Han Dynasty Mirror Inscription Calligraphy

Author: Zhuang Xingxing
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-07-01
Features: The Great Series of Chinese Folk Calligraphy. Modern mirrors are generally made of glass. In ancient China, where glass-making technology had not yet advanced, mirrors were made of bronze. A large number of unearthed bronze mirrors bear witness to this. According to archaeological findings, bronze mirrors appeared and were used in China very early, no later than the Qijia culture, which dates back four thousand years. The backs of ancient Chinese bronze mirrors placed great emphasis on decoration, with distinct decorative features in different periods. Over the two thousand years from the Qijia culture to the early Han Dynasty, the backs of mirrors were consistently decorated with various patterns. Starting from the fifth year of Yuanhao during the early Western Han Dynasty when Emperor Wu of Han began casting the "Wuzhu" coin, inscriptions entered the decorative elements of mirror backs. The archaeological community has held this judgment for many years. Han mirror inscriptions, throughout the nearly four hundred and thirty years of the Han Dynasty, evolved alongside the history of the Han period since their inception, with a usage history of nearly three hundred and fifty years. During these three hundred and fifty years, while the appearance of mirror inscriptions did change over time, most remained within the realm of seal script, with clerical script being relatively rare. Like the seals and inscribed inscriptions of the time, they were rarely used in clerical script during an era dominated by it, consistently favoring seal script, which is quite peculiar. However, as the Han Dynasty is now very distant from our time, the reasons behind this practice are now difficult to fully understand. The Han people favored using bronze mirrors in burials, which led to the discovery of many Han mirrors. Today, we can still see a vast number of them. Among the visible Han mirrors, those with inscriptions are very common, and the characteristics of Han mirror inscriptions in terms of style, strokes, and structure are thus fully revealed.