Judging from its popularity, casting technology, artistic style and achievements, the Warring States, Han Dynasty and Tang Dynasty are the three most important development periods.
Shang and Zhou bronze mirrors
The bronze mirrors of Shang Dynasty were round.
The mirror surface is nearly flat or slightly convex, the mirror body is thin, and there is an arched bow (or bridge-shaped) button in the center of the back.
The bronze mirror of the Western Zhou Dynasty is also round, with a straight or slightly convex body and a thin body. There are many kinds of mirror buckles, such as bow, semi-ring, rectangle and so on.
It can also be divided into three categories: plain mirror, heavy ring mirror and bird and beast mirror.
At this time, the mirror is mainly plain, and the bronze mirror with patterns appeared in the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty. In the later period, the pattern on the back of the mirror changed, and animal patterns appeared, breaking the traditional style.
Plain mirror: refers to a mirror with no decorative pattern on the back.
Heavy ring mirror: the mirror surface is slightly convex, with bow buttons on the back and heavy ring patterns.
Bird and beast mirror: the mirror body is straight, and there are two parallel bow buttons on the back.
The top of the button is deer pattern and the bottom is winged bird pattern.
the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period
The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period are the mature and great development period in the history of the development of ancient bronze mirrors in China, and the transitional stage of ancient bronze mirrors in China from naivety to maturity. It is also an important period for the bronze mirror casting center to shift from north to south.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, bronze mirrors developed by leaps and bounds on the basis of three generations (Xia, Shang and Zhou).
Both the casting process of bronze mirrors and the number of castings have greatly exceeded before.
In Qijia culture and Shang and Zhou dynasties, bronze mirrors were mostly plain without ornamentation, and those with ornamentation were mainly geometric patterns.
By the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the decorative patterns had reached 15, and various special decorative arts appeared, such as red ink painting patterns, gold and silver staggered patterns, and aerial carvings.
The early crude bronze mirrors, created and decorated during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, have reached a beautiful state.
The styles of bronze mirrors in the Spring and Autumn Period not only inherited the tradition of bronze mirrors in the Western Zhou Dynasty, but also were diversified. For example, the mirrors were mainly plain mirrors, and the button system was not finalized.
At the same time, there have been many important developments in bronze mirrors in the Spring and Autumn Period.
It broke the circular format of bronze mirror and appeared a square mirror; In addition, the early bronze mirror patterns were only outlined with positive lines, and the composition was simple, with intricate patterns cast. Judging from the performance of decorative patterns, bronze mirrors in the Spring and Autumn Period have caught up with the development of bronzes, and decorative patterns have more characteristics of the times.
This laid the foundation for the great development of bronze mirrors in the Warring States period.
Mid-late Spring and Autumn Period to early Warring States Period.
The mirror types that appeared and became popular in this period are: plain mirror (all-plain mirror, single-ring mirror and double-ring convex-chord mirror), pure ground mirror (few square mirrors with ground patterns but no inscriptions), mosaic mirror, four-mountain mirror and multi-button mirror.
Mirrors are mostly round and square.
Generally, the material of the mirror body is thin and has many edges.
The whole modeling rules give people a light and elegant feeling.
The mirror button is mainly an arch button, but the top of the button is decorated with 1 to three convex strings, so it is also called "chord button".
There is no pattern on the back of the mirror, except in the early stage.
The decorative pattern is slender and has many ground patterns.
In the mid-Warring States period, there were many kinds of bronze mirrors.
The decorative patterns of bronze mirrors have also changed. For example, the leaf mirror in the flower leaf mirror has changed from simple three leaves and four leaves to eight leaves, as well as Yun Leiwen petal mirror and mosaic mirror.
The mountain characters of the Four Mountains Mirror are thinned from short to thin, and there are petal patterns, long leaf patterns and rope patterns between the mountain characters, which are quite complicated.
There are also five mountain mirrors and six mountain mirrors.
At this time, there are diamond mirrors, animal mirrors, flat mirrors, arc mirrors, gold and silver staggered mirrors, painted mirrors and so on.
From the late Warring States to the Qin Dynasty, there were no four-leaf flat mirrors, flat mirrors and three-layer cloud-thunder flat mirrors.
The Han Dynasty bronze mirror
Besides the mirrors of the Warring States period, the most popular bronze mirrors in Han Dynasty include: flat mirror, flat mirror, Cao Zhang mirror, nebula mirror, Lei Yun continuous arc mirror, bird and beast mirror, rearranged animal mirror, continuous arc inscription mirror, reunited inscription mirror, four-row animal mirror, multi-row animal mirror, deformed four-leaf mirror and animal mirror.
Han Dynasty is an important period for the development of bronze mirrors in China.
Han mirrors are unearthed in the largest number and have a wide range of uses. Han mirrors are not only more in number than those in the Warring States period, but also have made great progress in production form and artistic expression.
Judging from its development trend, it can be divided into three stages, and the important changes appeared in the period of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, the period of Wang Mang at the end of Western Han Dynasty and the middle of Eastern Han Dynasty.
The early Western Han Dynasty was a period in which the mirror of Warring States and the mirror of Han Dynasty alternated.
It was not until the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, around the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, that some new mirrors became popular.
These new mirrors have played a connecting role in the development of bronze mirrors in later generations.
Three Kingdoms, Jin Dynasty, Southern and Northern Dynasties
According to the data of bronze mirrors unearthed from archaeological excavations, the following types of bronze mirrors were popular in this period: animal mirrors: rearranged animal mirrors, surrounded animal mirrors, painted animal mirrors with Buddha.
