There are 16 of these bells, 25.9 cm tall and 14.9 cm in diameter, in all 14 of them bought overseas by the Shanghai Museum, where they are housed, the other two unearthed thed in the village of Beizhao, Shanxi province, in 1992, at Tomb No 8 at the Jin site. One of the two in the Shanxi Museum is engraved with the characters “年無(wú)疆，子子孫孫” (“The years are boundless, generation after generation”). The others have four characters “永寶茲鐘” (“May this bell be treasured forever”). These markings are without precedent in Western Zhou bronzes, and the description on ancient wars has not ever been found in historical records, increasing their importance for research on the Western Zhou and Jin State.
