SONG DYNASTY (AD 960-1279)

Bodhidharma is a Buddhist figure whose teachings eventually became the foundation of Chan (Zen) Buddhism. He is often depicted standing on a reed leaf, representing the episode where he crossed the Yangtze river to evade pursuers.

A very similar lobed bronze mirror decorated with the same scene is in the Shanghai Museum and illustrated in Ancient Bronze Mirrors from the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, 2005, p. 347, no. 134, with a rubbing on p. 346.