Nowadays, mirrors are a very common object. Small makeup mirrors, large dressing mirrors, and mirrors throughout the wall are nothing unusual.
But how did the ancients look in the mirror? In addition to the small round bronze mirror in the film and television drama, what kind of mirror is there? What is the difference in their experience of looking in the mirror? How does glass become a mirror? What is the historical and cultural context behind it?
Looking in the mirror is not that simple. The famous art historian Wu Hong told the story of the mirror with a book, "Things, Paintings, And Shadows: A Global History of the Dressing Mirror", and the following is an excerpt from the content.
Hai Di Hou to Du Li Niang
- See the magic
In the civilizations of the East and the West, there are records of mirrors very early. But in fact, most of them are small copper mirrors, which are generally held by hand or placed on the frame.
Part of the Female History Proverbs
The earliest large-sized bronze mirrors now found in China came from the Western Han Dynasty. In 1979, a rectangular copper plate was excavated from a Western Han tomb in Zibo, Shandong Province, 115 centimeters long, 58 centimeters wide and 1.2 centimeters thick. It is smooth on one side and ornamented and embossed on the other. Is this the tomb owner's dressing mirror?
The excavation of the tomb of Liu He, the Marquis of Haixia, gave an answer to this question. A rectangular copper plate similar to the "Zibo Square Mirror" was unearthed from his tomb. Although slightly smaller, it also has five identical semi-ring buttons on the back, which can be seen to belong to the same category of supplies.
Moreover, the copper plate excavated from the tomb of Marquis Hai di has a wooden outer frame, and there is a movable door in front of the frame, on which is inscribed a rhyme, and the first two sentences are:
The new clothes mirror Xi Jia Yi Ming, the quality of the straight see please Xi Zheng yi fang.
Fortunately, the spirit was blessed with jingguang, and the grooming attendant side was very open.
It can be seen that the name of this artifact is "clothing mirror", and its primary function is "contouring".
Restoration structure diagram of the mirror of the Sea Dusk HouYi
"Clothing mirror" is easily reminiscent of the "dressing mirror" in modern Chinese, but for the Han Dynasty in the 1st century BC, it may be a shorthand for "mirror". "扆" is a kind of screen. After the restoration of the "Hai Xiahou Clothing Mirror", the entire object is about 1.5 meters high, standing on the ground very much like a screen. Especially for the Han Dynasty people sitting on a seat or on a low bed, it can play a dual role of mirror and screen.
Large copper plates are inherently expensive and therefore extremely rare. Coupled with the limitations of technology, if it is made into an area of more than 1 square meter, the mirror flatness and finish are difficult to guarantee. If you want to see the whole body, the figure in the mirror seen a few steps away can only be described as "shadow and shadow".
As a result, extreme scarcity and mystery have brought people a lot of imagination.
Various miscellaneous historical notes between the Tang and Song dynasties, such as "The Record of the Lost Tower", "The Record of Haishan", "The Record of the Great Cause", etc., all write about the thirty-six black copper screens of the Sui Emperor, even if they do have their own objects, they are exaggerated.
In people's imagination, there is a kind of "Qin Dynasty mirror", which can reflect things that are invisible on the surface, such as internal organs, hidden diseases and even inner states, like an X-ray machine and a lie detector.
Another imaginary mirror is a "karmic mirror" that can illuminate sins before birth. A similar concept is the "Dharma Mirror", which is closely related to the Taoist tradition, which can identify all things and reflect demons and ghosts in their original form.
Illustration of "Peony Pavilion Round Driving"
When ancient writers created novels and operas, they often drew inspiration from these traditions, freely mixed them, and imagined new big mirrors. Tang Xianzu's famous drama "Peony Pavilion" ends with a creative "mirror" scene.
This is the fifty-fifth play of the play, "Round Driving", which takes place in front of the Golden Ruan Hall in the imperial palace. At this time, Liu Mengmei had already won the title, and Du Liniang also followed her to the capital after returning to her soul, and the two only hoped to marry and grow old with white heads. However, Li Niang's father, Du Pingzhang, did not believe in the matter of returning to the soul, and impeached Liu Mengmei as a grave robber, and Li Niang was a demon soul who should be punished.
The two sides confronted the emperor and quarreled. The emperor then came up with a solution: "There are shadows in the shadows of the people, and the ghost is afraid of the mirror." There is a Qin Dynasty mirror on the timing stage. The Yellow Gate Official, you can look in the mirror with Du Liniang to see if there is a trace of echo under the shade of the flowers. The result is that "Li Niang has a trace, and the person is tied", and the scene ends with a reunion.
