Storage and Display: The Mounting and Cases of Bronze Mirrors

The Qianlong emperor had the Qing imperial collection of ancient bronze mirrors recorded in the illustrated catalogues of ancient bronzes known as "Xiqing sijian," decreeing in turn the production of five album-style mirror case sets entitled Xiqing gujian, Ningshou jiangu, Xiqing xujian, Xiqing xujian yibian, and Ningshou xujian. Each set contains about fifty cases that formerly decorated such palatial areas in the Forbidden City as the Weiyu Studio and Fuwang Hall at the Ningshou Garden as well as the Mukden Palace. The mounting for these mirror cases is particularly well designed and beautiful. The front and back covers of the wood cases are composed of wood boards with a brocaded design of two dragons and a pearl, the four sides of the wood cases featuring cardboard cutouts to create an imitation book form.

The inner leaf is decorated with light blue silk, the front cover page including a realistic painting of the bronze mirror within and yellow slip inscriptions for the mirror and its contents. The back cover leaf includes a landscape, figure or flower painting. Before being put into the case, the bronze mirror was covered by a yellow silk pad and then topped with a delicately carved wood cover. The painting and calligraphy for the back cover leaf and wood cover back were done together by the sons or brothers of the Qianlong emperor, his high officials, and painters, representing the close relationship between the ruler and his subject.

Mirror Case Set Xiqing xujian yibian (Vol. 1)

Qing dynasty, Qianlong reign, 1735-1796
Length: 44.5 cm, width: 31.1 cm, height: 5 cm

Carved Wood Mirror Cover with Liang Guozhi’s Copy of Ouyang Xun’s "Stele of the Huadu Temple" in Running Script

Diameter: 21.5 cm

One mirror is stored in this case, inside of which is also a catalogue page indicating that four mirrors of the "first top grade" were separately stored in the first and second volumes. The inside frontispiece features a blue–and–green landscape painting by Yongrong with an inscription, the peaks rising majestically in layers with buildings hidden among clouds and mists. In the mountains are pines, rocks, and a waterfall, the forests by the stream banks lush and verdant. The deep and secluded scenery reveals much of the brush manner of Song and Yuan dynasty artists. Peering through the round opening of the mirror case, the painting appears similar to an intimate–scene landscape of the Song dynasty, creating another view that also reveals the artist’s skillful arrangement of the composition. The wood mirror cover is carved with a bat–and–chime design on a decorative background, these two motifs serving as symbols for "prosperity" and "celebration" on account of their being homophones for these two words in Chinese. The other side features running–script calligraphy by Liang Guozhi (1723–1786) in his transcription of Ouyang Xun’s "Stele of the Huadu Temple." Liang Guozhi (style name Jieping), a native of Kuaiji in Zhejiang, was a Presented Scholar of 1748 who served up to the post of Minister of Revenue, being an important official in the late Qianlong reign. Excelling at calligraphy, his example on this wood cover reveals a graceful and refined style. Several copies of the Orchid Pavilion Preface by Liang Guozhi in the National Palace Museum collection reveal his calligraphy as tracing back to the tradition of modelbook studies in the early Qing.