Click me
Which hot article are you going to read first: In the eyes of Cambodians, Vietnam is the big brother, but what about China? | How much silver does the Ming Dynasty earn from the Americas in a year? | the Taliban war money given by the United States? Why are | palace girls afraid of watermelons?
01
In the life of the ancient Chinese, the bronze mirror obviously has a heavyweight significance.
The earliest bronze mirror unearthed in China is a seven-pointed bronze mirror in the Qijia Cultural Site in Gansu Province 4,000 years ago.
Since then, in the ceremonies, lives and even daily creations of the ancient Chinese, bronze mirrors have a special meaning.
During the Warring States period, Han Feizi, Zhuangzi and other famous artists used bronze mirrors to metaphorize their own ideological propositions, and in the Han Fu Tang poems and Song Poems, "YongJing" is also a popular theme, such as "the book of the former car" and "Yin Jian is not far away", which are also derived from the bronze mirror.
Mu Tianzi in the "Yellow Emperor's Inner Biography" greeted the Queen Mother of the West by "casting the twelve faces of the big mirror".
Tang Xuanzong also often gave exquisite bronze mirrors to the group of courtiers on the Thousand Autumn Festival, which was quite high-end.
In the love life of the ancients, the bronze mirror is also a precious witness, not only the poignant beauty of "breaking the mirror and recircling the circle", but also the way to give each other copper mirrors.
Today, women in some areas of the northwest are married, and there are also marriage customs of carrying a bronze mirror and starting a journey.
The value of ancient bronze mirrors was once expensive. Bai Juyi, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, described it as "wanting to exchange the bronze mirror of the bead box for the gold and white jade", which shows the high cost of the bronze mirror of the Tang Dynasty.
In the foreign exchanges of ancient Chinese dynasties, the bronze mirror was once a noble state gift, and among the gifts given by the Cao Wei regime of the Three Kingdoms to the Uighur State, there were "one hundred bronze mirrors".
On the Silk Road, Chinese bronze mirrors were once the "hard currency" that chased silk.
In the Tang and Song dynasty shipwrecks off the coast of China, copper mirror goods have been found many times.
For ordinary people before the Tang Dynasty, once in a lifetime, a bronze mirror?
It's almost a luxury.
Even in ancient Chinese culture, the bronze mirror still has the meaning of "warding off evil spirits and driving away disasters".
In classical mythology, the "mirror of the demon" is a big killing weapon that tells the monster to have nowhere to hide.
In ancient tombs, there were often bronze mirrors to accompany the town tomb.
The ancient bronze mirror unearthed today is also the "treasure of the town hall" of major museums.
But what is strange is that when many "historical fans" go to the museum and want to see the true appearance of the ancient bronze mirror, or even take a picture in front of the bronze mirror, what they see is only the back of the bronze mirror of the past. Why do museum bronze mirrors never show people on the front?
For this problem, the "historical fans" also opened their minds and came up with many new reasons.
The most popular is the "ward off evil" theory, that is, the bronze mirror has had the function of warding off evil spirits since ancient times, so it is unlucky to illuminate people head-on, and it can even invite disasters.
So out of the need to protect the audience, the museum is very considerate to only exhibit the back. But the real reason, in fact, is not so magical - that is, it can't look at people.
These ancient bronze mirrors that have been tested by time should theoretically be smooth on the front, but in fact they are covered with green rust, which is not only unable to illuminate people, but also has no ornamentality.
In the words of one museum director, he replied to the media: "There is really nothing to see." ”
02
So, why did the legendary brilliant bronze mirror become like this on the front?
This brings us to the ancient copper mirror production process.
In some "high-flow costume dramas", the production of copper mirrors is to "find a piece of copper grinding and grinding", but the real ancient copper mirror production process is not so simple and rude:
The material of the copper mirror is an alloy composed of copper, tin and lead, and zinc was added after the Song Dynasty.
The proportions of each material in the past are different, and the entire production process must also go through the processes of modeling, casting, scraping, grinding, polishing, and opening.
Under the conditions of ancient technology, a good copper mirror will rust after a long time, and it needs to be re-polished by craftsmen before it can be used.
Therefore, in ancient times, "grinding mirrors" was also a very important profession, and there were "magic mirror medicines" made of tin and mercury.
In his early years, Xu Xiao, a famous scholar of the Eastern Han Dynasty, worked as a mirror polisher for others.
In the Novels of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it is also common for "mirror grinders" who "picked up a load of newly ground mirrors" to walk the streets and alleys.
Ancient writers also often used the term "green mirror Mozi" to describe the years and years.
In the "Records of Transmission and Practice", the treasure book of mental learning, "like grinding a mirror to make a name, grinding on the hard work" is the basic attitude of governing learning.
