CHINA, TANG DYNASTY (AD 618-907)

The imagery in the medallion represents the Moon Palace, which is occupied by a hare that pounds the Elixir of Immortality at the base of the osmanthus tree, and is also inhabited by Chang'e who stole the elixir from her husband Hou Yi. The toad represents the embodiment of Chang'e. An almost identical mirror is illustrated in Ancient Bronze Mirrors from the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, 2005, no. 76, pp. 228-9. Another, slightly smaller mirror of this design, from the Donald H. Graham Jr. Collection, is illustrated by Toru Nakano, Bronze Mirrors from Ancient China, Hong Kong, 1994, pp. 248-9, no. 94 (M50), where the author suggests the birds are magpies, considered to be auspicious messengers of joy. Yet another similar example, but of circular form and omitting the cloud scrolls in the design, was illustrated by Suzanne E. Cahill, The Lloyd Cotsen Study Collection of Chinese Bronze Mirrors, vol. I, Los Angeles, 2009, pl. 118.