Bell (Lai Zhong) (c. 800–700 BCE): Art, History and Details

Bell (Lai Zhong) (c. 800–700 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

In ancient China, music and ritual had political significance and were linked inseparably to the power of states. During the Zhou dynasty, bronze bells were made in sets of eight to sixty bells. This bell is the second largest from a set of eight. This bell bears an inscription of 118 characters about its owner, Lai, and why it was cast. Lai's ancestors dutifully served the Western Zhou royal court, and he was granted a hereditary position by the "Son of Heaven" (the ruler). To express filial piety, Lai commissioned a set of bells as an offering to his father, Gongshu, in the hope that they would be forever treasured by future generations. This important inscription also provides an early example of Chinese calligraphy highlighting the purely abstract lines and construction of characters.

Object facts

• Title: Bell (Lai Zhong)
• Date: c. 800–700 BCE
• Culture: China, Shaanxi province, Meixian, Western Zhou dynasty (c. 1046–771 BCE)
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 70.3 x 37 x 26.6 cm (27 11/16 x 14 9/16 x 10 1/2 in.)
• Collection: China - Zhou Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1989.3

A detail from the museum

The technical sophistication of the unusual lens-shaped cavity allowed the bell to produce two different tones.

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Liu Huaijun. "Meixian chutu yipi Xi Zhou jiaocang qingtong yueqi (A group of Western Zhou bronze musical instruments buried in a pit and excavated at Meixian)." Wen bo 文博, vol. 17, no. 2 (1987): 17-25.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991.
• Turner, Evan H., et al. “Notable Acquisitions.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 78, no. 3, 1991, pp. 63–147.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.