Su Tung-P‘o

“ Ah! the ancients deceive us not. But how should people undertake to decide about what they have neither seen with their eyes nor heard with their ears? Li Yüan was a man of experience equal to my own. ”

“ It is stated in the ancient work on Water-courses that at a certain place there was a “stone-bell hill.” The commentator, Li Yüan, considers the name to have arisen from the fact that the foot of the hill is washed by a deep pool, and that on the slightest agitation of its surface by the wind, waves would splash against the rock and produce a sound like that of a great bell. ”

“ Thus be believed that he had finally settled the point.
Of this settlement, however, I always entertained grave doubts. For many stones will yield a ringing sound when struck; why then should these be more particularly bell stones than any others? ”