When depicting this play, the illustrators of the Ming Dynasty Wanli Dynasty designed this "Qin Dynasty Mirror" into a screen shape, and a large round mirror was set in the middle of the rectangular screen. Since there is no physical object or documentation that can prove that this special "mirror screen" does exist, this peculiar image should be a personal creation of the painter.
Versailles to the Forbidden City
------------------------
The glass mirror we use widely today, most people will think that it originated in Europe.
Indeed, the glass mirror was invented by European craftsmen. In 1664, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, chancellor of the exchequer Louis XIV of France (reigned 1643-1715), secretly introduced mirror-making technology from Italy to France, ending Venice's 150-year monopoly on the mirror market.
In the field of architecture and decorative arts, the Palace of Versailles (completed in 1684), built by Louis XIV with great efforts, became the most majestic and luxurious palace building in Europe in the 17th century. The most popular part of versailles is the central hall known as the "Hall of Mirrors" or "Hall of Mirrors".
The Palace of Versailles "Hall of Mirrors"
The 75-meter-long wall on each side of the central hall is divided into 17 intervals, with 17 huge arched floor-to-ceiling windows facing the garden on one side and 17 mirrors of the same shape and size as the arched windows on the opposite side, facing the opposite window one by one, reflecting the scenery outside the window in the mirror.
In fact, the "17 mirrors" statement is not accurate enough. At that time, the mirror-making technology was far from being able to make such a huge mirror, and each "mirror window" facing the real window was actually composed of 21 mirrors, so the entire mirror hall used 357 mirrors.
In 17th and 18th centuries France, when Rococo art was in vogue, the mirror matched the emphasis on psychedelic space in this decorative style. Just like the Palace of Versailles, large wall mirrors mounted on the wall reflect the surrounding environment. Their main function is not to focus on the appearance of the individual, but to stretch the limited indoor space infinitely, and to make endless optical reproductions of brilliant chandeliers and golden furniture. It was this reproduction of paintings, wall hangings, and any artificial image that made the mirror the first element of interior decoration at that time.
Large mirrors installed in the 18th century between windows and fireplaces
Almost at the same time that the Palace of Versailles was built, with the voyage of European merchant ships, a standing mirror that blended glass mirrors and traditional Chinese screens appeared in the Imperial Palace of the Qing Dynasty.
In 1703, the Qing Dynasty official Gao Shiqi was appreciated by Kangxi and was rewarded with "twenty pieces of each instrument, and a mirror screen from the West, which can be more than five feet high." This is the first time in Chinese literature that the size of a large glass mirror has been recorded and referred to as a "mirror screen".
In the Qing Dynasty, "five feet more" was equivalent to more than 1.6 meters, and "mirror screen" meant screen-like floor mirror. Although Gao Shiqi said that it came from the West, considering that Europeans had not yet used floor-to-ceiling dressing mirrors in the early 18th century, and "mirror screen" was also a typical Chinese word, it is likely that this screen-style floor-to-ceiling glass mirror was created by the Qing Palace.
We do not have physical proof of this hypothesis from the early 18th century, but a court painting painted from this period most likely reveals its style.
Part of "Tang Xuanzong's Mirror Map"
To the left of the painting is a palace room with heavy eaves, in which a large vertical mirror is placed. Tang Xuanzong was twisting his whiskers to look at himself in the mirror, and the bright mirror reflected his face and most of his body. The large mirror in the chamber is depicted as a single-fan vertical screen in the traditional style, but the glass mirror replaces the painting or decoration of the screen center.
The overall feeling of the picture is very realistic and realistic, and the design of the objects is quite natural and reasonable. It is likely that the painters of the Qing Dynasty used a mirror screen in the palace at that time as a prototype when depicting this scene from a thousand years ago.
It can be seen that this large glass mirror entered China before the beginning of the 18th century. In a diplomatic record of the twenty-fifth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1686), the name "Great Mirror of Illumination" appeared for the first time. This indicates that the glass mirror entered the Chinese court at least 1686.
Interestingly, the Yongzheng Emperor showed a strong interest in large glass mirrors, personally instructing them to be used in the decoration design of the palace. On September 29, the sixth year of Yongzheng (1728), Yongzheng issued a decree saying:
The west panel wall of the east two rooms of the apse of the Yangxin Hall is opposite the throne, and a glass interstitial mirror is installed. Install a trap plate on the back, and if the door is blocked, pull the board out. If you don't use it, push it forward to hide it tightly. A dial is installed on the north wall of the mirror.
This kind of furniture not only continues the traditional Chinese screen, but also combines it with the latest Western technology, and gradually spread from the imperial palace to the rich and noble families.
