Ancient Mirror Qi Tan—Exploration Of The Evolution Of Mirror Imagery In Chinese Classical Culture

There is a hidden relation between mirror and the spiritual world of human.Over its prolonged history of evolution.the mirror has already become a sort of material carrier of Chinese spiritual culture and imagination,emerging as an image group for oral folk literature and literati novels.In the former part,the paper traces the evolutionary process of ancient mirror and strives to discern the images behind every morphological change.In the stage of water mirror,the image of Self-reflection already arises,and has been frequently recorded in various Pre-Qin dynasty classics.The age of bronze mirror is,however,a significant period for the nurturing of images.Seen from its origin,the early bronze mirror is connected with sacrificial rituals and integrated with the cosmology of Yin and Yang.This concept,inherited by later generations,facilitates the casting of the so-called Yin-Yang mirror,one that symbolizes the Tao of heaven and is fundamentally different with the daily-used mirror.If probing into the processing technology,the Taoist alchemists are,technically,among the first to be mirror polishers.Thus,the Taoist thinking occupies an important position during the spread and transformation of mirror images.However,in daily use,the bronze mirror closely links to people's emotion through the so-called Empathy Effect,and thus creates such images as reunion and reconciliation.Afterwards,when western glass mirror is introduced into china during Ming and Qing dynastys,its clear imaging further obscures the boundary between reality and fiction,and meanwhile becomes a scientific symbol of civilized world in the imagination of those contemporary intellectuals.While in the latter part,the paper penetrates into the optical properties of ancient mirror,namely the property of light reflecting and image forming,and attempts to analyze the rise and transformation of literary images.Being able to reflect makes ancient mirror a symbol of Light,which on the one hand manifests the Tao of Heaven,on the other exorcises evil spirits.Moreover,this abstract concept further evolves into such concrete images as monster-revealing mirror,disease-diagnosing mirror,mind-exposing mirror,etc.Whereas,the effect of image forming is shown in more aspects.Firstly,there appears the literary image of Self-examination,which is further elaborated in Confucianism,Buddhism and Taoism.Secondly,a sense of self-pitying arises among the scholar-bureaucrats and further transforms into an aesthetic appreciation for those self-pitied women.Finally,Mirror stands for illusion,with itself being a classic metaphor in Buddhism and an important inspiration for many novelists.The various mirror images are all collectively and intuitively created metaphors when they first emerge.In addition,there are distinct characteristics of the times and social stratum when they are circulated around.For example,preaching plays a key role in spreading mirror images to commoners.After a long hibernation in oral folk literature,the mirror images start to inspire the literati as a new material,and eventually become various personal literary images.