Qing Chen Mei "Moon Man Qing Tour Map"
The Mid-Autumn Festival, which began in the Northern Song Dynasty, originated in the Tang Dynasty, and traced to the source, probably starting from Tang Xuanzong. Tang Xuanzong loved the moon, and the great poet Li Bai also had a fondness for a round of bright moon, they not only wrote romantic verses for the bright moon, but also made the shape of the moon in the bronze mirror, gave it to guests and friends, and even left their own figure exploring the moon on the bronze mirror.
Why do they love the moon so deeply that they have created the wind of moon appreciation in future generations? How many wonderland secrets are hidden in the bronze mirror that make emperors and poets linger? What is the wonderful fate of these bronze mirrors and our mid-autumn mooncake customs today? Let's ask about the mirror-like full moon, about the immortals and laurel trees in the moon palace, and about the white rabbit and the toad.
【Ming Emperor Sleepwalking in Guanghan Palace】
On August 15 of the sixth year of the tang dynasty, Tang Xuanzong Li Longjizheng, together with Shen Tianshi and Hongduke, was enjoying the moon in the palace. Emperor Xuanzong looked at the brilliant lights of the cailou in the palace, and his heart was very proud, thinking that this scene was rare and unique in the world, but it caused Shen Tianshi to smile and say nothing.
Looking at Xuanzong's confusion, the Heavenly Master told him to close his eyes for a moment and secretly practice. When they opened their eyes again, the three of them were already floating above the moon in the clouds. After a while, passing a gate "floating in the jade light, the palace is uncertain", revealing a cold breath, it turned out to be a palace in front of it, and the door reads "Guanghan Qingfu". Only to see this palace "the royal city cui e, but smell the fragrance and mist, down to the field of glass, in which to see immortals riding clouds and driving cranes to and fro games".
Xuanzong longed in his heart, wanting to watch the game of these immortals one step closer, only to feel that the palace emitted a green cold light, making people feel cold, and did not dare to get too close, so they could only continue to look at it from a distance. In the distance, he saw "more than ten people from Su'e, all dressed in white luans, laughing and dancing under the guangling laurel tree, and listening to the noisy and beautiful music." Xuanzong was deeply touched by the sound of this heavenly music and secretly kept the tune in mind.
Shen Tianshi saw that Xuanzong had seen the cold Moon Guanghan Palace, and he cast a spell again. The three of them suddenly felt as if the wind was blowing under their feet, as if they had been startled in a dream, and they had returned to the palace as soon as they opened their eyes. Thus ended the overnight tour of the Tiangong. Later, Tang Xuanzong was unrecoverable because he missed the rare heavenly experience, but by memory, he memorized the song of the Moon Palace Sue Dancing and named it "Neon Dress Feather Song", which not only spread this heavenly light song and dance to the world, but also left us with this wonderful story of "Tang King's Moon Palace".
Judging from the known literature, this anecdote has been circulated in the middle of the Tang Dynasty, and was first recorded in Liu Zongyuan's "Dragon City Record", because Tang Xuanzong was also known as Tang Ming Emperor, so he named it "Ming Emperor Sleepwalking Guanghan Palace". In the subsequent Generations of the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, this story of the "Youyue Palace" was constantly renovated and interpreted, the most famous of which was the "Hall of Eternal Life" adapted by the Qing Dynasty playwright Hong Sheng. However, as for the origin of the "Neon Dress Feather Song", according to more serious historical records, it is not from the Moon Palace, but actually originated from the adaptation of the Western Regions "Brahman Song" offered by Liangzhou.
From the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, in the long millennium, why did Tang Xuanzong, the uninhibited and versatile emperor, become acquainted with Mingyue and inspire future generations of artists to try to use various art forms to continuously reproduce the romantic legend in the Gao Leng Moon Palace in paintings, bronze mirrors, porcelain, and even New Year paintings? Let's start with an unknown bronze mirror of the "Tang Dynasty Youyue Palace".
