Beijing Mythological Stories about the Lady of the Bell Foundry

Abstract

In the second half of the nineteenth century at the latest, a legend emerged in Beijing about the sacrificial death of the founder's daughter during the casting of a large bell for the Bell Tower. It is similar to a group of medieval Chinese tales associated with the cults of patron deities of the crafts. These have their origins in tales from Western regions related to Eastern European stories of walled-up wives. In the case of the Beijing tradition, the religious tale is transformed into a secular legend with, at best, a tenuous connection to a local cult. The story of the casting of a bell for the Bell Tower persists in Beijing's oral tradition to this day. There are also a number of related stories told in other regions of China, as well as Korean tales that are genetically linked to it. The article examines both the structural and semantic features of several mythological stories about the making of a bell for the Bell Tower recorded by Chinese folklorists from the 1950s to the 1980s, alongside those of the first known English (1870s) and the first known Chinese (1930s) amateur recordings of the legend. It also traces the connection of these texts with similar narratives from other regions, as well as with the aforementioned medieval legends of patron deities of crafts, ancient beliefs in the efficacy of human sacrifice for metallurgical production characteristic of the Wu region, and Confucian notions of filial piety.