As the saying goes: "The heart of beauty, everyone has it", the ancient ancestors of the mainland have long begun to use "mirrors", if you want to trace its history, I am afraid it will start from "using water as a mirror". Therefore, in order to facilitate the reader's understanding, xiaobian will tell you a bronze mirror from the Shanghai Museum, which is the most exquisite piece of copper mirror found so far, but how it is cast has always been a mystery and has not been solved.
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The bronze mirror is also a bronze mirror, which was a ritual vessel of sacrifice in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and later in the Spring and Autumn Warring States, the bronze mirror completely replaced the "water basin" and became a tool for people to identify shapes, and the manufacturing process of the bronze mirror has also been unprecedentedly developed. For a time, various types of bronze mirrors continued to emerge in the hands of skilled craftsmen to meet the needs of the magnates. It was not until the Han Dynasty that the bronze mirror gradually became a popular and became an indispensable living instrument in the homes of ordinary people, and continued to future generations. Finally, with the development of modern science and technology, the bronze mirror was gradually replaced by the optical mirror, so the bronze mirror became a precious cultural relic in the museum.
This Warring States bronze mirror in the Shanghai Museum, called the transparent mosaic geometric square mirror, its exquisite appearance and complex workmanship can be said to be the most outstanding representative of the ancient Chinese bronze mirror. After measurement, it is a square structure of 18.5X18.5cm, weighing about 929g, the most special thing about it is that its structure is double-layered, which is also the biggest difference between it and similar cultural relics.
Carefully observing this transparent mosaic geometric square mirror, it can be seen that this mirror is divided into two parts, the mirror and the back of the mirror, we can imagine that the craftsmen at that time first cast the mirror back, then cast the mirror surface, and then merged into one, it is composed of a complete copper mirror.
An interesting question arises, under the level of productivity in the Warring States period, how did the ancients merge it into one? Xiaobian consulted a large number of materials, which can give readers three constructive inferences:
First: Metal properties used:
How the frame and back of the copper mirror are completed, Xiaobian believes that the ancients must have used the characteristics of metal "thermal expansion and contraction". The mirror is cast in an environment with a very low temperature, and then placed in a frame at room temperature, and when the temperature rises, the mirror expands, so it is tightly embedded in the frame. Or the opposite is true, casting the frame at high temperatures, waiting for the temperature to decrease and shrinking the frame, and then tightening the mirror completely.
Second: reinforcement with rivets:
On the border of the bronze mirror, there are 12 turquoise-embellished holes, and there are also 4 decorative nipple nails. Therefore, Xiaobian speculated that these places may have joints similar to rivets, and then under the action of rivets, they are directly locked, so that the mirror surface and the mirror back are inseparable.
Third: the use of glue adhesion:
According to the staff of the museum, when the experts first identified the copper mirror, they found something suspected of being like glue, so is it adhesion in the end? Experts are also not sure, because it is also possible that this gel is something that sticks to it later. However, Xiaobian speculates that it may be possible that the glue sticks in this way, because this method is more common, not only has it been found that there are glue composite copper mirrors, but also in other cultural relics have also found traces of glue, such as gold (copper) jade (turquoise) and so on.
The craftsmen of antiquity were truly remarkable, not only were they able to create such a complex and exquisite bronze mirror, but they also left an age-old puzzle for today's experts and scholars. Now, after reading the secret of the editor, do you think which way of making the bronze mirror is the most likely?