The "Big Bell Temple" on the north side of the North Third Ring Road in the east of Weigong Village, Haidian District, Beijing, was originally called "Juesheng Temple". Later, because a very large bronze bell hung in the temple, it was , people called this temple "Big Bell Temple". Dazhong Temple was built in the 11th year of Yongzheng reign of Qing Dynasty (1733 AD). Its scale can be described with the word "grand". From south to north, they are the mountain gate, the Heavenly King's Hall, the main hall, the back hall, the Sutra Library, the Bell Hall, and the side halls. The big bell named "Huayan Bell" hangs in the Big Bell Hall.
From the outside, the Big Bell Hall looks like the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests in the Temple of Heaven, with a round bottom and a height of five feet, with windows on all sides. The big bell is hung on a bell frame supported by eight pillars. Each of these eight pillars is about one cup thick, with colorful golden dragons painted on them. These golden dragons are lifelike and make the big clock even more impressive. The bell is 6.75 meters high, with a lip thickness of 22 centimeters, a maximum diameter of 3.67 meters, and a total weight of approximately 46.5 tons. This large clock is two stories high. It is covered with characters up and down, inside and out. Each character is 1 to 1.5 centimeters square. The font is regular and regular, simple and powerful. According to legend, it was a famous calligrapher in the early Ming Dynasty. Shen Du's handwriting. According to research, this big bell contains 7 Buddhist scriptures, 9 Chinese mantras and more than 100 Sanskrit mantras. There are more than 230,000 words in total, and the text is clearly legible to this day.
In addition to the name "Huayan Bell", the big bell is also called "Yongle Bell". This is because it was cast during the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty and got its name. Since the advent of the big clock, it has been recognized as the "King of Bells" in the world. "Encyclopedia Britannica" ranks it at the top of the world's famous ancient clocks. In 1733, in order to surpass the big bell in China, the Russian Tsar spent huge manpower and financial resources and spent 5 years casting a bell weighing about 193 tons in Moscow. However, before the Tsar could be happy for a while, the big bell cracked a big crack after it was cast and cooled, becoming a dumb bell that could not ring. However, our country's big bells are still intact and their sound can be heard far away. This cannot but be attributed to our country's advanced smelting and casting technology.
The Yongle Bell was successfully cast in one go by smelting craftsmen using my country's traditional casting technology "clay mold method". Its specific method is: first dig a big hole in the ground, use vegetation and Sanhe soil to make an inner shape, apply extremely fine and pure mud on it, stick the rice paper with the written words on it backwards on the fine mud, and carve the Yin character , then heat and fire it into a pottery mold, and then make the outer mold in circles. Finally, the molten copper liquid was poured in all at once, and the bell was cast.
This method sounds simple, but in fact it is an ingenious process that requires skilled skills and good organization and coordination. Any deviation in any link can lead to the failure of the casting. Not to mention the conditions of ancient handicraft production technology, even today, it is not an easy task to successfully cast a large casting of more than 40 tons. It can be seen that the smelting technology of our country's craftsmen at that time had reached the point of perfection.
Experts have measured it using modern scientific methods and found that the alloy ratio of the bell is very scientific and reasonable: 80.54% copper, 16.4% tin, 1.12% lead, and some other small amounts of metal elements. Experts believe that it is precisely because of this reasonable alloy ratio that the bell is strong and has moderate hardness. Even if it is hit hard, the sound quality will not be damaged. The sound level of the big bell can reach 120 decibels. If the sound propagation conditions are good, the sound can be heard hundreds of miles away and can last for 3 minutes. What’s even more incredible is that the vibration frequency of the big clock is almost the same as the standard frequency of music. From top to bottom, the bell wall can also be divided into different musical scales. No wonder the famous Japanese acoustician Professor Kitamura Otoichi said in admiration after listening to the bell: "This is the most beautiful bell I have ever heard in the world."