#63 When the drum is beating, it is home rushing
The presence of ancient buildings in China is a good source for a foreigner to understand ancient Chinese culture and its practices, just like this article demonstrates.
“Qufu in Shandong Province, renowned as the hometown of Chinese philosopher Confucius, contains numerous historic palaces, temples, and cemeteries. The Drum Tower Gate, serving as a landmark in Qufu, was originally built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The entire tower is approximately 16 meters high and houses a large drum, which is used for Confucius Temple ceremonies and for indicating the time during regular hours." (text excerpted from this CGTN article).
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The Drum Tower Gate in Qufu 曲阜 mentioned in the above CGTN article is 鼓楼门 in Mandarin, and I think it is a bit confusing since Gate is used as a noun (the subject) with "Drum Tower" being the modifier and I suspect it is a direct translation of the Chinese name.
The subject should be 鼓楼 (drum tower) IMO whilst 鼓楼门 is like the exterior of it, hence it could be translated as "Drum Tower's Gate". This is because both the gate and drum tower are an integrated building itself, and historically there were gates built with buildings on top on it which is known as 城楼 i.e. 城墙上的门楼 literally city gate building .
There is a Chinese idiom 晨钟暮鼓 chén zhōng mù gǔi literally striking the clock in the morning and hitting the drum in the evening, which means an encouragement to study or progress since time elapses every day and it is not waiting for you. Such idiom originated from the time reporting mechanism of ancient China - when you hear the ringing of the clock in the morning, it means it is time to leave the city if need be as the gate is opened. When you hear the drum beating in the evening, it is time to return to the city before the gate closes. So building a drum tower above the gate helped to remind people to return since the drumming function was associated with the closing of the gate.
Below photos depict the Drum Tower Gate in Qufu 曲阜 (copyrighted to above CGTN article).
There are other Drum Tower Gates in China as well. Below is located in Tianjin.
One could also locate the Drum Tower Gate in Nanjing too.