The bronze mirror used daily still needs to be polished, and the bronze mirror of cultural relics that has not been polished for thousands of years?
Naturally rusty.
However, even if it is rusty, it cannot hide the many highlights of the ancient Chinese copper mirror process.
For example, the Bronze Fan Casting Research Institute of The Zhouyuan Museum in Shaanxi Province has created a bronze mirror in strict accordance with the ancient mirror-making process, and its clarity is almost the same as today's glass mirror.
It is worth mentioning that there is also the transmission technology of ancient copper mirrors, during the Warring States period, Chinese can already create a "lens", that is, when the light shines on the mirror surface, the ornamental text on the back of the mirror can be clearly reflected to the wall. It is a pioneering achievement in the history of the world's handicraft industry.
Moreover, as early as the Qin and Han dynasties, Chinese could already produce large bronze mirrors.
In 1980, the Large Bronze Mirror of the Western Han Dynasty was excavated in Zibo, Shandong Province, which was one meter and two meters high. In the "Zizhi Tongjian", "Book of Jin" and other historical materials, the Jin Dynasty Imperial Palace already had a huge bronze mirror five feet high and three feet wide, and the Tang Dynasty people also created a "mirror hall" surrounded by huge bronze mirrors, and the effect of "heavenly sons on all four sides" on the wall frightened Tang Gaozong who walked into the palace.
From the perspective of modern industry, this achievement does not seem to be much, but in ancient history, it represents the peak of the global handicraft industry at that time.
Compared with the Pre-Tang Dynasty, the "rich people exclusive" status of copper mirrors, the copper mirrors of the Tang Dynasty joined tin, and the copper mirrors of the Song Dynasty added zinc, and with the advancement of casting technology and related smelting technology, the production cost of copper mirrors is getting lower and lower.
The bronze mirrors of the Tang Dynasty have entered the homes of ordinary people, and the bronze mirrors of the Ming and Qing dynasties have earlier changed from luxury goods to daily household items, until the late Qing Dynasty, they were replaced by Western glass mirrors with better rust prevention effect and lower prices.
This period of nearly 4,000 years of Chinese bronze mirror evolution history is also the history of ancient Chinese life.
03
In addition to "nothing to see", there is another important reason why major museums exhibit the back of the bronze mirror:
The ornamentation and inscription on the back of the bronze mirror of the past generations are not only as simple as "decoration", but on the contrary, they have a heavy cultural connotation, and their content can be called the brand of the era.
For example, the bronze mirror of the Warring States period, although there is no inscription on the back, but the ornamentation has been very rich, there are cirrus mirrors, dragon patterns, diamond mirrors, four-leaf mirrors and other types.
Just by looking at the different ornaments, you can clearly distinguish the different periods of the Warring States.
The inscription on the back of the bronze mirror of the Han Dynasty has contents such as "Changle Weiyang" and "Great Music Rich and Noble", as well as painted carriage and horse figures.
On the back of the bronze mirror of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, in addition to the inscriptions, there are also story paintings such as Wu Zixu, Fan Li, and the Queen Mother of the West, which can be said to be more and more exquisite.
Since the Tang Dynasty, the back decoration of chinese bronze mirrors has gone further, beginning to use gold and silver flakes to carve figures of flowers, birds and landscapes, and then embedded in the back of the copper mirror, and the level of craftsmanship has taken a big step.
The Song Dynasty commodity economy was developed, and there were various trademark introductions behind the bronze mirror.
Even with the advancement of processing technology, after customers purchase copper mirrors, they can also choose the engraved ornament on the back, and there is a processing agency called "negative bureau", which is specifically responsible for processing.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the bronze mirrors became more and more popular, and there were very few exquisitely crafted "aristocratic" bronze mirrors like the Tang Dynasty, and the ornamentation of the copper mirrors was also based on seeking the Tao, cultivating immortals, and wishing for life, and the content was more grounded.
Its ornaments such as the pisces and the four-life pattern are also more popular. Some also have lacquer paintings and landscape patterns.
It can be said that if the bronze mirror of each era is combined, the patterns, ornaments, and inscriptions behind it are completely a vivid Chinese history book.
If you ask about the thickness and breadth of Chinese culture, the north side of the bronze mirror is another window. Show the back of the bronze mirror?
That's a must.
References: "The Casting Technology and Social Function of Ancient Chinese Bronze Mirrors", "On the Cultural and Artistic Connotation of Ancient Bronze Mirrors", "Ancient Bronze Mirror Civilization", "Chinese Bronze Ware", "Jian Ruo Changhe: The Microscopic World of Ancient Chinese Bronze Mirrors", "Why Don't the Museum's Bronze Mirrors Let You Look at the Front, Listen to What the Curator of Yangquan Museum Says"