Ming Zhou Chen Ming Emperor YouYue Palace Diagram Fan Page
【"Tang Dynasty Moon Palace" bronze mirror】
Countless bronze mirrors were left behind in ancient China. Chronologically, from the Spring and Autumn Warring States to the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, there have been excavations; In terms of shape, round mirrors, square mirrors, sunflower mirrors, diamond mirrors, with stalks and sessiles, there are many types; In terms of ornamentation, the distant Warring States Mountain Character Mirror, the Han Dynasty Western Queen Mother Mirror do not say, and the Tang Dynasty Moon Palace Mirror, the Wuyue True Shape Mirror, and the True Son Flying Frost Mirror are even more numerous. Each of the categories mentioned here is quite numerous in absolute numbers, but there are not many fine products that leave their true faces.
Wuyue True Mirror
The "Tang Dynasty Youyue Palace Mirror" to be talked about here was excavated from the south gate of Huoshan County, Lu'an, Anhui (now stored in the Huoshan County Cultural Relics Management Office), and the description of the cultural relics in the bibliography reads: "Eight petals of rhombus flowers, round buttons." In the upper right of the new, the pavilion is half exposed, the fan-shaped door, and inside the door stands a person, roof tiles, bucket arches, beams and columns Bishaw. The upper left side of the new is decorated with a large tree, the leaves are dense, and the small bridge below it flows water, and a person on the bridge stands; A man on the left side of the bridge bent down and bowed his hand to welcome the guest; There are three people downstairs on the right side of the bridge, one of whom is sitting upright, and one waiter on each side. Convex edge. ”
Tang Dynasty Moon Palace Mirror
If you look closely, with the round button as the center, the mirror back pattern can be divided into four quadrants. The first quadrant is the "Half-Exposed Pavilion on the Upper Right of the New", which not only depicts the roof tiles, arches, beams and columns, but also the snouts, ridges, porches, door nails, and steps are all meticulously presented, so this building can also be regarded as a corner of the palace. The tree in the second quadrant corresponding to the palace is actually a laurel tree, but it is particularly prominent under the background of the distant mountains and nearby hills and rocks.
The third quadrant is the man next to the hill rock under the tree, only to see him wearing a high crown and a tunic robe, bending over sideways and bowing his hand, and behaving very respectfully. Judging from his position in the picture, it seems that he has just arrived at this place (from outside the painting) and is thanking the maid on the bridge who has guided and greeted him. At his feet, there is a long arch bridge, under the bridge is not ordinary babbling water, from the proportion of the figures, more like a gushing river and sea. It is this long arch bridge that connects the picture of the high-crowned man and the maid of honor with the fourth quadrant. At the junction of the fourth quadrant and the third quadrant, that is, in the middle of the bridge deck, there is a pound of medicinal jade rabbit, followed by a toad, indicating that this is the Moon Palace on the Clouds. At the end of the arch bridge, there is a noble lady dressed in a chinese dress, with a high bun and a kind face, sitting upright. It seems that the uncertain prophet has long been waiting for the arrival of the Tuzuo officials.
The composition behind this mirror combines the palace, mountain stones, trees, and flowing water in an orderly manner, just like the structural prototype of later landscape paintings. The foreground presents a certain narrative through the interaction between the officials and the noblewomen. As far as the relationship between the characters in the picture is concerned, the picture completely presents the whole picture of the story of "Tang King's Moon Palace". Tang Xuanzong, who had ascended from the human world to the heavens, was shocked by the scenery in the Moon Palace and hovered under the big laurel tree. The master of the Moon Palace had long known of his arrival and sent a maid to greet him. Emperor Xuanzong was about to step on the long bridge and cross the river and the waves. And the beautiful "Guanghan Qingfu Mansion" is also about to open the palace door for him.
Although many documents prove that the theme of the story of "Tang King's Moon Palace" has appeared after the Middle Tang Dynasty, the only regret is that this bronze mirror comes from the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, which is later than the story itself. In fact, the more recent the cultural relics associated with the theme, the more frequent the signs show that the story of the "Moon Palace" is growing in popularity. Since the charm of the story of "Tang King's Moon Palace" has been shown from the perspective of literature and images, the next question we have to solve is: Why does Tang Wang love the Moon Palace so much?
