Chugong Chime Bells

Bronze ware from the Western Zhou Dynasty
The largest one is 51cm tall and 28.8cm from the milling distance

Excavated from Tomb M64 of Jinhou Cemetery in Beizhao Village, Quwo County in 1992

This set of chime bells has eight pieces, which can be divided into two types and three styles according to the difference in patterns. There are five pieces in type one and style one, three of which are larger and two are smaller. The bell head is slightly oval, the arc of the bell head is shallow, and the pieces are divided by shallow and thin single lines, with sharp and convex nipple patterns in between. The dance part is decorated with hook-linked cloud patterns, the spiral is decorated with thunder patterns, the drum part is decorated with dragon, phoenix, tiger and other intertwined patterns, and the seal part is decorated with squid patterns with thin claws. There is an animal with erect ears and scales on the side of the bell drum, which is the second fundamental tone mark. There is only one piece of type one and style two, which is the largest piece in the whole set of bells. Except for the shallow and thin positive line beads replacing the sharp and convex nipple patterns, the rest is the same as type one. There are two Type II bells, which are the smallest in the whole set. The decoration is composed of thicker and deeper lines. The seal and drum parts are decorated with cloud patterns, and the phoenix pattern is used as the second fundamental tone mark.

The first 6 bells are all cast with inscriptions. From the existing inscriptions, the content describes that Chu Gongni went on a tour to worship his ancestors. The leaders of the four directions paid tribute of 90,000 jin of red copper, which Chu Gongni used to make bells. Chu Gongni is generally believed to be Xiong Yu recorded in "Historical Records: Family of Chu", and his reign time is equivalent to that of Jin Muhou. The historical records of the interaction between Jin and Chu were about the early and middle period of the Spring and Autumn Period. The Chu Gongni bell unearthed from the tomb of Jin Muhou has pushed the history of interaction between Jin and Chu to the late Western Zhou Dynasty, which is a witness to the cultural exchange between Jin and Chu.