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- Set of belts from tomb of Marquis Yi of the State of Zeng, 5th century B.C.
It was during the Ming dynasty that one of the world's largest bells was cast. In China it is known as the "King of Bells," and was cast by order of Emperor Yongle (reigned 1403-1424). It is 6.75 metres high, has an outside diameter of 3.3 metres and a weight of 46.5 metric tons. Its inner and outer surface are cast with over 100 Buddhist scriptures with a total of over 230,000 characters. It is said that its chime can be heard from a distance of 40 to 50 kilometres. (�According to legend, the master craftsman working on the bell failed in fusing the metals to cast the enormous bell. His daughter dreamt that the only way to get perfection was to throw herself into the molten metal, which she did the great bell was immediately cast. However, this same story is also attached to other bells in China.) This bell was the largest bell in the ancient world until 1 734 when the Russians cast "Tsar Kolkol" a bell of about 202 metric tons, and later in 1746 the Russians cast another great one, the Trotskoi bell, which weighed about 170 metric tons. These are the two largest bells in the world.
Large Ming bell at Bell Tower in Beijing.
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