How does a Leifeng Pagoda bronze mirror reflect the past and present?

China News Service, Hangzhou, September 26th. Title: How does a Leifeng Pagoda bronze mirror reflect the past and present?

Author Cao Dan Sun Linru

The evening of September 25th is the Mid-Autumn Festival. Inside the Leifeng Pagoda in Hangzhou, a bright moon contrasts with the night sky of West Lake.

Twenty-five years ago, a bronze mirror engraved with a moon-appreciating scene was unearthed from the Leifeng Pagoda underground palace; 25 years later, an event themed "Light Flow and the Moon Shines on Clothes" was held in Leifeng New Pagoda. Archaeologists and cultural and historical experts sat around to re-read this bronze mirror, which also told the origins of moon-appreciation in the Mid-Autumn Festival and the elegance of Wuyue Kingdom's clothing.

On the evening of September 25th, the "Light Flow, Full Moon Shines on Clothes" event was held. Photo by Cao Dan

Back in 2001, the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology conducted an archaeological excavation at the Leifeng Pagoda Underground Palace and unearthed 77 numbered cultural relics (groups) including stone Buddhist scriptures, inscribed bricks, building components and Buddhist relics, including 10 bronze mirrors.

"This 'Guang Liu Su Yue' mirror is the 37th cultural relic unearthed from the underground palace." Li Yuxin, the then archaeological excavation leader of the Leifeng Pagoda underground palace recalled.

This bronze mirror is 10.3 centimeters in diameter and has round buttons. Four auspicious beasts are running around the buttons on the inner area of ​​the mirror, decorated with tangled grape branches. The outer area is engraved with an inscription: "The light flows like the moon, and the quality is mysterious. The sky is clear, the water is reflected, and the reflection is clear. The ancients will last forever, and the soul will shine." The most special thing is that the side of the bronze mirror that reflects the face is engraved with a line engraving, which completely reproduces the scene of the ancients admiring the moon.

The line-engraved image on the mirror surface of "Optical Flow Suyue". (Information picture, provided by the organizer)

"The style of the 'Guangliu Suyue' bronze mirror inherits the parallel style of auspicious beasts in the Sui and early Tang Dynasties." Wang Mu, a research librarian at the Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Relics Appraisal Station, said that on the mirror, the line engraved images are arranged in a dense and dense manner: in the center of the screen is a pair of figures, above Fang Guanghan Palace is located in the clouds, with the Big Dipper stretching across the sky, dancing dragons and phoenixes, cranes circling, accompanied by drums, clappers, flutes and other musical instruments. The trees below the houses are arranged on both sides, and Taoist priests, girls and musicians are arranged in sequence, and there are ceremonial guards. The sky and the world are connected by a bright moon.

Zhao Feng, Qiushi Distinguished Professor of Zhejiang University and Director of the Silk Art and Silk Road Culture Research Center, explained that the upper half of the line-engraved image is the Taoist moon palace legend, and the lower half shows the Mid-Autumn moon appreciation scene of the Wuyue Kingdom. "At that time, Buddhism and Taoism were blended together, and the concept of 'all good things come together' was adhered to. This is also the reason why this bronze mirror with the image of both religions was buried in the underground palace of Leifeng Pagoda."

The moon-appreciating scene on the bronze mirror makes people ask: When did Chinese people start appreciating the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival?

"After the Kaiyuan Dynasty in the Tang Dynasty, a large number of Mid-Autumn poems about the moon appeared." Zhu Hong, an associate researcher at the Institute of Literature of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said when sorting out the changes in the custom of moon appreciation. Taking "Full Tang Poems" as an example, there are more than 130 Tang poems titled August 15th, and most of the authors lived during the Kaiyuan period and later.

Chinese people have a long tradition of chanting the moon. From the Book of Songs to the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, literati often used the bright moon to express their feelings. Cao Cao's "It's as clear as the moon, when can you shake it off. The sorrow that comes from it cannot be cut off" is an example.

Zhu Hong pointed out that the common feature of this type of poems is that the poetic environment is cold and cold, creating a fairyland. "At that time, people were not particular about the time of the month, and it was not concentrated until August 15th."

In her view, August 15th became the day to admire the moon, which was the result of the long-term convergence of royal culture and folk beliefs.

Zhu Hong introduced that Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty believed in the Taoist theory of immortality in his later years, and the story of "The Emperor Ming's Tour of the Moon Palace" was widely circulated, adding a strong Taoist flavor to the Mid-Autumn Festival. According to folk legend, August 15th is the day when the Taoist priest Xu Xun of the Eastern Jin Dynasty ascended to heaven, and people gathered on this day to pray for blessings. By the Tang Dynasty, the number of participants could reach tens of thousands, and the festival had begun to take shape.

The appreciation of literati and folk beliefs blended together. "This provides a possibility for the transformation of religious ceremonies into secular festivals, and also paved the way for moon appreciation to become a national festival in the Song Dynasty," Zhu Hong said.

Lin Shuo, a research librarian at the National Museum of China, believes that the origins of the Mid-Autumn Festival can be traced back to the autumn harvest sacrifices of the pre-Qin Dynasty. "The "Book of Rites of Great Dai" has records of the Emperor Zhou's "autumn twilight and evening moon". He also mentioned an interesting saying: Tang Xuanzong's Qianqiu Festival falls on the fifth day of August, and Tang Suzong's Birthday Festival falls on the third day of September. The two festivals are less than one month apart, so the people took the middle time and gradually formed the custom of celebrating August 15th.

"During the Tang and Song dynasties, people ate 'Mooncake' during the Mid-Autumn Festival, but it has now been lost. Although the word 'mooncake' appeared in the Song Dynasty, it was steamed at that time, and the custom of baking mooncakes as gifts was not generally popular until the Ming Dynasty." Lin Shuo said.

The moon palace in the sky is a legend, but the clothes and clothes in the world are real records. The clothing of the characters on the bronze mirror provides a basis for today's scholars to restore the costumes of the Wuyue Kingdom.

Zhao Feng said that the restoration of Wuyue costumes was based on the image of this bronze mirror as the core reference, combined with the statues of King Ashoka in Leifeng Pagoda and the silk cultural relics unearthed from the underground palace of Famen Temple for mutual confirmation. The research team restored ancient fabrics such as silk damask, ribbon-patterned damask, and treasure-patterned damask, and used traditional techniques such as gold stamping and printing to tailor Wu Yue costumes.

On the evening of September 25, four models wore restored Wu Yueguo costumes for the catwalk. Photo by Cao Dan

At the event, four models wore restored Wuyue costumes such as round-neck robes, long-skirted long-sleeved robes, cloud-shouldered feather-sleeved robes, and other costumes from the Wuyue Kingdom on the catwalk. Between the wide sleeves and cloud-shouldered shoulders, the fashion of thousands of years ago "came" to people's eyes again.

That night, the book "The Light Flows and the Moon Shines on Clothes: Wu Yue Silk and Clothing Seen in the Leifeng Pagoda Underground Palace" written by Zhao Feng's team was officially released. Rong Xinjiang, professor of liberal arts at Peking University, commented on the spot that the book integrates unearthed cultural relics, historical images and documentary records, supplemented by contemporary handicrafts to reproduce historical scenes, allowing the public to have a glimpse of the Wuyue culture's inheritance of the Chang'an cultural context of the Tang Dynasty.

Life is endless from generation to generation, but the river and the moon are only similar year after year.

The four words "ying this soul" in the mirror inscription mean to illuminate the heart of the person holding the mirror. Thousands of years later, the ancient mirror will be illuminated again, and what it illuminates is that the cultural context has not been broken and the customs have remained the same. (over)