Round Moon Palace Mirror
【King and Moon Palace】
In fact, the preference for Mingyue was not a patent of Tang Xuanzong. The first non-fiction "Moon Palace" experiencer explicitly recorded in Chinese history was the last monarch of the Chen Dynasty, Chen Shubao. According to the records of Feng Zhen's "Southern Fireworks" at the end of the Tang Dynasty, Lord Chen Hou once built a unique "Gui Palace" for his favorite concubine Zhang Lihua. The entrance of this palace is specially designed to be "a round door like the moon, and the obstacle is made of crystal", and it is decorated like the Guanghan Palace, which is plain white, making people feel a little cool. The palace's "court was empty, but a laurel tree was planted, and a medicinal pestle was placed under the tree, so that Lihua Heng tamed a white rabbit." After having the big laurel tree and the white rabbit of the medicine, Chen Hou lord also made Zhang Guifei dress like Chang'e, and called her "Zhang Chang'e" with great interest.
With the unification of the south by the Sui Dynasty, the concept of the Moon Palace, which originated from the Southern Dynasty, also entered the vision of the Central Plains as an exotic style. The Sui Dynasty Emperor Yang Guang served for eleven years as the governor of Sui Yangzhou and was duty-bound to become the leader of this trend. According to the "Zizhi Tongjian Sui Ji", Yang Guang was not only committed to transporting Jiangnan products to the northern court and creating the atmosphere of the Immortal Mountains, but also liked to ride thousands of palace women from the palace to the Western Garden on the night of the moon, composing "Qing Ye Youqu", which was played on horseback. The palace under the full moon, the immortal mountain made of Jiangnan materials, and the literary emperor who did not forget to compose music during the night tour not only show us a more realistic historical scene of Tang Xuanzong's story, but also outline a secret connection between the moon palace wonderland and Jiangnan.
Time came to the era of Tang Xuanzong, following the footsteps of these two predecessors, the connection between Xuanzong and the Moon Palace went one step further. First of all, according to the "Kaiyuan Tianbao Testament", in order to happily "look at the moon with the column" with Yang Guifei, Tang Xuanzong deliberately "built a hundred-foot high platform" in the west of The Tailiu Pond and named it Wangyue Platform.
Secondly, according to the Old Book of Tang and the Chronicle of Xuanzong, the popular Mid-Autumn Festival moon viewing and mooncake gift customs today also originate from Xuanzong's birthday "Thousand Autumn Festival". According to reports, Tang Xuanzong's birthday was on the fifth day of the first month of August, and during his reign, he set the three days before and after this day as the "Thousand Autumn Festival", when not only the whole country was on holiday to celebrate, but he also exchanged bronze mirrors with his courtiers to celebrate. Generally speaking, Emperor Xuanzong would give golden mirrors to officials of more than four pins, and the group of courtiers would also enter the treasure mirrors. At that time, the scene was also evidenced by Xuanzong's poem "Thousand Autumn Festivals to Give Qunchen Mirrors": Cast a thousand autumn mirrors, and the light produces a hundred alchemicals. After the division of the group, the encounter saw the pure heart. The ice on the stage is clear, and the moon shadow in the window is coming. More long ribbons, pay attention to touching deeply.
Rhombus-shaped moon palace mirror
This kind of bronze mirror given to the courtiers on the Thousand Autumn Festival is called "Thousand Autumn Mirror" and has been excavated everywhere. Generally speaking, the shape is round or rhomboid, with a leafy laurel tree in the center and a gall in the middle of the trunk decorated with mirror buttons. On one side is Chang'e dancing with a floating belt, on the other side is a white rabbit holding a pestle and pounding medicine, and there are toads dancing underneath. Sometimes the toad will be on the side of the white rabbit, and sometimes it will be on the side of Chang'e. Some bronze mirrors also decorate the feet of Chang'e and the white rabbit with relief clouds to make them look like clouds. According to the common mirror inscription, such bronze mirrors are produced in Yangzhou.
