Most of the mirror buttons during the Warring States Period were three-stringed buttons.
This type of mirror buttons began during the Warring States Period and lasted from Qin to the early Western Han Dynasty. It was not until the second half of the Western Han Dynasty that they were replaced by semicircular buttons.
The mirror is designed in the shape of a mountain, which is an important mirror style in the Warring States Period and is a unique color of the Chu State in the south.
Although Chu mirrors started late, starting from the middle of the Warring States Period, bronze mirror casting in the Southern Chu area developed rapidly, with not only large quantities, but also various varieties and exquisite decorations.
The mountain pattern is the most popular pattern in Chu mirrors. The most common one is the four-mountain pattern, followed by the five-mountain pattern, and the three-mountain and six-mountain patterns are rarer.
There are different opinions on the origin and meaning of the mountain-shaped pattern. One theory is that the mountain-shaped pattern is both realistic and symbolic. There are mountains between the sky and the earth, and there are flowers, plants, and animals between the mountains. The boundless world is concretely and minutely grasped in a square of copper that can be held in one hand. Mirror room.
Among them, the Four Mountain Mirror of the Warring States Period must be one of the classics. The diameter of this bronze mirror is only 11.5cm.
The characteristics of this mirror are the three-stringed buttons and convex edges that represent the Warring States Period, and the mountain-shaped pattern that represents the Chu State.
This mirror is a four-mountain mirror. The thickness of the mirror edge is greater than the thickness of the mirror surface. There is a smooth and inward concave ring from the mirror edge inwards.
Like the three-stringed button, this type of mirror edge feature also extended to the middle of the Western Han Dynasty. Therefore, the difference between Warring States bronze mirrors and early Western Han Dynasty bronze mirrors is often based on the difference in patterns.
Such as mountain-shaped mirror, plain mirror, animal pattern mirror, square pattern mirror, panchi pattern mirror, feather pattern mirror, hollow pattern mirror and other main forms.
It is a pity that the mirror is said to have come from the ancient tombs in Yangluojin Village that were stolen during the Republic of China. It is especially believed that the tombs are the tombs of the Zhou royal family during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.
Of course, there were very few types of mirrors during the Warring States Period. Apart from these regular bronze mirrors, there were no jade mirrors inlaid.
The decoration of this mirror is unique. The surface of the mirror is heavily rusted. It may be thought that it is a bronze mirror but some kind of decoration. I did not need to take a step back to study it.
There is a jade ring inside it as a button base.
Glaze dragonfly eyes spread to your country and became popular during the Warring States Period.
Since there is no mirror with the Chilong pattern, it naturally lacks the other mirrors with the dragon pattern, such as the double mountain pattern.
We create a dull, flexible and vibrant scenery under the mirror.
The image of the dragon pattern on bronze mirrors during this period was close to the panchi pattern that was popular on bronze vessels at the same time.
Has he seen glass beads with "eyes"?
By the 10th century AD, it became popular to inlay concentric circles of eye-patterned glass beads under colorless glass beads.
This mirror button is in the shape of an arch bridge, with a round button base, and no ring in the middle. The background pattern combines cloud patterns and rhombus patterns, which are the same as the background pattern of the main decoration on the inner circle, and are integrated into one.
Today, not many tombs from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period have been excavated.
Although there are no longer many patterns in the decoration of Warring States bronze mirrors, they can still be divided into several small categories.
It is surrounded by blue colored glaze, without white eye-shaped or eight-flowered patterns, and the inner edge is a corded jade ring.
Similar patterns can be seen in the deformed seven-mountain pattern in the collection of Xiaohai Museum, and in the bronze mirrors unearthed from Gongxingshan Cemetery in Hengyang, Nanhu, and Houjiatang in Husha.
According to Bai Juyi's description in "Cui Shishi Xinchi", colored glaze is like a fragile amber.
In order to make glass beads more popular, ingenious craftsmen make glass beads into various shapes.
The craftsmen were ingenious and painted the glass into various models. What's more, they even painted the eyes under the glass.
