The summary of the "soul of the great bell":

Five hundred years ago the celestial august yung-lo commanded the worthy official kuan-yu
to make a bell that can be heard one hundred li far. He then accepted it and gathered the entire bell
smith and the moulders of their village. They began to work...but as the time went by, they
discovered that the result was a failure. The materials used didn’t embrace each other. They planned
to make again, a second time but, the result showed up even worst.
His daughter kongai was worried upon looking on her father's eyes full of worry and sadness
because of the result.

She then decided to visit an astrologer to consult and also to give her advice."Gold brass well
never met in wedlock, silver and iron will never embrace, until the flesh and blood of a virgin maiden
will mix in metal fusion" the astrologer said.Kongai then realized the astrologer's words.Then she
hurried back. As she came she saw how the workers worked hard for the bell. Kongai knew that if
her father fails on making the bell for the third time, the life of his father is in exchange. When the
metal casting has to be made the workers were waiting for Kouan Yu’s signal,
Kongai leaped into the white flood of metals and furnace of lava that was ready to receive
her. All was shocked including his father and her waiting woman who grasped only her
shoe.

After that moment they looked upon the result. A beautiful bell appeared with
wonderful colors. Above it, it also has a deep mellow sound that can be heard even more
than one hundred li far. Between every stroke people remember kongai and keep on
silence upon hearing the bell’s low moan, and yet also like some vast voice uttering a name,
a woman’s name, the name of Ko-Ngai. And still, between each mighty stroke there is a long
low moaning heard; and ever the moaning ends with a sound of sobbing and of
complaining, as though a weeping woman should murmur, “Hiai!”

And still, when the people hear that great golden moan they keep silence, but when
the sharp, sweet shuddering comes in the air, and the sobbing of “Hiai!” then, indeed, do all
the Chinese mothers whisper to their little ones: “Listen! that is Ko-Ngai crying for her shoe!
That is Ko-Ngai calling for her shoe!”
.