The phrase "morning bells and evening drums" refers to the sound of bells and drums that chimed in the morning and evening. Where were the bell and drum towers built in ancient cities?

In order for the sound of the bells and drums to travel far enough, bell towers and drum towers were usually taller buildings in a city.

I. Why were bell towers built?

Anciently, the night was divided into five stages from the first shift to the fifth shift, with each shift lasting two hours, which is equivalent to the modern period from 7:00 pm to 5:00 am. However, the common people did not have clocks and other timekeeping tools to make a clear judgment of the time, especially in the dark night, it is more difficult to distinguish the time.

In this way, bell towers and drum towers, which were used exclusively to tell the time in ancient cities, were especially important. In ancient times, the drums were struck before the bells at night and at dawn, and the bells were struck without the drums at night. Although the accuracy of this kind of chime is not as good as that of the present clocks and watches, it can still determine the approximate time for the people at that time.

The location of the bell tower

To make the sound of the bells and drums spread far enough, bell towers and drum towers are usually taller buildings in a city. For example, the Bell Tower in Beijing was 47.9 meters high and the Drum Tower was 46.7 meters high, two of the tallest buildings in Old Beijing at the time. Another example is the Bell Tower in Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province, built in 1931, which is about 20 meters high and was also the tallest building in the area at the time.

Because of the outstanding height, the bell tower and the drum tower at the same time also played the role of looking out for fires and forecasting fires. In order to produce the best sound effect, most of the design of the bell and drum towers cleverly use a variety of acoustic principles. For example, the bell tower in Beijing is a hemispherical roof and the clever combination of arched coupon type "sound channel", similar to a musical instrument speaker, can produce a good sound amplification effect.

The location of the bell and drum towers in the city is also very important in order to cover the whole city with sound. Throughout history, bell towers and drum towers have usually been found in three types of places.

The first type is in the palace, specializing in the royal time, the distance of the sound will not be too far; the second type is in the temple, the Tang poem has "Gusu City outside the Cold Mountain Temple, the sound of bells at midnight to the passenger ship" sentence, a true record of the Cold Mountain Temple bell tower in the night time chimes; the third type is the most common, usually in the city center, this kind of bell and drum tower can best cover the whole city, the most important place for sound. The third type is the most common, usually in the center of the city, this kind of bell tower can best serve the purpose of the whole city.