Introduction to the characteristics of bronze mirrors
Exquisite casting technology
Generally, when casting bronze mirrors, there are two types of "open" and "combined casting" method. "Open type" means that there is only one mirror frame, without a spout or groove. During casting, the mirror frame is laid flat and the solution is poured from above. What is often seen in archaeological excavations is the "combined casting style", that is, each mirror has two pottery molds, patterns are carved on the back of the mirror, a concave part for the mirror button is carved in the center, and a short and thin pottery mold is made of clay of the same quality as the mold. The rod-shaped "sand core" is embedded horizontally in the middle of the mirror frame. The mirrored vane is carved into a concave plane, and the two vanes are then merged into one. When casting a mirror, hold the spout upright and slowly inject the copper solution. After the solution cools, take out the cast mirror and grind it for identification.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, delicate and exquisite bronze mirrors with hollow patterns also appeared. This kind of bronze mirror adopts the separate casting method. The decoration on the mirror surface and the back of the mirror are cast separately and then clamped together. This kind of composite bronze mirror basically disappeared after the Warring States Period. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the Palace Building Office processed many of the fronts of the ancient mirrors collected in the palace to achieve the effect of re-identification. Some of the ancient mirrors used a composite method to cast a new mirror surface, grind it, and then adhere it to the front of the ancient mirror. Of course, this kind of composite mirror is still very different from the composite mirrors from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
In the production practice, ancient Chinese craftsmen constantly summarized the skills of smelting and casting bronze mirrors. As early as "Zhou Li Kao Gong Ji", the alloy ratio for making bronze mirrors was recorded: "Half gold and tin are called the balance of tunnels." That is, 50% copper and 50% tin are the mixture for casting mirrors. This valuable document is believed by most scholars to be from the Warring States Period, but it should be said that it also contains a summary of bronze casting experience since the Shang and Zhou dynasties.
After the Warring States Period, craftsmen continued to explore and experiment. According to chemical analysis by modern scholars, the alloy composition of various copper mirrors has great differences in the proportion of copper and tin due to different production regions and times. Since the Warring States Period, lead has been commonly included in bronze mirror alloys. After lead is added to the alloy, the quality of copper mirror casting is improved: lead makes the alloy solution circulate particularly well in the casting mold; lead can make the surface of the cast product unusually smooth; lead can take advantage of the fact that lead does not shrink when condensed. , making the pattern on the back of the cast mirror particularly neat and clear; lead can reduce the bubbles that easily occur when copper and tin alloys dissolve, and avoid the occurrence of problems such as blisters.
The invention of the translucent bronze mirror in the Han Dynasty was another milestone in the mirror casting process. The light-transmitting mirror was invented in the Western Han Dynasty and has the same appearance as an ordinary mirror. But when light shines on the mirror, the image of the patterns and inscriptions on the back of the mirror will be reflected on the wall opposite the mirror. The ancients called it a "phantom mirror." Ancient Chinese scholars have long discovered the light transmission effect of light-transmitting mirrors. "Taiping Guangji" records: The ancient mirror obtained by King Du of the Sui Dynasty "is exposed to the sun, and the writings and ink on the back are reflected in the shadow, and the fibers are not damaged." Song Dynasty Zhou Mi's "Yunyan Passing Eyes", Shen Kuo's "Mengxi Bi Tan", Jin Dynasty Ma Jiuchou's poem "Fu Boyu Translucent Mirror", Ming Dynasty Lang Ying's "Seven Revised Drafts", Qing Dynasty Zheng Fuguang's "Mirror Mirror (Bell) Chi" 》etc., all have records and research on light-transmitting mirrors. After liberation, two light-transmitting mirrors were first discovered in Shanghai, and were successfully copied after research by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, finally revealing the mystery of the "phantom mirror". Studies have shown that the light transmission of copper mirrors is caused by the internal stress generated during the cooling and processing of the mirror surfaces. When casting a mirror, the thin parts of the mirror are cooled first, and the thick parts are cooled later. The shrinkage of copper is large, which causes unevenness and curvature differences in various parts of the mirror surface corresponding to the graphics and text on the back of the mirror, resulting in uneven graphics and text. On the back, there are some faint signs on the mirror surface. Therefore, once the sun shines on it, the patterns on the back will be reflected.
