In ancient times, bronze mirrors were not only daily necessities, but also became a unique work of art because of their exquisite skills, which fascinated Wang Sungui. In the eyes of collectors, bronze mirrors are the treasures that many people dream of.
Bronze mirrors in Han Dynasty: Besides the Warring States mirror, the most popular bronze mirrors are Pan Guo mirror, Pan Qiu mirror, Cao Zhang mirror, Xingyun mirror, Lei Yun continuous arc mirror, bird and beast mirror, rearranged animal mirror, continuous arc engraving mirror, repeated circle engraving mirror, four-breasted animal mirror, multi-breasted animal mirror and deformed four-leaf mirror.
The three most prosperous periods of bronze mirrors. That is, three periods. Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mang, Eastern Han Dynasty, the tang dynasty bronze mirror, but the characteristics of bronze mirrors in Han Dynasty are round, thin, flat and round, and the decoration is stylized. Different periods have different personalities, and their development can be divided into three periods.
first stage
Refers to the early to middle and late Western Han Dynasty. The bronze mirrors of this period were carved flat, with flat stripes, simple edges and strong decoration. In the early Han dynasty, the decorative style of bronze mirrors in the Warring States period was followed, and the overlapping method of combining shading with main pattern was often adopted. The plain mirror, which was popular in the Warring States period with cloud and thunder patterns, continues to be popular now. The base of the mirror is rounded to form a rectangle, and some of them are engraved with inscriptions, generally speaking, words such as missing for a long time, never forgetting, being rich forever and being happy. In the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, that is, before and after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the shape and ornamentation of bronze mirrors changed obviously, and the ground patterns gradually disappeared. After crouching animal buttons, frog buttons and even peak buttons, the three-string bridge buttons all become hemispherical round buttons, and the marks are strictly symmetrical with the circular base of the mirror, or evenly divided into four areas. At that time, in addition to simplified plane mirrors, nebula mirrors and grass mirrors prevailed. In fact, the nebula pattern evolved from flat particles. Because there are many breasts, nebula mirror is also called breast mirror. The button seat of the blade mirror is square, with symmetrical blades of grass nearby, some like petals and some like leaves, and the outer edge is bounded by sixteen inward arcs. This kind of bronze mirror occupies a major position in the Han mirror because of its long circulation time. Probably starting from Xuan Di, the future is bright. All over the country, a circle of sunglasses with inscriptions on Daming and Zhao mirrors with distinct interiors and as bright as the inscriptions on the sun and the moon are arranged in concentric circles, with rope patterns and even arc patterns, all of which are decorated with inscriptions as the primary decoration.
The second period
Refers to the late Western Han Dynasty to the early Eastern Han Dynasty. During this period, the rule mirror image prevailed first. In order to boast of his achievements, Wang Mang produced many exquisite works, among which Han Jing in the period of Wang Mang was the most exquisite.
Regular mirror: it is named after the very fine forging and regular carving of TLV-shaped decorative patterns, and foreign scholars also call it TLV mirror. Its program is properly standardized, generally divided into several decorative areas, starting from the button seat, taking the round button as the base as a single decorative unit, and the shape of the button seat is round, square and calyx-covered. Next, the width of the button holder is the inner area, which is the position of the main mark. TL modeling in marking is often placed symmetrically on the main flowers on all sides of the inner area of bronze mirror, which has the effect of crossing. Then there is the outer area, decorated with strip patterns composed of grass patterns, bird and beast patterns and a few patterns. The final outer edge area is all-vegetarian, some are simple arc lines, some are rope lines and sawtooth lines. There are many decorative inscriptions between the inner and outer areas. Its dividends are distributed in five regions, and the planning is cautious and regular, but it is mechanically inflexible and rarely changes, giving people a sense of sameness. Positive mirror was still popular in the early Eastern Han Dynasty, but it must have changed. Most of the bronze mirrors in this period forged the so-called four gods of Qinglong, Baihu, Suzaku and Xuanwu in the direction of the main flowers in the inner area, and some also added the inscription of the zodiac on the left side of the cow, or the words left dragon and right tiger palm on all sides, Suzaku Xuanwu followed the yin and yang, so it was also called the four gods mirror. TLV is actually a chess game of ancient Liubo. Liu Shi Pan Bo unearthed in Feixian County, Shandong Province, and a full set of chess tools unearthed in Mawangdui No.3 tomb in Changsha. All chess games have TLV patterns. Regular mirror is the most popular one in the development of Chinese mirror.
tertiary
Refers to the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty. During this period, the mirror surface is slightly convex, which is convenient to take the full shape of the head and conforms to the scientific principle. The mirror button becomes thicker, bigger and stronger. Contrary to the first phase, the continuous arc is mostly in the inner region.
During this period, the planning of bronze mirrors was more vivid and the geographical distinction was simple. Generally, there are auspicious words such as senior officials of Changyi or descendants of Changyi and Zhi Zhi San Gong as inscriptions. During this period, the practice of relief style was also created, with high decoration, such as double-kui mirror, bat mirror, portrait mirror and square mirror (animal mirror).
The double-textured mirror broke the prevailing method of radiating inward or outward based on the button seat at that time, adopted symmetrical patterns and achieved unique results; Bat mirror is actually the deformation and expansion of persimmon stalk pattern, with abstract pattern and beautiful way; Portrait mirror embodies figures, birds and animals, flowers and plants in the form of bas-relief, which is similar to the style of stone relief and brick relief at that time. Most of these mirrors were unearthed in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, accounting for 90%. Fang Mingjing, also known as the beast mirror, refers to a circle of protruding semicircles and squares near the bronze mirror, which mostly reflects the theme of immortals and beasts. Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province was the most important bronze mirror manufacturing base in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. The rearranged animal mirrors and portrait mirrors forged here mark the new development of bronze mirror decoration. The difference between the latter and the former is not only the image of god beast, but also the relief images of songs and dances, chariots and horses, historical figures and legends.
At the end of the Han Dynasty, the mirror of god beast also presented a new way of picture arrangement, that is, stepped arrangement in one direction and scattered perspective similar to wood carving, which was called stage mirror and prevailed in Jian 'an period (A.D. 196-220), also known as Jian 'an style.
The Han Dynasty was the first period of the development of bronze mirrors in China. In China, the largest number of bronze mirrors were unearthed in the Han Dynasty, which were widely used. The number of mirrors in the Han Dynasty is not only more than that in the Warring States period, but also has made great progress in manufacturing methods and artistic expression methods. Judging from its development trend, it can be divided into three stages. The first change occurred in the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Wang Mang at the end of the Western Han Dynasty and the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty. The early Western Han Dynasty was the replacement period of Warring States mirror and Han mirror. Until the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, around the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, some new mirrors became popular. These new mirrors have played a connecting role in the development of bronze mirrors in later generations.