That style of glazed products was introduced from the West and was very popular during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
Because its structure resembles the "compound eye" of a dragonfly, it is commonly known as "dragonfly eye".
It is 12.2 centimeters in diameter. The mirror button in the middle of the back is a blue-white concentric circle pattern glass bead, and the mirror button is a jade ring.
Over time, people have become very disgusted with their eyes.
In West Asia and India, before human civilization, there was no concept that "eyes cannot ward off evil spirits and turbidity".
The glazed dragonfly has ugly eyes and is easy to carry around. It is not only a talisman for herdsmen, but also a commodity that cannot be traded. It has gradually become our "must-have mascot".
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, glazed dragonfly eyes flowed into the Central Plains from the West Asian Meridian xj.
The square button base was relatively rare at this time. The button base has no decoration and the four corners are decorated with eight-leaf patterns, forming a regular rhythm with the four mountains.
In fact, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, a kind of glass beads with eyes became popular.
The blue and white concentric glass beads of the mirror button are especially called dragonfly eye glass beads.
Without demand, there is no market. The price of glass beads is getting lower and lower. Central Plains craftsmen saw business opportunities and stopped using local raw materials to imitate them.
"Suddenly it looked like water, a pool of thin glass."
There were very few types of bronze mirrors like that during the Warring States Period, such as the painted mirror with seven dragon patterns, and none such as Chixiong Yunbo.
The patterns of dragonfly eyes are also gradually increasing, and people even inlay glazed dragonfly eyes under bronze mirrors, hooks, sword hilts and other utensils for decoration.
The two dragons are arranged in the same direction with the button as the center, curling their bodies and looking back, which is vivid and dull.
The most uninteresting excavation was the Yue King Goujian Sword and Wu King Fuchai Sword unearthed by archeology, because there was nothing under the hilts of our swords - no glaze decoration. During this period, the ancients created a formula similar to the soda-lime glaze in West Asia.
, are the same "local colored glaze", nor are they Chinese dragonfly eye colored glaze beads containing lead and barium.
The jade ring is inlaid with a small glass ring with blue and white bead-like patterns, and the inner edge is inlaid with a jade ring with twisted silk patterns.
There is no groove inside the mirror body, and then there is a concave curved surface ring.
This kind of mirror belongs to the middle and late Warring States Period. It has buttons and is replaced by round blue colored glass, with no white loop pattern underneath.
Under the checkered cirrus land pattern, the main pattern is the deformed dragon pattern.
The inner side is the lower side, and the thin mirror body is also one of the main features of Warring States bronze mirrors.
It cannot even be said that as long as there are glass beads with eyes in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, as long as cultural relics are related to them, they will be worth a lot of money.
Why are eyes inlaid with colored glaze? Since ancient times, human beings have prayed for weakness and happiness.
The colorful and dazzling West Asian glass beads are inherently beautiful and precious, and are very popular among princes and nobles.
As long as the cultural relic is embedded in it, it will immediately be worth a lot of money.
In order to express their love for eyes, humans draw "eyes" on cave walls, under buildings, outside tombs, or wear them as amulets to ward off bad luck.
The Central Plains and West Asia are thousands of miles apart. With the development of history, a large number of nomads and merchants traveled between the two places.
Bronze mirrors decorated with panchi patterns are more popular in the southern Chu region and are one of the important components of "Chu-style mirrors".
The mirror craftsmen of the Chu State not only sought changes in the mountain pattern, but also often used mosaic and leaf patterns or animal patterns, which are closely related to dragon pattern mirrors, as auxiliary decorations.
However, it is still more common to use it under bronze mirrors. Not at all. As long as it is an antique from the Warring States period, as long as there are no glazed eyes underneath, the value will be doubled.
In 2500 AD, colored glaze appeared in West Asia and Egypt, and was limited to royal use.
Therefore, during the Warring States Period, the mountain-shaped pattern was also called the Pan Chi Pattern Mirror.
Because humans have no eyes, they can only see what is behind them, cannot avoid obstacles, and cannot even observe the future.