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By European standards, these ancient Chinese bronze bells are enormous.
按欧洲的标准来看，这些中国铜钟的体型过于巨大。
Nothing on this scale would be cast in Europe until the Middle Ages, over fifteen hundred years later.
直到一千五百多年后的欧洲中世纪，欧洲人才制造出与其规模相当的物品。
But the role of bells in China could go far beyond the musical.
但钟在中国的作用远不只奏乐这么简单。
To produce perfect tones they had absolutely standardised shapes, and the consistency of these shapes meant that the bells could also be used to measure volume.
为了校正出完美的音调，钟的形状必须标准化，
You had, so to speak, a pint bell or a quart bell.
因而可以用于测量标准容积。
And as the amount of bronze in each one was also carefully controlled, they could just as well provide standard weights.
此外，制作铜钟所使用的青铜数量也是固定的，
So you could have, as it were, a hundredweight bell, and so on.
于是也可成为重量标准。
So there is a sense in which a set of bells in ancient China could also serve as a sort of local weights and measures office, bringing harmony to commerce as well as society.
古代中国的一套铜钟，演奏之余还可以充当当地政府的度量衡工具，使商业与社会和谐。
Intriguingly, bells also played a major roll in the etiquette of war.
有趣的是，战争礼仪也需要铜钟。
The Chinese held that no attack could be considered fair and above board without the sounding of bells or drums, from then on you could honourably fight without restraint.
中国人认为，不奏响钟鼓便发动的攻击不是公平正义的战争，而钟鼓奏响之后便可大战一场。
But more commonly, the bells were used for rituals and entertainments at court, played at grand occasions, banquets and sacrificing ceremonies, the complex music of the bells marked the rhythm of court lives.
不过，铜钟还是更多地用于宫廷仪式与娱乐活动。在重大场合、宴会和宗教仪式上，铜钟奏响的复杂音乐标记了宫廷的生活步调。
The bells, and the ancient methods of playing them, travelled well beyond the boundaries of China, and the closest surviving form of this ancient music is today found not in China, but in Korean court music that originated in the twelfth century-and is still played in Korea now.
铜钟及其古老的演奏方式也传到了中国境外。如今流传下来的最接近古代的演奏方式不在中国，而在朝鲜半岛：从十二世纪出现起便一直流传至今的朝鲜宫廷音乐。
