Great Bell Temple 大钟寺
北三环西路甲31号
Part of A Better Guide to Běijīng’s coverage of Northwest Beyond the Zoo
The temple is described in Juliet Bredon’s Peking of 1931:
This temple lying amongst quiet farms is an easy and pleasant walk of two miles from the Hsi Chih Mên [Xī Zhí Mén] or an excellent ride of four or five from the An Ting Mên [Āndìng Mén] across the plain, passing through the old Tartar mud wall, once the northern boundary of Kublai Khan’s capital.
At its founding in 1733 this was called the Juéshēng Sì, which expresses in a very compressed manner the idea of awakening to the idea of the cycle of birth and rebirth. It is now also the Ancient Bell Museum (古钟博物馆, Gǔ Zhōng Bówùguǎn). It’s this that’s the point of interest, rather than the largely conventional layout of the restored temple, with the exception of the strikingly unusual bell tower at the rear. A gnarled stele in the middle of the first hall is inscribed with the Yōngzhèng emperor’s order for the temple’s construction.
In general, Chinese bells lack clappers — they are struck from outside. If the bell is large, this is done with a log mounted on chains that can be swung end-on into the bell. The main exhibition is the ‘forest of bells’ in a long hall on the left, a recently revamped collection of bells of all sizes and shapes from all over China, many topped with double-ended dragons, and now accompanied by good English explanations: Buddhist and daoist bells, bells from watchtowers in imperial palaces, bells that sounded the night watches, and purely decorative bells.
A separate hall has many bells cast with elaborate texts on their surfaces, well lit to show the characters and gentle green oxidisation, and with some English explanations of their meaning. Other halls contain a 2500kg collection of chime bells from the 5th century BCE tomb of one Marquis of Zēng (actually reproductions and with improvements, although this information is not forced on you, an attendant being eager to sell you a CD of them being played). There’s an exhibition on bell-casting methods, and one on famous foreign bells includes a still from the original black-and-white Hollywood movie of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (loosely based on Victor Hugo’s Notre-Dame de Paris). A courtyard on the eastern side has further bells hanging outside.
The champion bell, described as one of China’s ‘five consummate things’, is a 46,500kg monster, 3.3m in diameter and 6.75m tall, which hangs in an elegant square pavilion with a 12-sided upper storey. It is said to have been cast in the Míng Yǒnglè reign (1403–24) and originally hung at the Wànshòu Sì, which is a little difficult to understand since that temple wasn’t erected until six emperors later. It arrived at the Dà Zhōng Sì in 1743, being either moved on hardwood rollers or slid on ice along a specially dug channel, depending on whose account you read. The interior and exterior surfaces of the bell are covered in a mixture of Sanskrit and Chinese sutras and incantations amounting to over 230,000 tiny characters, and you can make a dusty climb to observe its top and the giant frame of faded red beams from which it is suspended, as impressive as the monster itself.
There are no blushes at making extravagant claims that conflict with those made at other sites: anything to impress. So it’s claimed that this is the largest bell in the world, although the bell in the Bell Tower is said there to be the largest in China. In fact the largest is the 50-ton, 6.8m China Century Bell at the Altar of the Century. See Běijīng World Art Museum.
▶ Dà Zhōng Sì, Běi Sān Huán Xī Lù A31, t 8213 2630, 8.30am–4pm. ¥10. nb Optional audio tour ¥10; deposit ¥100. m Dà Zhōng Sì (Line 13). b to 大钟寺: 特8内环, 特8外环, 87, 88, 运通101线, 运通201线, 300快车外环, 361, 367, 388, 422, 425, 604, 614, 617, 658, 695, 718.
Next in Běijīng Suburbs and Beyond: Introduction
Previously: Wànshòu Sì
Main Index of A Better Guide to Beijing.
For discussion of China travel, see The Oriental-List.
