The bell and drum tower on Zhongshan Road in Nanning City was completed, and the majestic posture of 500 years ago reappeared in Yongcheng, and history was another reincarnation. The introduction of the Bell and Drum Tower has been overwhelming, but not many people know the story behind it.
Why was the bell and drum tower built?
Ming Dynasty thinker, educator and military strategist Wang Yangming, Jiajing period 1527-1528 came to Nanning, in addition to dealing with military and government affairs, most of the time was used to preach and educate, he lectured and ran a school in Shangshi Archway (now the junction of Gonghe Road and Beining Street), and invited the people to come to listen to him and his disciples on the Confucian "Xinxue" culture of "unity of knowledge and action" for free.
At that time, Wang Yangming's subordinate had a student named Wang Zuo, who was a general and a martial champion. Since the twelfth year of Zhengde (1517), he has followed Wang Yangming many times to quell the rebellion. After coming to Guangxi, Wang Zuo was awarded the post of commander of Nanning Wei. In August of the seventh year of Jiajing (1528), after Wang Yangming returned from Yongbei due to illness, Wang Zuo continued to complete Wang Yangming's unfinished business. Working with Wang Yangming for many years, Wang Zuo was deeply influenced by Confucianism. During his stay in Yong, he was in charge of military and political affairs and student assistance with Wang Yangming, and he deeply felt the inconvenience of Nanning's "unreported dawn and twilight".
In fact, as early as the seventeenth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1384), Zhu Yuanzhuan, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, ordered the construction of bell towers all over the country to control the world. It's a pity that Nanning has not been able to achieve it. At this time, Wang Zuo decided to raise funds to cast the bronze bell, and as soon as the news came out, he received donations and support from the gentry and virtuous people in the whole city. In the tenth year of Jiajing (1531), a large bronze bell with a height of 1.8 meters, a diameter of 1.2 meters and a weight of 2,000 catties was successfully cast. The bronze bell is inscribed with the time of minting, the list of gentry who donated money, and the official position and name of Wang Zuo.
The Bell and Drum Tower is located on the central axis of the ancient city
The commercial activities of Nanning in the Song Dynasty were mainly concentrated in Wushengfang (Qingyun Street to the southern section of Chaoyang Road), Suqingfang (Zhongshan Road to the southern section of Gonghe Road), Xuanmingfang (Mingde Street to Yongjiang Hotel), Renhefang (southern section of Xingning Road to Dangyang Street), so the Bell and Drum Tower was chosen at the junction of Qingyun Street, Gonghe Road and Minquan Road, which happened to be located in the prosperous area of commercial activities at that time. More importantly, Wangxian Slope, North Gate and South Gate form the central axis of the ancient city of Nanning, and the Bell and Drum Tower just fall on the node of the central axis. The central axis represents the central location of a city, carrying the multiple functions of religion, history and culture, and reflecting the inheritance and changes of the city's history and culture. At the same time, it is also in line with the feng shui doctrine of the time. It can be said that where the bell and drum towers are all over the country, the central axis of the city is there.
The Bell and Drum Tower was formerly known as Pingchu Tower
The bell and drum tower was called Pingchu Tower before, and it was built in the Ming Dynasty. The base is square, about three zhang high, the top of the building is a three-layer pavilion shape, the lower is big and the upper is small, like a pagoda shape, the pavilion is passed to the top. The eaves of the three floors of the building are all cyan glazed tiles, and the finch tails at the four corners of each layer tile surface are carved with lifelike flying dragons, and the top of the building is a gourd-shaped spire. The four corners of the lower floor are four giant brick square columns, the diameter of the column is about two meters, the two people can not hug each other, and the southeast and northwest sides of the downstairs are four arches, which are just the cross streets in the city. There are snack stalls every day. The northeast side of the building (the direction of the original middle courtyard) has the staircase of ascending the building, and there is a piece of inscription on the arch respectively, the east side is "Xuanhe", the south side is "Tongming", the west side is "Yinghou", and the north side is "Gongchen". After the big bronze bell is hung on the Pingchu Tower, the bell is struck every day, at 6 o'clock in the morning and 7 o'clock in the evening, each rings three times, each array rings 36 times, a total of one hundred and eight rings. So Pingchu Tower was renamed Bell and Drum Tower. Whenever there is a festive event in the country, the bell must be rung during the day.
The legend of the Bell and Drum Tower
There are many legends about the bell and drum tower, such as: "a straw rope hangs a big bell", "the ghost guy steals the treasure grass", "the bronze bell angrily captures the unicorn jiao" and so on, and now tell three of the stories.
