervals.Usually in the morning and evening.In modern temples, ringing bells in the morning and evening is combined with beating drums.In the early morning, the bell is played first and then the drum is played, and in the evening, the drum is played first and then the bell is played, which is called "Evening Drum and Morning Bell".Press, "twilight drum and morning bell" has now become an idiom, describing it as thought-provoking.It seems that the effect is indeed great. The poet monk Manshu said: "It's a foreign land and the sun is setting, and the red leaves are sparse and the lovesickness falls."

The number of bells ringing in the morning and evening of the temple is 108 times, which symbolizes the elimination of "hundred and eight troubles", so it is called "hundred and eight bells".Generally, it is done by monks (called "hours") who specialize in this work.According to the "Baizhang Qing Regulations", the striking technique is as follows: the bell and pestle should be held slowly, and the sound of striking the bell should be long; it should be divided into three parts, each with 36 pestles, and the starting and ending three pestles should be slightly tighter.These three links are also known as "three turns".

There is another kind of "Midnight Bell", which rings in the middle of the night, also known as "Ghost Bell", which is used at night to rescue the dead from hell.This is based on what is said in the Zengyi Agama Sutra, if you ring the bell, may all the sufferings in the evil ways cease; if you hear the bell and say the Buddha mantra, you will be able to get rid of the felony crimes of life and death for 50 billion kalpas. Volume 30 of "Continued Biography of Eminent Monks" contains a famous story "Shi Zhixing's Induction of Bell Ringing in the Middle of the Night". The bell rings in the middle of the night, and the sound resounds through hell, and many sufferers are released at the same time.In addition, there are stories about Emperor Wu of Liang and the ancestors of the Southern Tang Dynasty making bells to relieve suffering after sensing things in hell.It can be seen that the ringing of bells, especially the ringing of ghost bells in the middle of the night, is related to the salvation of suffering in hell.This reminds us of the famous poem "Night Mooring at Maple Bridge" by Zhang Ji, a poet who lived between the flourishing Tang Dynasty and the middle Tang Dynasty: