The Zeng Bells
I sailed out of Los Angeles on the MS Hanjin Phoenix, a 50,000-ton South Korean freighter on my way to Wuhan, China to see the Zeng bells. Although they were created 2,500 years ago, the Zeng bells remain some of the most beautiful and technically sophisticated bells the world has ever known. Unearthed from the tomb of Marquis Zeng in 1977, this set of sixty-five bells was still hanging on its beautiful lacquered rack and, after all that time, was in perfect pitch. Most remarkable was that these bells could produce two different notes, one when struck on the front and another when struck on the side; each bell was actually two bells.
I chose to travel to China by freighter because I wanted to experience the time and distance of going there, rather than boarding an airplane and twelve hours later finding myself on the other side of the world. It was not luxurious travel, but it was enormously peaceful and gave me time to expand my reading of Chinese history, art, and culture. By the time we sailed into the Sea of Japan after two weeks at sea, I felt I had traveled a great distance toward the world of the Zeng bells. But that was only a first step in understanding the powerful and sacred roles these bells played in ancient China. There was much more to come.