Bronze chimes

On April 17th, the Executive Board of UNESCO officially announced that the chime bells of Marquis Yi of Zeng from Suizhou, Hubei Province, were inscribed on the eighth batch of the Memory of the World Register. The application was led by the Hubei Provincial Museum and the Leigudun Cultural Relics Protection Center in Suizhou City, with the inscriptions on the chime bells serving as the documentary archives for the nomination.

The chime bells of Marquis Yi of Zeng were unearthed in 1978 from the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng at Leigudun in Suizhou, Hubei Province. They are the most magnificent and largest musical instruments discovered in the world to date, representing the highest achievements of China's pre-Qin ritual music civilization and bronze casting technology.

The chime bells of Marquis Yi of Zeng consist of a complete set of 65 pieces, suspended in three layers and eight groups on a bronze and wooden frame. With beautiful timbre, rich layers, and a wide range, they can span five and a half octaves and possess all twelve tones, second only to the modern piano and predating it by over 2,100 years.

A total of 3,755 inscriptions are carved on the bodies, frames, and hanging components of the chime bells of Marquis Yi of Zeng. Apart from a small number of records, the vast majority are music-related numbers, notations, and temperament theories. This is the only official pre-Qin Chinese musical temperament literature currently known, preserving the musical memory of humanity over 2,400 years ago through a mutual corroboration of sound and text.