Chapter 1,797 Using copper as a mirror, traveling through the past and present
Although he didn't get much information, Chen Wenzhe still determined through some clues that there should be at least one mirror grinder in Yangluo.
As early as more than two thousand years ago, my country's bronze smelting technology had reached its peak.
Especially in the Pre-Qin and Warring States periods, the beginning of bronze civilization, bronze products with exquisite craftsmanship emerged one after another.
The advanced craftsmanship is incredible.
During archaeological excavations, there are often surprising discoveries of "things that have traveled through time", and there are also miraculous phenomena that cannot be explained by modern science.
However, with the gradual collapse of ritual music after the Qin Dynasty, bronze wares gradually withdrew from the stage of history.
The small, practical bronze mirror suddenly emerged and became the mainstay of bronze products for more than two thousand years.
After Wei Zheng's death, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty said a famous saying: "Using copper as a mirror, you can straighten your clothes; using people as a mirror, you can understand gains and losses; using history as a mirror, you can understand the ups and downs."
Some people may wonder, since glass mirrors have always been used, how did the ancients use copper as mirrors?
The ancients cast a copper block with a smooth shape and uniform thickness, and then polished one side into a mirror surface that can illuminate people, restoring the true color of the metal, so as to achieve the purpose of seeing the face.
From the earliest primitive tribes until the introduction of glass mirrors in the Ming Dynasty, Chinese people have been using bronze mirrors for thousands of years to trim their faces, put on makeup, and dress and tie their hair.
After the Han Dynasty, people's requirements for life improved, so they decorated the other side of the bronze mirror with exquisite patterns or auspicious words.
Since bronze mirrors are necessary items for daily life, there are countless bronze mirrors unearthed in archaeological history.
Therefore, whenever a bronze mirror is unearthed from a tomb, most archaeologists are not surprised.
However, the magical appearance of this Han Dynasty bronze mirror made everyone present jump up, because it was the legendary rare and rare "translucent mirror"!
This mirror has a diameter of 7.4 cm and a net weight of about 50 grams.
Now it looks unremarkable, just a small lightweight hand mirror.
However, when you point the light source at the front of it, there will undoubtedly be some reflection.
The amazing thing is that the image reflected by it is actually the appearance of the back of the bronze mirror, including the inscriptions and decorations!
It should be noted that the light source hits the front of the bronze mirror and never touches the back.
However, the reflected image shows the pattern on the back.
As if the light source passes straight through the back, the bronze mirror seems to have become "hollowed out", which is very mysterious.
That’s why it is known as the “translucent mirror”, so what is its principle?
This kind of bronze mirror with the ability to create illusions has been regarded as a "divine object" by the ancients for a long time.
Unfortunately, this technology was lost in the Song Dynasty.
So far, among the hundreds of thousands of bronze mirrors collected in museums across the country, only half a hundred have light-transmitting effects, and most of them date from the Han Dynasty.
Therefore, the translucent mirror of the Han Dynasty is also known as the highest pinnacle of ancient "black technology"!
Translucent lenses are not only a star model in China, they are also enthusiastically sought after abroad.
Western countries call it the "magic mirror", but even with the world's high technology, they cannot replicate the same Han Dynasty light-transmitting mirror.
In order to explore this eternal mystery, experts have devoted themselves to research for several years and finally discovered the secret of the "magic mirror".
It turns out that the reason why copper mirrors transmit light is due to uneven thickness distribution.
However, this uneven difference is very small, only a few microns, and cannot be identified with the naked eye.
Moreover, the formation of this special elastic deformation is also related to how the craftsmen polished the mirror surface at that time.
Explained in scientific language: the curvature is small in thick places, the reflected light is relatively scattered, and the projection is slightly dim;
The thin area has a large curvature, the reflected light is more concentrated, and the projection will be brighter.
Obviously, the areas with inscriptions and patterns are thicker and the rest are thinner, so two different thicknesses will reflect projections of different brightness.
It looks like the pattern on the back has penetrated the past.
Of course, not every bronze mirror will achieve light transmission, which also has a lot to do with the polishing process.
Therefore, it can be said that the emergence of the "translucent mirror" brings great luck, and it can be said that it is rare!
Now that we know that there is such a "magic mirror" in the Han Dynasty, are you surprised?
Friends who have studied cultural relics may be familiar with bronzes, and may even say that "bronzes with inscriptions are more valuable", and this is indeed the case;
But here we are going to talk about a "special" type of inscribed bronze, namely the "bronze mirror".
Looking back on history, after the Warring States Period, traditional "rituals and music" gradually collapsed, princes conquered each other, and the bronze culture that symbolized royal and divine authority gradually declined.
But the bronze mirror suddenly emerged at this time and became the protagonist in the bronze world;
There are tens of thousands of ancient bronze mirrors discovered in archaeological discoveries so far, which has lowered their value to some extent.
However, the "magic mirrors" displayed in various large museums are national treasures and cultural relics that are "difficult to copy so far."
The reason why Chen Wenzhe traced it to Nanhe was because of a polished mirror collected in the Dahai City Museum.
Through him, Chen Wenzhe saw the ancient tombs in Yangluo.
Of course, the piece in the Dahai City Museum was not from Nanhe, but from Beihu.
To say this, we have to go back to the winter of 1982. The Beihu EZ Museum was conducting field archaeological work. A group of ancient tombs from the Han Dynasty were discovered deep in Jiutou Mountain in Yufeng District, and "rescue excavations" were conducted;
To put it simply, this archaeological visit has yielded a lot, and the cultural relics unearthed include not only bronzes, pottery, jades, etc.
The archaeological team also discovered rare copper coins from the period of Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty, including three ancient bronze mirrors.
Let’s just talk about one of them here. The mirror is almost a perfect circle, with a radius of 3.7 cm, a diameter of 7.4 cm, and a net weight of about 50 grams;
The back is decorated with rhombus patterns, and the outer ring of the bronze mirror has an eight-character inscription "Seeing the light of the sun, the world will be bright", so experts call it the "light of seeing the sun" mirror.
As mentioned before, there are quite a few bronze mirrors discovered so far, and many of them have inscriptions. But why do experts call them "special"?
To be fair, at first glance, this bronze mirror seems to be no different from ordinary bronze mirrors.
However, if the mirror is illuminated, the projection produced after reflection will appear as light spots;
Perhaps some impatient friends will say, “What’s so strange about this?
The surface of ancient copper mirrors was not as smooth as today's glass mirrors, and of course there would be dark, uneven shadows on the surface during reflection.
Experts say this phenomenon is 'wonderful'. Isn't it a bit rare and strange?
It seems reasonable at first glance, but what experts say is "wonderful" is not the light spots reflected on the surface of the bronze mirror.
Instead, the patterns and inscriptions on the back of the bronze mirror are displayed, as if the light directly penetrates the bronze mirror and reflects the patterns and words on the back;
What is particularly strange is the inscription on the back of the mirror that reads "Seeing the light of the sun, the world will be bright", which looks novel and somewhat "scary".