YiHong Courtyard to the photo studio
- Illuminate the wind
One of the typical rich and noble families is Cao Xueqin's family. His grandfather Cao Yin served as the Kangxi Emperor's companion and imperial bodyguard, and later served as the Inspector of Jiangning Weaving and the Inspector of The Two Huai Salts. Kangxi six times under the Jiangnan Cao Yin to take over four times, the three generations of the Cao family in the Kangxi and Yongzheng dynasties in charge of Jiangning weaving for 58 years, becoming the first magnate in Nanjing.
Portrait of Cao Xueqin
It is almost certain that such a mansion would have had the fashionable mirror of the time. Before the Cao family was copied in the sixth year of Yongzheng (1728), Cao Xueqin lived in such a rich environment for 13 years, and his childhood experience is likely to have surprises and imaginations caused by large glass mirrors. This may be the reason for the appearance of this mirror in "Dream of the Red Chamber".
In addition to the old-style copper mirror, the new-style full-body glass mirror is also an important decoration in "Dream of the Red Chamber". The former conveys traditional moral symbolism in addition to everyday use (such as the "Treasure Book of the Wind and Moon"), while the latter evokes a surprisingly new visual experience, which is placed in the Yihong Courtyard, where Jia Baoyu lived.
"Dream of the Red Chamber" describes this new glass mirror four times, in the 17th, 26th, 41st and 56th times.
Unlike the realistic descriptions of the first three times, the last time was led out by Jia Baoyu's own dreams. He had heard that the Zhen family in Jiangnan also had a son named Baoyu. Confused, he went back to his room and lay down on the bed and fell asleep. In the dream, he entered a parallel universe - the same Yihong Courtyard, the same many beards, and Zhen Baoyu, who looked exactly like him.
The two had just met and talked, when they suddenly heard the old man outside calling him "Baoyu", which frightened the two of them into panic, one grabbed the door and went out, and the other called him back in the back. It was Jia Baoyu who shouted— because the novel goes on to write:
The attacker listened to himself in his dream, rushed to wake him up, and asked with a smile, "Where is Baoyu?" At this time, although Baoyu was awake, his spirit was still in a trance, because he pointed out to the door and said, "I just went out." The attacker laughed and said, "That's your dream fan." You rub your eyes and look closely, it is the shadow of you in the mirror. Bao Yu glanced forward, and it was the big embedded mirror that was facing each other, and he smiled himself.
Echoing the "true and false when pretending to be true, there is nowhere and there is nothing" in the 1st time, Baoyu's dream in the 56th time can be said to be an interpretation: the abstract "true and false" is transformed into "Zhen and Jia" Baoyu here, and the dream and mirror shadow are metaphors for the replacement of "being and not".
Stills from "Dream of the Red Chamber"
By the second half of the 19th century, large glass mirrors combined with photography and were introduced to China, creating a new trend. On May 26, 1897, the Shanghai News Publish published an advertisement entitled "The New Law of Photography":
The trumpet Yaohua new law is photographed, and the whole can be seen before and after the people, and the giver please try it. The east head of the stadium, Hendari, opened the door to Yaohuaqi.
Yew Wah Photo Gallery was one of the leading commercial photographers in Shanghai at the time, and this advertisement revealed that it was very conscious of striving for and consolidating its position as a fashion leader in the industry. Through its portrait photos using a dressing mirror, we can see the visual culture of China from the late 19th century to the early 20th century.
The subjects of such photographs are mainly women. This female customer group includes celebrities and rich ladies in Shanghai, as well as Qinglou women. Celebrities known as "flowers of the sea" were so happy to promote themselves that photo studios were allowed to use their photographs as commercial images, or to enlarge them into advertisements or reprint them as postcards, which were circulated around the world.
Postcards from YWIES
One of them was sent from Hankou to France on January 21, 1903, and the letter writer told his family that he would send three postcards in a row, printed with images of Chinese landscapes. The right side of this postcard is printed with a street scene of Tianjin's old city, and on the left is a woman standing in front of a dressing mirror, wearing layers of gold bracelets on her wrists, and three inches of golden lotuses exposed at the foot of her embroidered pants. All the Chinese at that time could immediately identify the woman's Qinglou identity, but the sender referred to her as a "Chinese woman" in a broad sense.
"Objects, Paintings, and Shadows: A Short History of the World in The Dressing Mirror"
[Beauty] Wu Hong
Shanghai People's Publishing House/2021.05
Responsible editor 丨 Yang Mianwei
-END-
Every one of your likes and in the watch, I love it!