Unique
Bronze mirrors are diverse in shape and cleverly used. Most of the bronze mirrors are round, followed by square ones. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, with the development of casting technology, bronze mirrors broke the traditional round and square formats of the past. According to the requirements of use and decoration, mirrors with handles and mirrors with eight rhombuses, rhombus shapes, eight arcs, etc. were cast. Bronze mirrors such as square rectangular, rounded square, sub-shaped, cloud plate-shaped, chicken heart-shaped, etc. As for the Song Dynasty, influenced by the ancient customs, the antique tripod-shaped and antique bell-shaped bronze mirrors cast were more contemporary in style.
The sizes of ancient Chinese bronze mirrors vary greatly, but they can be roughly divided into three categories: large, medium and small. The size of small bronze mirrors is generally 3 cm to 8 cm. They are small and light. They can be tied around the waist with a rope and carried around. The size of medium-sized bronze mirrors ranges from 10 cm to 39.4 cm. They are thick and exquisite. When in use, they are hung on the wall or placed on the mirror stand. After use, they are stored in elegant mirror boxes. The painter Gu Kaizhi of the Jin Dynasty gave a detailed description of the use of bronze mirrors in the famous "Picture of Women's History": On the left side of the painting, a man is sitting, facing a mirror stand, and a woman behind him is combing his hair with a comb. There is another man on the right, raising his head slightly, facing another mirror, and his face is reflected in the mirror. The mirror stand in the painting is floor-standing. The support rod is inserted into the mirror button and there is a tray in the middle of the mirror stand. There are mirrors and other objects placed next to the figures. In the 1986 exhibition of cultural relics census results in Jiangsu Province, a Han Dynasty bronze mirror was exhibited, with a copper bracket inserted into the button, which was the same as the mirror stand in Gu Kaizhi's "Pictures of Admonitions of Women's History". Because this type of mirror stand is small in size, it is often made of precious materials. Documents from the Three Kingdoms to the Southern and Northern Dynasties include "pure silver mirror stand", "tortoiseshell fine engraved mirror stand", "jade mirror stand", etc. There is also a mirror stand that is placed on the table. The craftsmanship is particularly exquisite, but it is of a later date.
Because after the Song Dynasty, the seating furniture became higher than before, and the furnishings of a table and two chairs gradually became stereotyped. Furniture such as a high mirror table appeared, similar to a modern dressing table, with the mirror fixed on it with a frame. Large bronze mirrors, what we call dressing mirrors, are mostly furnished in royal palaces and the homes of princes and dignitaries. There are many records about this type of bronze mirrors in ancient history. The one that most easily reminds us is the story of Zou Ji in "Warring States Policy·Qi Ce" who satirized King Wei of Qi for accepting advice. The article begins: "Zou Ji was more than eight feet tall (today's 185cm) and had a beautiful body. Looking into the mirror with his court clothes and crown..." Zou Ji put on his clothes and hat, and looked at his appearance in the mirror. According to records, there was a large square mirror in the Xianyang Palace of Qin Dynasty, 4 feet wide and 5 feet 9 inches high. From the Wei and Jin Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, extra large bronze mirrors were also cast. After Jin defeated Wu, a great writer, Lu Ji, entered Luo from Wu. In front of Renshou Hall, he also saw a large square bronze mirror, more than 5 feet high and 3 feet 3 inches wide. When a person stands in the yard, his whole body can be illuminated very clearly. Later, there was another Hu man, Shi Le, who dominated the north. In his palace, there was a large mirror with a diameter of two or three feet, and a seat decorated with a pure gold coiled dragon underneath. When Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty was living a debauched and shameless life in Milou, Yangzhou, there was a fawning official named Wang Shichong who was promoted to the important position of Jiangdu Tongshou because he contributed a bronze mirror screen to Emperor Yang's favor. When Tang Zhongzong Li Xian was emperor (706-709 AD), he also ordered the mirror casting factory in Yangzhou to cast the abbot's large mirror and make another copper pillar inlaid with many gold flowers and silver leaves. The abbot's mirror was placed upstairs in the palace garden. Zhongzong rode a horse and looked at the mirror, looking at his majestic appearance on the horse. He was very proud. (For the above, see the 227th volume of "Collection of Ancient and Modern Books·Testing Classics" citing Lu Shiheng's collected works, Ye Zhong Ji, He Luo Ji and Chao Ye Qian Zai). However, we have been unable to find the actual large bronze mirror for a long time. It wasn't until 1980 that a large rectangular multi-knuckle bronze mirror with Kui dragon patterns around Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty was unearthed from the No. 5 burial pit in the south of Wotuo Village, Dawu Commune, Zibo, Shandong Province, and we saw a large bronze mirror: the mirror is 115.1 cm long. It is 57.5 cm wide, with five ring-shaped chord buttons on the back and two buttons cast on each of the two short sides. Each ring button is decorated with persimmon stem-shaped patterns. The back is decorated with a tangled pattern of Kui dragons, which are curled and interlaced freely. This large bronze mirror was probably supported by pillars and seats, and the buttons on the back and sides of the mirror were probably used to fix it to the pillars and seats.