Deformable four-leaf mirror: Deformable four-leaf driving phoenix mirror, Deformable four-leaf Buddha-bird-phoenix mirror, Deformable four-leaf beast head mirror, double rhombic mirror and auspicious beast mirror.
At this time, Qinglong, White Tiger, Suzaku, Xuanwu and God beast are combined into a decorative theme.
At this time, the inscription is difficult to identify because of the text. Although some mirrors with inscriptions were found, they were rarely clearly identified.
Wu Jingzhong found the most inscriptions on the year number, including the year number of Sun Wu, such as Huanglong One Bird, Jianxing, Wufeng, Taiping, Shuian, Ganlu and Fenghuang. During the Three Kingdoms, the Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, there were not many new mirror types, mainly following the Han mirror style.
At this time, there are not many types of bronze mirrors, and the types are concentrated and there are few innovations.
At this time, the mirror of the god beast spread the most widely.
Among the deformable four-leaf mirrors, the deformable four-leaf mirror and the eight-phoenix mirror are the majority.
Judging from the development history of bronze mirrors, this period is in a period of stagnation and decline.
Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties
The Tang Dynasty is another new historical period in the development history of bronze mirrors in China.
Compared with the previous generation, the bronze mirrors of Sui and Tang Dynasties have made new progress.
Adding tin to copper alloy makes the bronze mirror appear silver, which is both beautiful and applicable.
In the shape of the bronze mirror, besides continuing to use the round and square of the previous generation, it also created a diamond-shaped and thicker grape mirror for birds and animals.
And apply auspicious and happy pictures reflecting people's life and pursuit of ideals to the mirror, such as the moon palace, immortals, mountains and rivers and so on.
And there are gold and silver mirrors and mother-of-pearl mirrors with novel themes, gorgeous patterns and exquisite details.
This is the product of high artistic level in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, which fully shows the characteristics of the tang dynasty bronze mirror.
The development of bronze mirrors in Sui and Tang Dynasties went through three stages.
During the Sui Dynasty and the early Tang Dynasty, the theme decoration of bronze mirrors was mainly auspicious animals, which was popular and was an important type in the development of Sui and Tang Dynasties.
It not only inherits the tradition of ancient bronze mirrors in China, but also has new innovations.
Ruishou Grape Mirror is an eye-catching mirror in the Tang Dynasty, which started the theme decoration of the mirror in the Tang Dynasty.
From Tang Gaozong to Tang Dezong, new forms, new themes and new styles appeared in bronze mirror decoration, which made bronze mirrors enter moderns.
From Tang Dezong to the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, bird mirrors, flower mirrors and panlong mirrors were popular.
A major feature of the Tang Dynasty mirrors is the diversity of artistic styles or techniques.
Bronze mirror art also presents a strong "prosperous Tang Dynasty" atmosphere.
Song, Liao, Jin and bronze mirrors
Before the Tang Dynasty, the bronze mirrors in China were mainly round, and few were square.
After the Song Dynasty, in addition to inheriting the past round mirror, square mirror, sunflower mirror and rhombic mirror, sunflower mirror and rhombic mirror are the most common.
Their edges are different from those of the Tang Dynasty, and some of them are straight, forming a hexagonal mirror.
In addition, there are mirrors with handles, rectangles, chicken hearts, shields, bell-shaped ding and other styles.
There are many bronze mirrors with flowers, birds and animals, mountains and rivers, small bridges and flowing water, terraced fields and people's stories as decorative themes, as well as plain mirrors and narrow button mirrors without decorative patterns, all of which have a strong flavor of life.
In addition, there are some immortals, character story mirrors and gossip mirrors.
Judging from the bronze mirrors of the Jin Dynasty unearthed from archaeological excavations in recent decades, their main body and ornamentation are also very rich.
Although many of them are bronze mirrors imitating Han, Tang and Song dynasties, there are also some unique patterns.
Common ones are double front mirrors, historical story mirrors, panlong mirrors, Rui beast mirrors and Ruihua mirrors.
The decorative patterns of bronze mirrors in the Jin Dynasty, one is to imitate the decorative patterns of bronze mirrors in the Han and Tang Dynasties; The second is to absorb the former model and create some new models.
Pisces mirror and character story mirror are more common, especially Pisces mirror and boy climbing mirror.
Bronze mirror in yuan dynasty
Most of the bronze mirrors in the Yuan Dynasty were hexagonal flowers or sunflower-shaped, but the ornamentation gradually became rough.
At this time, the bronze mirrors include peony bound mirror, fairy mirror, character story mirror, Shuanglong mirror, inscription mirror of "Shoushan Fuhai", plain mirror and four-year dragon mirror.
In the Ming Dynasty, there were the Dragon Mirror in Hongwu period and the inscription mirror in Daming Xuande period, and the Dashun Three-year Mirror (inscription) created by Li Zicheng, the leader of the uprising in the late Ming Dynasty.
After the Ming Dynasty, bronze mirrors were gradually replaced by glass mirrors.
Bronze mirrors after Yuan and Ming Dynasties
After the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, the output of bronze mirrors declined. In addition to the traditional style, Pisces, Ssangyong and figures, such as Liu Yi's biography, are relatively new styles.
But at this time, the bronze mirror was roughly made, with only the inscription of the year and no ornamentation.
During this period, especially in the Ming Dynasty, imitation of Han mirrors and imitation of Tang mirrors were very popular. Bronze-like mirrors are mostly Liubo mirrors in Han Dynasty and Ruishou grape mirrors in Tang Dynasty. Generally speaking, the imitation bronze mirror is small in size, and the decorative pattern is vague, losing its former elegance.
The data comes from Baidu Encyclopedia