1. Straw rope and bronze bell
After Wang Zuo's bronze bell was cast, he couldn't think of a proper way to hang it on the Pingchu Tower. How thick a rope does a 2,000-pound guy have to use to hang it? When he was in trouble, an old man with hair like snow came to Qingyun Street. He took out a "straw rope" and gave it to everyone as a wall clock. When everyone saw it, it was just a straw rope, how dare they use it? The old man repeatedly said that it could be done, and everyone was skeptical, but they still tried. Unexpectedly, as soon as it was hung, it was hung up. A straw rope hangs a 2,000-pound bronze bell, which is incredible. One of the younger students at the scene picked up a wooden stick and was anxious to try the sound of the bronze bell, but was stopped by the old man.
The old man said, "Don't knock yet." Now I will go eastward, and you will ring again after I have been gone for two hours, and then the bell will ring wherever I go. ”
The old man immediately waved the dust, headed east, and soon arrived at Qingxiu Mountain, and walked down the mountain along the edge of Dongquan towards the Yongjiang River. There is a ferry by the river, and there is a fish pond by the ferry. Because traders who sold illicit salt often went up the mountain from this ferry and then entered the city of Nanning, the fishpond was called the private salt pond.
As soon as the old man arrived at the private salt pond, the bell of the bell and drum tower rang. The old man looked back at the way he came and sighed: "It's a pity, the bell of the bell and drum tower can only be transmitted to the private salt pond!"
Later generations felt that the word "private salt" in "private salt pond" was indecent, so they renamed it "Sixian Pond".
2. Bell and Drum Tower and "Little Paradise"
In the third year of the Republic of China (1914), Liu Jian, a Chinese-American (originally from Xinhui, Guangdong), opened a church and clinic on Zhonggulou Street (now the junction of the middle section of Gonghe Road and Minzu Avenue) as a pastor and a doctor. One day, Lu Rongting, the governor of Guangxi, suddenly had a stomachache when he was at a feast, and his subordinates panicked and urgently begged Chinese medicine to save him. Helplessly, Lu Dudu drank the decoction, but he still frequently complimented him, but he did not get better. There is a way to go to the doctor in a hurry, and the governor's family accidentally discovered the foreign clinic on Zhonggulou Street, so they went to ask for medicine and took it home for the governor to eat.
But after half a cigarette, the governor finally sat still. As a result, Liu Jian's clinic became famous and spread in Nanning. Liu Jian took the opportunity to ask Lu Dudu for approval to open a hospital in Nanning. On a whim, the governor approved it.
As a result, Liu Jian's hospital appeared in the Guimen Pass (now Wenwen Street), and named it "Little Paradise" after the meaning of paradise in the Bible. Liu Jian naturally became the first director of the "Little Paradise" hospital. Since the development of "Little Paradise", it has become a well-known large-scale tertiary first-class hospital - Nanning First Hospital.
3. Circulating plain songs
The "morning bell and dusk drum" of the bell and drum tower 108 rings, every day the melodious bell is conveyed to every household, in addition to the time, but also means to eliminate all worries and desires, to help people achieve inner peace and purity. Therefore, the common people regard hearing the bell as an indispensable part of their lives, and believe that the bell can bring a sense of safety and happiness to the people of Nanning. At that time, there was a song in plain language: "Sister has a good life, marrying in Nanning City, you have to hear the official trial during the day, and you have to hear the bell and drum tower at night." My sister's life is ugly, she marries deep in the mountains and greens, hears the pheasant crows during the day, and hears the stream flowing at night." From the song, you can feel the yearning of the women outside the city for life in the city, and can hear the bell of the bell and drum tower as a measure of safety, stability and happiness (Note: Pinghua Mountain Song Singing Zhongxing Village Mo Levelhong).
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The bronze bell was ill-fated
In 1932, due to the widening of Gonghe Road, the Bell and Drum Tower was demolished, according to the memories of a centenarian on Gonghe Road, the bronze bell was temporarily stored at the south gate, and it still rings as usual. Chef Zeng, the veteran chef of Wanguo Restaurant, said that when the Japanese fighters bombed Nanning, they also heard the big bronze bell ring the alarm.
Before the fall of Nanning in November 1939, the Guangxi Provincial Museum transported a large number of cultural relics such as bronze bells to Tiandong in western Guizhou and collected them in the caves of Debao. In November 1940, Nanning was recovered, and the Guangxi Provincial Museum was ordered to move to Guilin, so the bronze bell was transported from the Youjiang River to Nanning and then along the Xijiang River to Wuzhou, and then transferred to the Guijiang River to Guilin. In June 1944, the situation in Guilin was tense, and the Guangxi Museum was transferred to Pingle and Hexian. Due to transportation difficulties, some large and heavy cultural relics had to be discarded, and the bronze bell remained in Guilin.
Later, for some reason, the bronze bell was left in Wuhan (it is said that it was taken away by the Japanese army when they retreated to Wuhan, and it was intended to be transported back to Japan, but it was too late). In the 1950s, the staff of the Guangxi Museum went to Wuhan on a business trip and saw the familiar bronze bell, so they bought it back and placed it in the Zhenning Fort in the People's Park of Nanning City. The bronze bell that has been displaced for more than ten years has finally returned to Nanning.
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