The Art and Antiquity of Mirrors: The Emperor’s Collection of Bronze Mirrors

The glossy shine of burnished bronze mirrors led the ancient Chinese to view them as divine objects. According to legend, the first mirror was cast by the Yellow Emperor to join the spirit worlds of yin and yang. Said to never corrode, mirrors were believed to be conduits for the spirit world. According to a record in Xuanhe bogutu, ordered by the Song emperor Huizong, such imagery as immortals, the Four Spirit Animals, Five Marchmounts, Eight Trigrams, Twelve Branches, and dragons and phoenixes on ancient bronzes from the Han to Tang dynasties reflect a microcosm of the cosmos. Inscriptions on mirrors also found their way into literature and served as paradigms for the cultivation of moral integrity. Therefore, research on ancient mirrors served a didactic, edifying purpose as well.

The collection of ancient mirrors in the court collection of the Qing dynasty consists mainly of those from the Han and Tang dynasties with a few from the Song, Jin, Yuan, and Ming dynasties. These mirrors form a self-contained system while expressing a wide variety of styles. Together, they provide concrete evidence for nearly two millennia of continuous developments in terms of the craftsmanship, aesthetics, and thinking about mirrors, serving as an unparalleled paradigm for studying the history of Chinese antiquities.

"Xianren bulao" TLV Bronze Mirror

Xin to early Eastern Han period, 1st century
Diameter: 20.3 cm
Documented in the catalogue of bronzes Xiqing xujian yibian (1793), chap. 19, p. 5
Stored in the mirror case set Xiqing xujian yibian, vol. 1

This round mirror has a hemispherical knob on a quatrefoil base in the form of a persimmon calyx and within a square double-outline square. The interior of the square is ringed with an inscription of twelve characters for the Earthly Branches. The area outside is decorated with a TLV pattern and interspersed with eight nipples and the Four Spirit Animals (Green Dragon, White Tiger, Red Bird, and Black Tortoise) as well as other flying birds and auspicious beasts in a complex array. An outer ring features an inscription describing the realm of the immortals, and the mirror rim is ringed by a sawtooth pattern with an outer circle of cloud patterns. The appearance of the TLV pattern, Four Spirit Animals, characters for the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, and inscriptions dealing with the immortals reflects apocryphal thought popular in the late Western Han to Xin period. The Qianlong emperor in the Qing dynasty ranked this mirror in the "first top grade."

"Yuxia" Bronze Mirror Decorated with Ginkgo Leaves

Sui to early Tang period, 7th century
Diameter: 15.2 cm
Documented in the catalogue of bronzes Xiqing xujian yibian (1793), chap. 20, p. 19
Stored in the mirror case set Xiqing xujian yibian , vol. 29

The back of this round mirror is decorated with eight evenly arranged gingko patterns radiating from the center, where they intertwine to form a knob. The edges of the gingko leaves have fine wave patterns, as if moving at the water’s edge in a gentle breeze to create this extremely elegant effect. The inner and outer areas are divided by a delicate line pattern. The outer area features poetry on mirrors that echoes the pleasing decoration on the mirror, yielding a refreshing quality to the overall appearance.

Bronze Mirror with Lions and Grapevines

High Tang period, 8th century
Diameter: 15.6 cm
Stored in the mirror case set Ningshou xujian , vol. 20

The back of this round mirror with a crouching lion as its knob has inner and outer areas divided by a linear pattern in high relief. The inner area features seven lions in various poses. By the standing male is a lioness-and-cub scene, showing attention to detail in portraying a pride of lions. The outer band has a circle of grapevines rendered quite realistically, and the outer area is decorated with birds and auspicious beasts frolicking amongst grapevines. The mirror rim also has a circle of scrolling vegetation. The overall decoration of the mirror expresses the designer’s fondness for extremely vivid and realistic descriptions from nature.

Bronze Mirror in the Form of an Ancient Cauldron with Paired Dragons

Period：
2015/03/31~2015/09/17
2016/09/19~2017/02/26

Southern Song period, 1127-1279
Height: 16.25.5 cm, width: 12.1 cm
Documented in the catalogue of bronzes Xiqing xujian yibian (1793), chap. 2620, p. 6
Stored in the mirror case set Xiqing xujian yibian, vol. 16

This mirror is in the form of a tripod with two handles. The mirror surface is flat with two raised loops for a knob on the back originally used to fasten it to a stand. The neck of the tripod is decorated with scrolling vegetation in relief, while the body features two dragons in high relief and a flaming pearl in between. As with double dragon patterns in the Song dynasty, one of the beasts has its mouth open and the other closed. Below the dragons is a pattern of sea waves.