Why does the bell ring? ——The Legend of Jiaotai Hall

　　Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, September 12th,

　　Xinhua News Agency reporters Zhai Xiang, Shi Yucen, Jie Wenjin

　　The loud, self-ringing bell came from Jiaotai Hall in the Forbidden City on time.

　　Before the bell sounded, the senior officials of the Qing Dynasty in the Forbidden City's duty room took out the Western pocket watches they were holding in the replenishment service to calibrate their time.

　　As early as the 18th century, the grand self-sound bell, which started to tell the time for the Forbidden City, is still in the Jiaotai Hall of the Forbidden City today.

　　The Hall of Jiaotai, where the great self-ringed bell is located, is named after the ancient Eastern wisdom of "all things are connected through the exchange of heaven and earth".

"The cross between heaven and earth" urges time, and the mighty surging surging, it means enterprising innovation; "all things" breaks through the space and learns from each other's strengths and flourishes, which means open communication.

　　Its shell is a pavilion-shaped wooden cabinet, 5.57 meters high and painted in black with gold.

There is a small ladder on the back, so you can wind up the clock.

As early as the Yongzheng period, the palace had regular maintenance and maintenance rules for this big clock.

　　However, the origin of such a famous treasure is mysterious and vague.

　　According to the archives of the Palace Building Office of the Qing Dynasty, a fire broke out in the Jiaotai Hall in the second year of Jiaqing (1797).

The existing one was remade from the original in the third year of Jiaqing.

So the question is, what is the origin of the big clock before it was burnt down?

There are different opinions on this.

According to one theory, this grand self-tolling bell was imitated by the Qing Palace Manufacturing Office after learning Western precision machinery technology.

Another way of saying this is more dramatic. It is believed that this grand self-ringing bell is the one dedicated to Emperor Ming Wanli by the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci.

　　But whether it is "domestic-made imitation" or "imported with original packaging," Dazhong's life experience cannot change the fact that it is both a pioneer of scientific communication and a witness to the rise of the times.

And in the praise and criticism attitudes it has experienced in different eras, the codes of historical trends are often hidden.

　　Emperor Kangxi, the sage ancestor of the Qing Dynasty of Yunwen and Yunwu, loved the world's advanced technology since childhood, and his "good heart" was to ring the bell.

He once imperially produced the poem "Ring from the Tolling Bells": "Faculty began in the West, ingeniously imparting knowledge.... In the early morning, he is diligent in government affairs, but he is late in several questions." In governing the country, it is not difficult to see that for Emperor Kangxi, the great self-ringing bell was his "diligence bell" and "power bell".

　　By the time of Emperor Qianlong, who called himself the "Shiquan Old Man", his attitude towards the grand self-sounding bell changed slightly.

In the tenth year of Qianlong (1745), although the big clock still maintained the "treatment" of the Jiaotai Temple, it added a new friend-Qianlong ordered the office to make an ancient statue based on the Tang Dynasty technology nearly a thousand years ago. The hydraulic timing device-the copper pot dripping, is also placed in the Jiaotai Hall, facing the big clock.

　　The two “timepieces”, one middle school and one outside, stood in the same hall. It was originally considered a grand event, but the inscription engraved on the outer wall of the copper kettle by the Emperor Qianlong had a derogatory contempt for the self-ringing bell, such as “more self-ringing bells and promiscuous biography”. Words.

　　Emperor Qianlong's arrogant attitude became the official attitude of the Qing Dynasty towards the world's advanced technology and global civilization exchanges for more than a hundred years.

"Playing art"-from then on until the Opium War, China's introduction, use and cognition of Western technology never exceeded these two words.

It is said that when the British and French coalition fired the Old Summer Palace, the invading army was surprised to find that the samples of the most advanced guns, ammunition and scientific equipment presented by the foreign missions that came to China during the Qianlong period had not even opened the outer packaging.

　　The grand self tolling the bell is still reporting the time in the Forbidden City, the watch in the arms of the Manchu civil and military is still walking, but the spiritual pendulum has long stopped.

The humiliation and suffering that followed for more than a hundred years were the price paid by a nation for this stagnation.

　　The great self-tolling bell is no longer used for timekeeping today, and the country it lives in has already won due dignity and tranquility with innovation and openness.

This legendary big clock still stands silently, reminding people: If you don’t hear the "bells", the sound of cannons is not far away; communication is open and the country is peaceful.

　　This truth applies to both Chinese and Western.