Ancient Bronze Mirrors
Bronze mirrors not only need to be wiped clean from time to time, but also need to be polished frequently to keep them as bright as new and produce images. Mirror grinding was a specialized profession in the past, just like craftsmen sharpening knives and scissors. People who practice this profession hold several pieces of iron about 5 inches long and 2 inches and 5 minutes wide in their hands, like clappers, and beat them along the street. After the women hear it, they can come out to polish their mirrors. This is called " Shocked" (see "Original Things"). This scene is depicted in ancient paintings: In the painting, the mirror grinder squats on the ground and leans over the mirror grinding stone to rub the bronze mirror. A woman is standing aside with a bronze mirror in her hand, waiting. In July 1982, a mirror-polishing brick was unearthed from the tomb of Yu Gongzhu and his wife of the Southern Song Dynasty in Tingzipo, Pengshan County, Sichuan. The bricks are made of fine mud-lime pottery, round in shape, 26 cm in diameter, 3 cm thick, and smooth and flat. According to the excavation report, when the brick was unearthed, there was still a small amount of ink-colored powder and mercury particles remaining on the polished surface. There were three arc-shaped inclined grooves in the same direction from the outside to the inside on the back of the brick, which were 7 cm to 9 cm long. cm, 6 cm to 7 cm wide ("The Tomb of Yu Gongzhu and his Couple Buried Together in the Southern Song Dynasty", "Acta Archaeological Society" Issue 3, 1985).
Gorgeous decoration
The patterns and carving techniques on the bronze mirrors are various, whether they are line carving, flat carving, relief carving, round carving, or hollow carving, they all appear very delicate and vivid. The decorative content is even more colorful, from geometric patterns to birds and flowers, from myths and legends to realistic patterns, heaven and earth, humans and gods, animals and plants, intertwined and juxtaposed, cleverly conceived and all-encompassing. The Han Dynasty "Wu Zixu Portrait Mirror" unearthed in Shaoxing in the early years and now in the Shanghai Museum is an excellent work. The four breasts on the back of the mirror are divided into four areas and surrounded by patterns. The first group has the inscriptions "King of Yue" and "Fan Li". The two are sitting on the ground and talking to each other, showing that Fan Cun is making suggestions and letting King Gou Jian of Yue use his honey trap. The second group is for the two girls in long skirts, with the inscription "Jade Girl". "Two people", showing that the King of Yue bribed Wu Dazai Bo Pi (sound pi) with two beautiful girls; the third group is inscribed with "Wu Wang", Wu Wang is sitting in the curtain, his left hand is slightly raised, showing that Wu Wang listened to Da Zai Bo Pi's slander. , decided to consign Wu Zixu to death; in the fourth group, a man raised his eyebrows in anger, stared and gritted his teeth, holding a long sword under his neck, and inscribed "Loyal Minister Wu Zixu" to show that Wu Zixu was forced to commit suicide. The entire pattern adopts relief techniques, which is vivid, lifelike and highly generalizable.
As early as the Shang Dynasty, craftsmen had mastered the process of inlaying red copper in order to enhance the decorative effect of bronze vessels. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, metal processing techniques such as inlaying gold and silver, inlaying red copper, and inlaying turquoise became more sophisticated. Wires or sheets of red copper, gold, silver, and turquoise were used to embed the objects into different patterns and patterns. . Many such bronze mirrors have been unearthed. The "square mirror with turquoise inlay" unearthed in Fuling, Sichuan Province has four Kui shapes on the back, with scale patterns and fine short lines on the inside, and turquoise is filled between the Kui patterns. The "gold and silver mirror with mixed dragon patterns" unearthed in Jincun, Luoyang, Henan Province, has six dragons entwining between the button base and the edge, and the dragon body has "gold and silver" patterns. The edge is a cross scroll band. The embedded gold and silver wire is as thin as hair, and the craftsmanship is extremely precise, which can be described as a work of art.
It is not only a beautiful work of craftsmanship, but also expresses the meaning of blessing with artistic decoration.
In short, ancient mirror-casting craftsmen continued to accumulate experience in casting bronze mirrors during long-term production, and their skills reached a proficient level. They used their wisdom and creative talents to create many exquisite bronze mirrors. When people today appreciate and study these exquisite works of art, they cannot help but admire the splendid bronze mirror culture of ancient times.