With the passage of time, the Qianqiu Festival gradually declined after the Zen throne of Xuanzong, but coincidentally, another Mid-Autumn Festival with a vague historical origin gradually flourished after the middle of the Tang Dynasty. Except for a later date, which moves to August 15, the fullest moon, the custom of national holiday celebration is no different from the previous Thousand Autumn Festival. Not only that, the custom of giving mooncakes to each other during the Mid-Autumn Festival, as well as the shape of the mooncakes themselves, always reminds people of the custom of giving bronze mirrors to each other during the Thousand Autumn Festival. So much so that some folklorists according to the Ming Dynasty's Beijing Festival Folklore Chronicle "Beijing Years of Huaji" "Mid-Autumn Festival, people put mooncake symbols, Chen offering melons and fruits in the court,...... The rabbit on the symbol stands like a man. The cake noodles are salty and painted with the toad rabbit in the moon" inferred that the mooncakes of the Ming Dynasty and before were shaped like copper mirrors, and the pattern of the cake noodles should also be like the mirror of the moon palace. Judging from the shape of the mooncake that is popular today, this speculation seems to be reasonable.
Guanghan Palace mooncake mold
【From Moon Palace to Gangnam】
Why is there such a deep connection between the bronze mirror and the moon? What are the natural causes for the similarities between the two, in addition to being able to refract light and emit light?
We need to return to the bronze mirror itself of the "Tang Dynasty Moon Palace" from the perspective of pictorial history.
First of all, both the Moon Palace Mirror and the Thousand Autumn Mirror have "Toad" and "Laurel Tree". Although the moon palace wonderland is ethereal, any human imagination is actually inseparable from the soil of reality, the toad metaphorically the moon palace, and the laurel tree in the moon palace is the same. Interestingly, from the perspective of history and folklore, the saying that "there is a laurel tree in the moon" came from "Huainanzi" at the earliest; And the "Explanation of Words" also specifically mentions "Gui, Jiangnan Wood". As for the hollow and transparent mountains and mound rocks next to the laurel tree, they are often referred to as "Taihu Stone" in garden research. The connection between these laurel trees and Jiangnan — the laurel tree as an image of Jiangnan — dates back to the time when Qin Shi Huang marched south to Baiyue and opened up Guilin County.
Secondly, combined with the deeds of Lord Chen Hou and the Sui Emperor's respective Yueyue Palace, we can also find cultural symbols related to Jiangnan: Chen Hou lord's "Gui Palace" itself is in Jiankang (Nanjing), Yangzhou, where the Sui Emperor is located, can almost refer to the entire Jiangnan or Southern China in the early history, and Tang Xuanzong's Qianqiu Mirror itself is from Yangzhou. "Taiping Guangji Ji Ji Play III" once said: "Tang Tianbao three years, May 15, Yangzhou into the river heart mirror side", this bronze mirror behind the palace emitted charming magic. This is not so much that Yangzhou has a long tradition of mirror smelting, but rather that it condenses the symbolic characteristics of Jiangnan.
As a result, the jianghai and long arch bridges under the mirror of the Yueyue Palace have also been rationalized: for anyone in the Central Plains who wants to enter the realm of Jiangnan, the world of the Moon Palace planted with laurel trees, the Taotao River and Sea surrounding Jiangnan obviously correspond to the natural or physical barrier of the Gongwei Moon Palace Wonderland. The arch bridge of the river and sea flying frame provides a direct access plan across the immortal-mortal for the solution of this problem. Trees, rocks, pavilions, rivers, arches, and vague figures, all of these important elements, all happen to be condensed in this "Tang Dynasty Moon Palace Mirror", and become the basic composition of all subsequent landscape paintings (literati paintings).
If the ancient emperors only longed for the wonderland in the middle of the moon and wanted to use the mirror to illuminate the Moon in Jiangnan, the Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai, who had a free and uninhibited life, used the activism of "the lake and the moon to illuminate my shadow and send me to The Creek" to go deep into Jiangnan and Zhejiang five times. In "Sleepwalking in Heaven and Leaving a Farewell", he really gained "... The cave is full of stones, and it opens up. The green sky is vast and bottomless, and the sun and moon shine on the gold and silver platform. Neon is dressed for the wind for the horse, and the king of the clouds has come down. The tiger drum is like a bird returning to the car, and the immortals are lined up like hemp. ..."' in a fairyland on earth.
