Temple Bell

This large, bronze Chinese temple bell, with an impressive double-dragon crown and many inscriptions, was donated to Oberlin College in 1929 by alumnus Dr. H. H. Kung (.Kǒng Xiángxī 孔祥熙, 1881–1967, OC 1906). A pivotal and controversial figure in China during the early 20th century, Kung occupied several important ministerial posts in the government of the Republic of China. He was also a successful banker, amassing one of the largest fortunes in China at the time. His wife was equally famous; Soong Ai-ling (Sòng Aǐlíng 宋藹齡, 1888–1973) was the eldest of the three Soong sisters, all central figures in Chinese politics of the era. The bell arrived at Oberlin in 1929, and several plans to create a tower for the bell and ring it at ceremonial occasions did not come to fruition. The bell was accessioned into the museum collection in 1933.

Temple bells like this are used to call people to prayer or to punctuate certain rituals. They are rung by striking the exterior surface with a long beam that is hung horizontally and swung. Inscriptions on the bell assert that it was made for the Pavilion of Great Mercy (Dàcígé 大慈閣) in the 15th year of the Dàoguāng reign period (1835) by Yán Jǐntài 颜錦泰, whose workshop was located north of the Wǔlín Gate in the city of Hangzhou in Southern China. “Great Mercy” refers to a Buddhist deity, the bodhisattva Guānyīn (观音 / 觀音), one of the most popular and multifaceted deities in Asia. Guānyīn typically appears in female form in China and is often invoked as a protector of women and children. About a third of the donors listed on the bell’s inscription are women.

Recent research by Yuqing Tao (OC 2022) has called into question the dating of the bell. One clue comes from the Buddhist poem written in four vertical columns on the upper register of the bell. It reads, “[May] the Nation’s Foundations be Forever Firm” (國基永固), the People’s Endeavors Prosper Greatly (民業遐昌), Buddhism Wax Daily More Brilliant (佛日增輝), [and] the Wheel of the Dharma Always Turn (法輪常轉).” This is a poem about the relationship of the state to Buddhism and has a long history in China. However, in the original form of the poem the “Nation’s Foundations” was replaced with “the Emperor’s Territory,” and the “People’s Endeavors” replaced with “the Path of the Emperor.” In 1835, China was still ruled by an emperor of the Qing dynasty, so the original wording would be expected. The version of the text on the bell is more consistent with the early 20th century, after the 1911 Revolution deposed the last Qing emperor. Furthermore, there is a record of a bronze maker named Yán Jǐntài with a workshop near the Wǔlín Gate in Hangzhou, but it dates to 1921, when he was hired by the government to make a large, but unspecified, religious object. The existence of a man with the same name and same job working in the same location 86 years earlier is implausible. Finally, Tao’s extensive search of the National Library of China’s digitized database of local records, or gazeteers, did not discover any record of a Pavilion of Great Mercy in Hangzhou as the name of a monastery or temple building. A 1982 article by Maylon H. Hepp (OC '34) in Oberlin's Alumni Magazine notes that, in a 1927 letter from H. H. Kung to Oberlin President Henry Churchill King, Kung wrote that he was having a new bell cast for Oberlin, but a year later reported that he had found an old bell from a temple in Hangzhou, and had shipped this bell to Oberlin. Many questions remain, and research on the bell is ongoing.