With copper as a mirror, you can dress properly. Copper mirrors first appeared in the Qi family culture in the Neolithic period, and have been endowed with rich cultural connotations in the long-term development and evolution, and are widely used in daily life.
The copper mirror has a variety of shapes and rich ornaments, not only the characteristics of different regions and different nationalities, but also the common characteristics formed in mutual exchange and mutual learning, such as the dragon pattern has become a common symbol for the decoration of copper mirrors of different nationalities.
▲The heavy wheel astral bronze mirror is now in the National Museum of China. (Image source: Qinghai Provincial Museum official website)
The "Great Unification" unit of the exhibition of cultural relics and ancient books of the Chinese national community consciousness that is being exhibited at the National Culture Palace in Beijing, and the many copper mirrors in the exhibition area of "Mirror Culture" vividly reflect the rich connotation of copper mirror culture.
In 1924, Swedish archaeologist Andersen discovered the Qi family culture (about 4300-3500 years ago) in Qijiaping, Guanghe County, Gansu Province. Half a century later, excavations unearthed a rusty copper mirror.
Who made this bronze mirror? What kind of story did you experience? What is its historical status? Recently, "Dao China" invited Tang Shiqian, president of the Gansu Qijia Culture Research Association, to interpret this topic.
Amazing discoveries on the site
In the early summer of 1975, the Gansu Provincial Museum Cultural Relics Team found a rusty copper mirror in tomb No. M41 in Guanghe County, Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture, with thick patina attached throughout. This copper mirror is 6.2 cm in diameter and 0.3 cm thick, with a bridge-shaped button in the center of the back and a height of 0.5 cm, which is supposed to be convenient for wearing with a rope.
The copper mirror found in the site about 4000,<> years ago soon attracted widespread attention from the archaeological community, and archaeologists Xia Nai, Pei Wenzhong, Xie Duanju, Wang Wei, Chen Xingcan, Wang Renxiang and others came here successively to investigate.
Wang Wei, chief expert of the Chinese Civilization Source Exploration Project, said, "Qi family culture is an organic part of the study of the diversity and integration of Chinese civilization. The Qijiaping site, like Yin Wu and Banpo, is a holy land-level site and a place that archaeologists yearn for. ”
In order to better protect and study the Qi family culture and the results of the unearthed cultural relics, the Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture government has conducted several field investigations and decided to build the Qi Family Culture Museum in Guanghe County. In 2016, the museum was completed, and this bronze treasure unearthed at the site of Qijiaping returned to the "homeland".
Thousands of years of dominance
The excavation of bronze mirrors from the Qi family culture proves that the ancients began to make and use bronze mirrors at least 4000,<> years ago.
So far, the copper mirror of the Qi family culture found has three sides:
The first is a bridge-shaped button-shaped round mirror unearthed in 1975 in tomb M41 in Qijiaping, Guanghe, Gansu.
The second side is a bridge-shaped button round mirror unearthed in 1977 in tomb M25 of Matai, Guinanga, Qinghai, with a seven-pointed star on the back, 8.9 cm in diameter, located on the chest of the tomb owner in the prone burial style.
The third side is a bronze mirror with a heavy wheel astral pattern, not an excavation, 14.6 cm in diameter, which has been unearthed at an unnamed site about 1.9 kilometers south of the Qijiaping site.
The advent of the Qijiaping copper mirror has advanced the history of copper mirrors in China to more than 4000,<> years ago, confirming the era of the legendary "Yellow Emperor casting mirror".
According to documents, the manufacture and use of copper mirrors began with the Yellow Emperor, and the "Narrative of Differences" contains: "According to the legend of Raozhou, the Xuanyuan clan cast mirrors by the lake, and now there is Xuanyuan grinding mirror stone, the stone is always clean, and no vines and grass are born." It is recorded in the "Inner Biography of the Yellow Emperor": "The emperor and the queen mother of the west met in the royal house, and the twelve sides of the mirror were cast, and they were used with the moon." This means that the Yellow Emperor and the Queen Mother of the West cast 12 large mirrors in Wangwu Mountain, and they were used in order of month according to the size of the mirrors. The diameter of the first mirror was one foot five inches, and then it decreased every month, and by the 12th it had reached a very delicate and petite level, which was about the same size as the copper mirror at the site of Qijiaping.
From the perspective of the casting technology and artistic style of copper mirrors, the Warring States, the Two Han Dynasties and the Tang Dynasty are the three most important periods in the history of the development of copper mirrors in China - the casting mirror industry began in the Qi family culture and flourished in the Warring States period, and after the prosperity period of the Two Han Dynasties, it reached its peak in the Tang Dynasty.
According to research, the earliest use of the Qi family culture copper mirror as a sacrificial ritual vessel is more likely, because the early copper mirror was not only used to reflect the appearance, but also used to divine the good yin and yang, and was often used as a gift for the Son of Heaven.
With the gradual popularization of copper mirrors, as well as the large use of iron and the change of the etiquette system, bronze as a ceremonial vessel gradually withdrew from the historical stage, and the main role of copper mirrors evolved into illumination, which was used from 2000 BC to modern times, and gradually disappeared after the popularization of glass mirrors.
Rich bronze treasures
The distribution area of Qi family culture is at the crossroads of multicultural integration. To the east is the Central Plains region with developed agricultural civilization, to the west is western China and Central Asia and West Asia, and to the north is the Eurasian steppe.
According to archaeological findings, the world's earliest bronze smelting technology and bronze ware appeared in the Two Rivers Valley of West Asia. The metal objects of the Qi family culture may be influenced by the cultural factors of West Asia in terms of the form, technology, and concept of the artifacts.
"The bronze artifacts unearthed at the Qi family cultural site also have many arsenic bronzes. Arsenic bronze is mostly found in Western Asia and is an earlier age, about 5000,<> years ago. At present, arsenic bronze has not been found in other parts of the country, indicating that these copper artifacts unearthed in Gansu should have been exchanged from West Asia. Jia Jianwei, director of the Gansu Provincial Museum, said.
▲"China's First Bronze Knife", now in the National Museum of China. (Image source: National Museum of China official website)
The "first copper knife in China" unearthed in the Lin family site in the western part of Dongxiang Autonomous County, Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province, 5000,<> years ago, can glimpse the "highlight moment" of bronze in history. Copper knives then gradually replaced stone knives and bone knives, and were widely used in human production and life and war. During the Qi family culture period, copper knives began to appear in large numbers and a wide variety, which played a greater role in promoting the social productivity at that time.
The copper mirrors and other bronzes unearthed by the Qi family culture prove the prosperity of the Qi family culture, and at the same time are of great value for studying the beginning of China's bronze industry and exploring the origin and process of Chinese civilization.
(Chen Jun, executive director of the Gansu Qijia Culture Research Association and director of the Qi Family Cultural Museum Information Center, also contributed to this article.) )
[The above content is the personal opinion of experts and does not represent the position of this platform.] 】
About the author:
Tang Shiqian is the president of the Gansu Qijia Culture Research Association and the honorary director of the Qi Family Culture Museum.
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