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Introduction: "recalling the heyday of Kaiyuan in the past, there were still thousands of families in Xiaoyi. The rice is flowing fat and corn is white, and the public and private warehouses are rich and solid. " In his poems, Du Fu made such a high-profile display of the wealth of the Tang Dynasty. Recently, a wide range of cultural relics at the Xi'an Museum's "happy living in Chang'an" exhibition also proves that the poet is not lying.

Today, we are going to introduce the golden back auspicious beast flower branch mirror, which is also from the "Le Ju Chang'an" exhibition. Together with the silver back mirror on display, it appears in unit 4. Due to the epidemic situation, the exhibition is closed. After opening, you can watch it on the spot.

Reward or show off wealth?

This gold backed bronze mirror was unearthed in April 2002 at the tomb of Sima Yanzhi and his wife in Taizhou of the eastern Tang Dynasty in Majiagou village, Textile City, Baqiao District, Xi'an. The size of the mirror is 19.68cm in diameter, 1750g in weight, 1.3-1.4cm in thickness and 1.35cm in button height. The bronze mirror was made in 618-907.

Before understanding this bronze mirror, let's first understand its background. In the Tang Dynasty, the national strength was strong, the economy was prosperous, and the water and land transportation was unimpeded. The products and tribute of the States and the four Yi states were continuously transported to Chang'an, the capital city. Qi Wan, Lu Xuan, Shu brocade, Wu Ling, white porcelain of Xing kiln and Celadon of Yue Kiln are all complete.

Mirror has both practical function and spiritual significance in daily life of Tang Dynasty. The ancients used it to reflect their makeup and decorate their houses, or to repose Acacia, ward off evil spirits and pray for blessings, or to compare characters and virtues. The mirror making technology was very prosperous in the Tang Dynasty. There were many kinds of mirrors, rich patterns and elegant inscriptions. On the basis of round and square mirrors, there were Diamond Flower mirrors, sunflower mirrors, square mirrors, and sub character mirrors. The decorative patterns on the back of mirrors were diversified, with symmetrical, scattered or continuous layout. The contents and themes were very wide, including rare birds, animals, flowers and trees Myths and historical allusions are common ornaments. One of the characteristics of the bronze mirrors of this period is the gorgeous and exquisite special craft mirrors such as gold back, silver back, mother of pearl, gold and silver.

The owner of our bronze mirror is Sima of Taizhou. Judging from today's official position, it is probably equivalent to the director of public security of a city or county. It is a military post. At that time, it was a six grade official post, which was not too high. Bai Juyi has a poem "Sima Qingshan is wet in Jiangzhou" in Pipa Xing. Sima here basically refers to the position of deputy head, deputy mayor and so on. It should be the same level as Taizhou Sima, but Yan Sikong can be buried in the capital city, which should not be regarded as poor. According to the epitaph, Yan Zhi died in the second year of Shengli (699), and was buried with his wife Pei in chongdao township of Wannian County in 706. This bronze mirror is rare and exquisite. It is likely to be a reward for officials by the emperor.

As for the use of the gold back mirror, it is recorded in Gao Ji Fu Zhuan, Volume 82 of the old Tang Dynasty, that "Taizong tasted to give one side of the golden back mirror to show its Qing Jian Yan" in the 18th year of Zhenguan That is to say, the mirror is mainly used for the emperor to give or tribute to the emperor. The gold and silver back mirror belongs to a high-grade type in the Tang Dynasty bronze mirror, and is also relatively small in quantity. Because there are many restrictions on the use of folk gold and silver products in the Tang Dynasty, most of them belong to the objects of offering gifts or showing off the wealth of officials and rich gentry. Our golden back mirror also belongs to these two situations.