Topic

The Art of Chinese Bronze Mirror

20509ph029
20509ph029

Today, mirrors are usually made of glass, but mirrors were once made of bronze. Archaeological excavation shows that Chinese were using mirrors made of bronze as early as the Qijia culture more than 4,000 years ago until they were gradually replaced by mirrors of glass by the mid to late Qing period (i.e., the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries). With a history of some 3,800 years, the bronze mirror was one of the most widely used metal implements in ancient China.

 

Bronze mirrors are works of art cast with exquisite motifs or inscriptions on their backs. These decorative elements reflect the social ideology and aesthetic taste of its time and demonstrate the high technical and artistic achievement of the bronze artist.

 

It is unclear when the Chinese first manufactured and used bronze mirrors. It is said that they first appeared in the era of the Yellow Emperor, the ancestor of the Chinese people. Although this oral tradition may be unreliable, it indicates the bronze mirror has a long history stretching back to the legendary period of ancient China.

 

There are two types of bronze mirrors in the world. One type has a round face with a handle on the bottom end, which appeared around 2900–2000 BCE. in the regions of Western Asia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The other type also has a round face on the obverse but a central knob on the back and is from ancient China.

 

A Chinese bronze mirror normally consists of a rim that is round, square, octagonal, or in another decorative shape. There are two sides, a shiny obverse side that is the reflective surface and a decorated back side that has a pierced knob at its center, from which a cord could be suspended for hanging. This central knob appears in various shapes and forms such as an arch, a dome, a bridge, or an animal.

 

Every dynasty has a characteristic style of bronze mirror. Bronze mirrors of the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States periods (770–221 BCE) are mostly of round or square shape. They are light, handy to hold and decorated with exquisite patterns and motifs. The Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) saw the emergence of inscriptions on bronze mirrors. During the Sui and Tang dynasties (581–907), bronze mirrors tended to be thick, heavy, and elaborately adorned with popular Buddhist and Daoist motifs. They also began to appear in sunflower and rhombus shapes. Glass mirrors arose in the Ming and Qing periods (1368–1911) and gradually replaced mirrors of bronze, which became keepsakes and gifts symbolizing wishes for good fortune and reunion.

 

The decorative motifs on the backs of bronze mirrors embody and represent the highest aesthetic value of Chinese bronze art. Drawing broadly on geometrical figures, plants and animals, mythical creatures and immortal deities, folk tales, daily life scenes, prayers and blessings, and other motifs, these patterns depict all aspects of society with the finest ones rivaling paintings. Although an ordinary object of daily use, the bronze mirror was once believed to possess the power of “shattering darkness and gathering light” and “expelling ghosts and suppressing evil” due to its reflective nature. In both Buddhist and Daoist rituals, bronze mirrors are indispensable instruments. Influenced by ancient customs such as “regarding the dead as alive” and “respecting personal effects of the dead,” bronze mirrors were often buried with their owners for use in the afterlife. Consequently, bronze mirrors became one of the most commonly seen burial objects in ancient tombs.

 

Due to their auspicious nature and practical utility, bronze mirrors were favored as gift items by both aristocrats and commoners. The Tang emperor Xuanzong (r. 712–756) once exchanged bronze mirrors with his ministers on his birthday. As a round form symbolizes completeness and perfection in Chinese thought, round bronze mirrors were considered tokens of love and commonly included in dowries. Archeologists have unearthed joint tombs in which the husband and wife each held matching halves of a bronze mirror.

 

Bronze mirrors, combining both the craftsmanship and the cultural values of ancient China, form a unique type of cultural relic. Archeologists have found ancient Chinese bronze mirrors in Japan, the former Soviet Union, Afghanistan, Vietnam, as well as in other countries of West Asia and East Asia. These findings show that the bronze mirror has played an important part in Sino-foreign cultural exchange as early as the Western Han dynasty (206 BCE–24 CE).

Author:
Last updated:
2019-11-14