Ring the Bell & Beat the Drum; An Article by Shafagh Amiraftabi Instructor WCMA
As a White Crane practitioner I am very fortunate to study Suang Yang, Frost and Sun, White Crane soft style form. This beautiful form has 66 postures and each posture has a title. I have always been fascinated by the names of these postures and their origins. As an Instructor I like to ensure that my students try to learn the names of these postures and I hope that they share in the same fascination. These titles are not there just to link us with history, culture, mythology and legend, but can also help us perform the physical movements of each posture. Ring the Bell and Beat the Drum is posture number 15.
I am in no doubt that there can be many explanations as to where these titles originate and the explanation for posture number 15 may just be in Journey to the West, a classic Ming Dynasty novel. This is a novel I would highly recommend and a real page turner, a truly magical experience.
Journey to the West is about a pilgrimage by the priest Xuanzang, who travelled from China to India in search of Buddhist scriptures. He travelled with a magical Monkey King, a White Horse, a Pig and a Sand Spirit. As a child I remember waiting impatiently every week for the next adventure in the TV adaptation. Reading the novel as an adult is so very nostalgic.
We enter the story when the Magic Monkey King is after a divine weapon. His monkey subjects tell him of a Jade Dragon Palace in the Eastern Ocean where lives an old Dragon King called Aoguang. Here in the Jade Palace there is a treasury with all kinds of magical weapons. Monkey wastes no time and travels to meet with the Dragon King. “I am your neighbour” he states “And I am in need of a divine weapon as befits my status”. The Dragon King shivered in fear and produced a long handled scimitar “No” roared the Monkey King. The Dragon King shivered and produced a nine pronged fork “No” roared the Monkey King. The Dragon King shivered and produced a halberd “No” roared the Monkey King. Finally he produced a magic iron. This was the measure with which the Great Yu, founder of the Xia Dynasty (2205 BCE), fixed the rivers and oceans to conquer the floods. The Monkey King lifted this magic iron, which weighed 13,500 pounds and was able to manipulate it. He noted a small inscription on the rod “The Compliant Golden Hooped Rod”.
Not content the Monkey King demanded a Martial costume to compliment his Divine weapon. The Dragon King shivered in fear and pleaded with the Monkey King. “I have no such costume, but I will summon my brothers”. The Dragon King had 3 brothers. They were Aoqin (Dragon King of the Southern Ocean), Aoshun (Dragon King of the Northern Ocean), Aorun (Dragon King of the Western Ocean). “I will summon them”. In his palace he had a Golden Bell and an Iron Drum. “In an emergency I ring the bell and beat the drum”. He called the Turtle general to ring the bell and the Tortoise marshal to beat the drum. The brothers were called and here we leave the story.
Every time we ring the bell and beat the drum we are calling the Dragon Kings from every ocean. Dragon Kings who keep Imperial treasures in fabulous underwater palaces made of crystals, feeding on pearls and opals. How wonderful!
Image on the Home Page and above are of the beautiful dragon by the artist Anna Twinam-Cauchi guarding the home of friends in Worthing.