"When the hour does not know the moon, it is called a white jade plate." He also suspected that the Yaotai mirror flew in the blue clouds. Immortals hang on two feet, and laurel trees are in clusters. The white rabbit pounded the medicine into a medicine and asked who to eat with. The toad eroded the shadow, and the bright night was crippled. As a mortal in the Immortal Realm, Li Bai even used this song "Gulang Moon Line" to say the ancient people's bright moon complex. A full moon is both a white jade disk on earth and a Yaotai mirror that resembles the Queen Mother of the West, with immortals and laurel trees, as well as white rabbits and toads.
From the "Tang Dynasty Youyue Palace" mirror to the Yuedi Wonderland, although not everyone can go deep into the southern country like a poet, the xianxiang style from Jiangnan has been continuously imported into the Central Plains in the name of "Yangzhou Yangzi Jiangxin Mirror", "Huzhou Mirror", "Hangzhou Mirror" and so on. On the one hand, although this is because the lower reaches of the Yangtze River have been the center of China's copper smelting since ancient times, on the other hand, in a geographical sense, it supports the wonderland equation imagination of "Yangtze River Heart (Island) = Jiangnan = Moon Palace" surrounded by rivers and seas. In the years to come, this imaginary schema will also promote changes in Chinese culture and history at both the material and spiritual levels.
Black Stone out of the water "Yangtze River Heart Mirror"
【The Bronze Mirror as the Gate of Wonderland】
The story behind the mirror of the "Tang Dynasty Moon Palace" opens the magic door between the bronze mirror and the moon for us. Whether it is the moon palace in the sky or its projection on earth (Jiangnan), it is actually the imagination of the ancients about the wonderland. The moon reflects the light of the sun, just as the copper mirror reflects the light in nature, and it is this physical similarity that gives the bronze mirror unparalleled spirituality and magic in the minds of the ancients— as if entering another world. This highly creative imagination almost corresponds to the evolutionary history of the bronze mirror itself.
Mako Flying Frost Mirror
Prior to this, the ancient Chinese mirror casters had created countless unique bronze mirrors. Far away are the Warring States "mountain character pattern" mirror, the Han and Jin popular geometric pattern Bo bureau mirror, the West Queen Mother portrait mirror, and all kinds of divine beast mirrors, the near Sui and Tang Dynasty four gods zodiac mirror, the Tang Dynasty Rui Beast grape mirror, the Wuyue true shape mirror, the True Son Flying Frost Mirror, the Flying Immortal Mirror, the Moon Palace Mirror, etc., the meaning of many of which can actually find a reasonable explanation through the analysis of the design principle of the "Tang King Youyue Palace" mirror.
Grape mirror of the beast
Judging from the perspective features behind the more ancient copper mirror ornaments such as the Rui Beast Grape Mirror, the Geometric Pattern BoJu Mirror, the Portrait Mirror of the West Queen Mother, and the "Mountain Character Pattern" Mirror, first of all, they are the same as the "Tang King Youyue Palace" mirror, creating a fairyland world on the back of the copper mirror that is not used for the mortal world - sometimes it is the top of the Immortal Mountain, sometimes it is the Moon Palace Wonderland; Secondly, the light source characteristics of the copper mirror itself (presented by refracting light) make it both a fairyland entrance. Third, it is this free transition between the two-dimensional world and the three-dimensional world that makes us understand that from the beginning of its birth, the bronze mirror, with its psychic properties, carried the infinite imagination of the ancients for a full moon.
Geometric pattern bo round mirror
Finally, returning to historical reality from the bronze mirror, Wang Dingbao, the fifth generation of the late Tang Dynasty, wrote the end of the poet Li Bai's life in a romantic stroke in "Tang Shuyan": "Li Bai wore a palace robe, traveled in the quarry river, proudly and self-satisfied, and if there was no one around, he died because he was drunk and caught the moon in the water." "In Xuanzhou, Jiangnan, catching the moon by the river, Li Bai not only returned to his wonderland in the symbolic and ontological sense, but also contributed the eternal theme of "Taibai Inviting the Moon" to Chinese literature and painting. This allows us to add a rare sense of painting and poetry to every mid-autumn full moon night when witnessing the mirror hanging high.
Portrait mirror of the Queen Mother of the West
Author: Zhang Jingwei (Deputy Research Librarian, Shanghai Museum)
Editor: Fan Xin
Planner: Fan Xin