Mirrors have become an indispensable item in every family life in our modern society, and for convenience, we make mirrors into various shapes and place them in various scenes. In contrast to looking in the mirror every day, we are facing a new self, checking our dress, and comparing the difference from yesterday.
Compared with modern ancient mirrors, it seems to be somewhat single, and ancient mirrors are all round. Ancient mirrors are called copper mirrors, ancient for the copper mirror process is very exquisite, can be called a work of art, so the modern museum will display the "copper mirror" representing the ancient craft, so why do we see in the museum copper mirror are the back?
Everyone knows that the ancients believed in the theory of gods and ghosts, and there are some mysterious reasons why the bronze mirror only shows the back. Ancient feng shui gentlemen would use copper mirrors as feng shui mirrors, and in feng shui, feng shui masters believed that copper mirrors had the effect of warding off evil spirits. Feng Shui masters will first use the gua elephant to divinate, and then put the feng shui mirror in a specific location in the house to drive away evil spirits.
And avoid placing it on people, because it is very unlucky to place feng shui mirrors on feng shui to people. Among the many bronze mirrors unearthed, it is impossible to distinguish whether they are feng shui mirrors. Therefore, when exhibiting in the museum, it is also displayed on the back to avoid violating the taboo.
The ancients also gave the meaning of the bronze mirror to ward off evil spirits, which is also called the Bagua mirror. The ancients carried it on their bodies or hung it on a door, and it is said that the mirror can find out the true body of demons and ghosts. In "Dream of the Red Chamber", there is a story related to the evil mirror, saying that Jia Rui is in love with Wang Xifeng, but Wang Xifeng refuses.
So Jared fell ill because of acacia, and one day Jared met a Taoist who gave him a bronze mirror, saying that he could only look at the back and not the front. Jared didn't believe it, took it in his hand, and when he saw that there was a skull on the back, he quickly turned to the front.
The front actually showed that Wang Xifeng was waving to him, and this mirror illuminated Jia Rui's inner demons, so Jia Rui ignored the Taoist priest's instructions and looked at the front of the mirror all day, and finally died of psychedelic indulgence.
There is also a more frightening theory that when the ancient nobles died, they would bury the bronze mirror together on the person's face, which is called the burial mirror. And we unearthed so many copper mirrors but do not know the use of these copper mirrors, so in order to avoid the above three kinds of copper mirrors about the evil god, the museum chose to show the back of the copper mirrors, so as not to conflict with these three theories.
Modern scientists have studied copper mirrors, which are mainly alloys made of tin, copper and lead, and later zinc, and the whole production process is cumbersome. And in ancient science and technology is relatively backward, copper mirrors will rust after a long time, but it needs to be polished frequently to keep its front clear, so when the ancients used it, they would polish it every once in a while.
And the bronze mirror unearthed in the museum is less than a thousand years old, so long without polishing the front must have been rusty and can not see clearly, a museum owner once said that the front of the bronze mirror is really nothing to see, combined with the explanation of scientists to think that there is indeed nothing to see.
The back of the copper mirror is different, the ancient people made the copper mirror will generally be exquisitely carved on the back of the copper mirror, many ancient carving art is not reached by modern people. Since the Warring States period, craftsmen have carved colorful patterns on the back of copper mirrors, including cirrus mirrors, dragon mirrors, diamond mirrors, and four-leaf mirrors. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the Southern and Northern Dynasties began to paint characters and stories on the scriptures.
In the Tang Dynasty, craftsmen began to use gold and silver flakes embedded in the back of copper mirrors to make flowers, birds and landscapes, and their craftsmanship was lifelike, making the bronze mirror not only illuminate people but also a work of art that could be admired. Later, the bronze mirror was more famous in the world, and on the ancient Silk Road, the bronze mirror became a commodity exported by China to the outside world, and it was recorded in ancient books that a hundred bronze mirrors were exported to the Uighur kingdom.
From a small mirror, you can see the exquisite carving of ancient craftsmen, and you can also show the thickness and breadth of ancient Chinese culture. Relative to the front of the bronze mirror, the back of the bronze mirror is the mirror of Chinese history, which shows the exquisite carving of the craftsmen and craftsmen at that time.
It shows us the social atmosphere and culture of each dynasty in ancient times, from the back of the copper mirror can better see the wisdom of the ancients, we can learn more about the historical and cultural knowledge of the ancients from the back of the copper mirror, it guides us modern people like a clear and transparent mirror.