Ornament, Text, and the Creation of Sishen Mirrors in Late Western Han and Xin China (ca. 50 BCE – 23 CE)

Abstract

Towards the end of the first century BCE, ornamentation of Chinese mirrors shifted fundamentally from a symmetric design of largely repeated motifs to a unidirectional one of non-repetitive animal or human motifs, culminating in the so-called “Four Gods” (sishen 四神) mirrors. Scholars, however, have offered no explanations for this paradigm change. This article, by closely analyzing the ornament in relation to other elements in mirrors of different styles, demonstrates that the introduction of long expository inscriptions with narrative elements into late Western Han bronze mirrors redefined the relationship between the mirror and the viewer/reader, and played an important role in triggering the aforementioned shift in ornament. The author focuses on the changing styles and placements of the ornaments and inscriptions during circa 50 BCE to 23 CE. Finally, this article situates the change of mirror ornament in the historical context of the late Western Han and the Xin dynasties and speculates on its ideological and political causes.