[Music] the soul of the great Bell left kid oarn nearly 500 years ago the celestially August the son of Heaven Yang loow of the illustrious or Ming Dynasty commanded the worthy official kaan Yu that he should have a bell made of such size that the sound thereof might be heard for 100 leaves and he further ordained that the voice of the Bell should be strengthened with brass and deepened with gold and sweetened with silver and that the face and the Great Lips of it should be Graven with blessed sayings from the sacred books and that it should be suspended in the center of the imperial capital to sound through all the many colored ways of the city of be king therefore the worthy Mandarin cenu assembled the master molders and the renowned Bell Smiths of the empire and all men of great repute and cunning in Foundry work and they measured the materials for the Ally and treated them skillfully and prepared the molds the fires the instruments and the Monstrous Melting Pot for fusing the metal and they labored exceedingly like giants neglecting only rest and sleep and the Comforts of Life toiling both night and day in obedience to C andu and striving in all things to do the behest of the son of [Music] [Applause] heaven but when the metal had been cast and the Earth and mold separated from the glowing casting it was discovered that despite their great Labor and ceaseless care the result was void of worth for the medals had rebelled one against the other the gold had scorned alliance with the brass the silver would not mingle with the molten iron therefore the molds had to be once more prepared and the fires rekindled and the metal remelted and all the work tediously and tiresomely repeated the sun of Heaven heard and was angry but spoke nothing a second time the Bell was cast and the result was even worse still the metals obstinately refused to blend one with the other and there was no uniformity in the Bell and the sides of it were cracked and fissured and the lips of it were slagged and split aunder so that all the labor had to be repeated even a third time to the great dismay of [Music] kaan and when the son of Heaven heard these things he was angrier than before and sent his Messenger to cenu with a letter written upon lemon colored silk and sealed with the Seal of the Dragon containing these words from the Mighty younglo the sublime tiung the celestial and August whose Reign is called Ming to Kuan Yu the fu Yin twice thou Hast betrayed the trust we have dained graciously to place in thee if thou fail a third time in fulfilling our Command thy head shall be severed from thy neck tremble and obey now C and Yu had a daughter of dazzling loveliness whose name kongai was ever in the mouths of poets and whose heart was even more beautiful than her face kongai loved her father with such love that she had refused A Hundred worthy suitors rather than make his home desolate by her absence and when she had seen the awful yellow missive Sealed With the Dragon seal She fainted away with fear for her father's sake and when her senses and her strength returned to her she could not rest or sleep for thinking of her parents' danger until she had secretly sold some of her jewels and with the money so obtained had hastened to an astrologer and paid him a great price to advise her by what means her father might be saved from the Peril impending over him so the astrologer made observations of the heavens and marked the aspect of the silver stream and examined the signs of the zodiac the Wonga or yellow Road and consulted the table of the five hin or principles of the universe and the mystical books of the Alchemists and after a long silence he made answer to her saying gold and Brass will never meet in wedlock silver and iron never will Embrace until the Flesh of a maiden be melted in The Crucible until the blood of a virgin be mixed with the metals in their [Music] Fusion So Kong I returned home sorrowful at heart but she kept secret all that she had heard and told no one what she had done at last came the awful day when the third and last effort to cast The Great Bell was to be made and kongai together with her waiting woman accompanied her father to The [Music] Foundry and they took their places upon a platform overlooking the toiling of the molders and the lava of liquefied metal all the workmen brought at their tasks in silence there was no sound heard but the muttering of the fires and the muttering deepened into a roar like the Roar of typhoons approaching and the Blood Red Lake of metal slowly brightened like the Vermilion of a sunrise and the Vermilion was transmuted into a radiant glow of gold and the gold whitened blindingly like the silver face of a full moon then the workers ceased to feed the raving flame and all fixed their eyes upon the eyes of C andu and C andu prepared to give the signal to cast but a ever he lifted his finger a cry caused him to turn his head and all heard the voice of kongai I sounding sharply sweet as a bird's song Above the great Thunder of the fires for thy sake oh my father and even as she cried she leaped into the White Flood of metal and the lava of the Furnace roared to receive her and spattered monstrous flakes of flame to the roof and burst over the verge of the earth and crater and cast up a whirling Fountain of Many Colored fires and subsided quaking with Lightnings and with Thunders and with muttering then the father of kongai wild with his grief would have leaped in after her but that strong men held him back and kept firm grasp upon him until he had fainted away and they could bear him like one dead to his home and the serving woman of Kong ey dizzy and speechless for pain stood before the furnace still holding in her hands a shoe a tiny dainty shoe with embroidery of pearls and flowers the shoe of her beautiful mistress that was for she had sought to grasp Kong ey by the foot as she leaped but had only been able to clutch the shoe and the pretty shoe came off in her hand and she continued to stare at it like one gone mad but in spite of all these things the command of the celestial and August had to be obeyed and the work of the molders to be finished hopeless as the result might be yet the glow of the metal seemed purer and whiter than before and there was no sign of the beautiful body that had been inomed their [Music] [Applause] R so the ponderous casting was made and low when the metal had become cool it was found that the Bell was beautiful to look upon and perfect in form and wonderful in color above all other Bells nor was there any Trace found of the body of kongai for it had been totally absorbed by the precious Ally and blended with the well- Blended brass and gold with the intermingling of the silver and the iron and when they sounded the Bell its tones were found to be deeper and mellower and mightier than the tones of any other Bell [Music] reaching even beyond the distance of 100 Lee like a peeling of Summer Thunder and yet also like some vast voice uttering a name a woman's name the name of kongai and still between each Mighty stroke there is a long low moaning herd and ever the moaning ends with a sound of sobbing and of complaining as though a weeping woman should murmur hi I and still when the people hear that great golden moan they keep [Music] silence but when the sharp sweet shuttering comes in the air and the sobbing of hi I then indeed do all the Chinese mothers in all the many colored ways of be king whisper to their little ones listen that is kongai crying for her shoe that is kongai crying for her shoe hey guys if you're looking for more information about the story make sure to check the description of this video I've included a short summary the theme and other important details you'll need for your literary analysis and don't forget if you found this video helpful hit that subscribe button share it with your classmates and give it a thumbs up got any thoughts or questions drop them 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