“The Soul Of The Great Bell”

By: Lafcadio Hearn

 Way back 500 years, prominent bell smiths and molders are
commanded by the Celestial August and Yung-Lo to make a bell with a
sound reaching 100 Li. The creation was led by Kouan-Yu and within the
two trials of casting a bell, it still can’t mold gold, silver, brass, and iron.
In the first failure that the Son of Heaven heard of, he felt anger but
didn’t let out a word. Though, when he knew that they still failed the
second time, his anger grew, and threatened Kouan-Yu with a letter
telling him of a consequence of death if they wouldn’t be successful in
casting the bell.
Ko-Ngai, the daughter of Kouan-Yu bearing a beautiful heart, saw the
letter but she kept it to herself.
 Thinking of helping her father, she traded her jewelry and gold to
afford an astrologer. In her meeting with the astrologer, the latter
informed her that there’s no way gold and brass would meet in
wedlock, that silver and iron would only be together in the presence
of flesh from a maiden melted in a crucible and the blood of a virgin
must be mixed in the metal fusion.
Following what the astrologer advised her, she leaped in the
crucible for the third attempt. Though Kouan-Yu felt sorrow about
what happened, orders of the Celestial August and Yung-Lo are final
and irrevocable. Finally, the bell was cast successfully and as the bell
was rung, it created a sound that no other bells could be compared.