Introduction
The Soul of the great Bell is a story written by Lafcadio Hearn from Greece. It's a pretty good story for me since it was all about a bell that was needed for the sake of the life of one of the Characters' Father, it even became more amazing
when they said that they needed the flesh of a virgin to truly make the bell. Its pretty weird for me though to why they needed it, but its definitely amazing.
Body
One of the journalist Lafcadio Hearn’s earliest books was a collection of adaptations of Chinese legends—which he completed even though he actually knew next to nothing of the Chinese language. While working on the proofs for the book, he corresponded frequently with his friend Elizabeth Bisland, a former colleague at the New Orleans Times Democrat who had moved in 1887 to New York to become an editor at Vogue. (Bisland would became famous two years later, when she raced New York World reporter Nellie Bly around the world, attempting to beat Phileas Fogg's fictitious record in the famous Jules Verne novel. She lost the race, although both women made the trip in less than eighty days.) Hearn’s letters to Bisland included updates about his struggling career as fiction writer and anecdotes about the remarkable characters he continued to meet in New Orleans. In one letter he complained that his latest attempt to learn Chinese had ended in failure. “My last pet was a Chinese doctor, whose name I cannot even pronounce. He tried to teach me Chinese; but I discovered the nasal tones almost impossible to imitate.”
His failure to learn the language didn’t dampen his enthusiasm for the “weird beauty” of the six tales included in his book, and he instead relied on the work of various European Sinologists to help him create his own versions and understand the historical and linguistic allusions. “To such great explorers,” he acknowledged in a preface, “the realm of Cathayan story belongs by right of discovery and conquest; yet the humbler traveller who follows wonderingly after them into the vast and mysterious pleasure-grounds of Chinese fancy may surely be permitted to cull a few of the marvellous flowers there growing.”
“The Soul of the Great Bell, ” the opening story of Hearn’s Some Chinese Ghosts, is perhaps the one best known today. Hearn’s appendix offers the following background:
The
story of Ko-Ngai is one of the collection entitled Te-Hiao-Tou-Choué,
or “A Hundred Examples of Filial Piety.” It is very simply told by the Chinese
narrator. The scholarly French consul, P. Dabry de Thiersant, translated and
published in 1877 a portion of the book, including the legend of the Bell. His
translation is enriched with a number of Chinese drawings. . . .The Soul of the great Bell is a story written by Lafcadio Hearn from Greece. It's a pretty good story for me since it was all about a bell that was needed for the sake of the life of one of the Characters' Father, it even became more amazing
when they said that they needed the flesh of a virgin to truly make the bell. Its pretty weird for me though to why they needed it, but its definitely amazing.
Body
One of the journalist Lafcadio Hearn’s earliest books was a collection of adaptations of Chinese legends—which he completed even though he actually knew next to nothing of the Chinese language. While working on the proofs for the book, he corresponded frequently with his friend Elizabeth Bisland, a former colleague at the New Orleans Times Democrat who had moved in 1887 to New York to become an editor at Vogue. (Bisland would became famous two years later, when she raced New York World reporter Nellie Bly around the world, attempting to beat Phileas Fogg's fictitious record in the famous Jules Verne novel. She lost the race, although both women made the trip in less than eighty days.) Hearn’s letters to Bisland included updates about his struggling career as fiction writer and anecdotes about the remarkable characters he continued to meet in New Orleans. In one letter he complained that his latest attempt to learn Chinese had ended in failure. “My last pet was a Chinese doctor, whose name I cannot even pronounce. He tried to teach me Chinese; but I discovered the nasal tones almost impossible to imitate.”
His failure to learn the language didn’t dampen his enthusiasm for the “weird beauty” of the six tales included in his book, and he instead relied on the work of various European Sinologists to help him create his own versions and understand the historical and linguistic allusions. “To such great explorers,” he acknowledged in a preface, “the realm of Cathayan story belongs by right of discovery and conquest; yet the humbler traveller who follows wonderingly after them into the vast and mysterious pleasure-grounds of Chinese fancy may surely be permitted to cull a few of the marvellous flowers there growing.”
“The Soul of the Great Bell, ” the opening story of Hearn’s Some Chinese Ghosts, is perhaps the one best known today. Hearn’s appendix offers the following background:
Twenty years later, after Hearn had been living in Japan for a decade, he admitted that his versions of the tales were the “early work of a man who tried to understand the Far East from books,—and couldn’t; but then, the real purpose of the stories was only artistic.” Nevertheless, he insisted, “I would change nothing.” I guess it definitely is one heck of an experience for him. But I guess it is pretty fine for him since it is his aspiration. Most of the Chinese People have Astrology as one of their common beliefs since they believe that it works well and is perfectly inclined with their lifestyle. China has it’s own of every thing “unique” from Confucius (a great philosopher) to Astrology (called Sheng Xiao), from Shaolin Monastery to Chinese Cuisine. The Bell's composition was particularly unique to me, since it was made of 4 different elements, the bell was definitely big, and if ever it had a price tag, it would definitely be a lot more expensive than most human organs. Foot bindings became a trend in China in the 10th century, and the people who got themselves involved with it were usually Socialites or simply Rich People. The reason to why they got their feet binded was because Foot binding became popular as a means of displaying status (women from wealthy families, who did not need their feet to work, could afford to have them bound) and was correspondingly adopted as a symbol of beauty in Chinese culture. ... Feet altered by binding were called lotus feet.
Conclusion
I have definitely learned that the making of this Story was not that easy. Its definitely a story that should be respected. I've learned that the bell was to be handled very carefully since it was not just any kind of bell.
References:
-http://storyoftheweek.loa.org/2016/06/the-soul-of-great-bell.htm
-http://sirfaramos.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-soul-of-great-bell-by-lafcadio.html
-http://storyoftheweek.loa.org/2016/06/the-soul-of-great-bell.htm
-http://sirfaramos.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-soul-of-great-bell-by-lafcadio.html
