Advertising, Proverbs and Poetry: Multiple Attributes and Evolution of Ancient Chinese Mirror Inscriptions

Although the inscription is an independent style, the mirror inscription has many attributes such as advertisement, proverbs, poetry, etc., of which the attributes of advertisement and poetry are mostly reflected in the inscription on the mirror back, and the attribute of proverbs is mostly reflected in the inscription on the desk reading. The engraved mirror inscription is a part of the mirror back decoration. It mainly praises the quality, function and character of the mirror, wishes the mirror spotters promotion, wealth, longevity, immortality, and prosperity, and writes about the beauty, luxury, and grievances of female users, or adds information about the producers and operators. In the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties, it was obviously patched up and lacked the skills of diction collection, which was basically a folk form; In the Tang Dynasty, the poems and Fu of the Six Dynasties were taken as the model, showing the form of literati, and after the Song Dynasty, with the simplification of the mirror back decoration, it gradually declined. The desk reading mirror inscription is the product of the scholar mirror inscription after getting rid of the shackles of the mirror back and the advertising attribute. It has the function of warning, admonishing, carrying virtue and expressing aspiration. From the political discourse of the emperor's admonition and the subjects' praise of virtue, it has moved to the self-cultivation discourse of the room articles group inscription. In the Qing Dynasty, epigraphy and archaeology flourished. Scholars were fond of collecting and studying the ancient mirrors of the Han and Tang dynasties. The writing of the mirror inscriptions on desk reading materials was intended to imitate the casting mirror inscriptions to some extent, which was no longer an exclusive motto. At the same time, the mirror inscriptions gradually separated from the generalized mirror images and became specific poetic images.