A legend surrounding an old mirror.
Author | Language | Library | Discovery |
---|---|---|---|
Wang Du | Chinese | Zhangzhou |
During the Sui dynasty, there was a famous scholar named Hou in Fen Yin. Wang Du treated him with great respect. Before Hou passed away, he gave Wang an ancient mirror and said, "This will protect you from evil." Wang took the mirror and treasured it.
The mirror was about 8 Chinese inches in width with a crouching Kirin in the center and a tortoise, a dragon, a phoenix, and a tiger around it. On the outer ring of the mirror were twelve animals signifying the time.
Besides the time animals, there were twenty-four characters on the edge of the mirror resembling the clerical script.
The characters were well preserved but couldn't be found in dictionaries.
According to Hou, these were characters for the twenty-four solar terms, one could see them through the mirror against the sun, and if you knocked on the back of it, the sound would echo for a day.
It's indeed a magic item that only the wise deserve to admire.
Keywords | Translated keywords |
---|---|
Fen Yin | South of the Fen River |
Time Animal | Twelve Zodiac Signs and the Corresponding Animals |
Twenty-Four Solar Terms | Twenty-Four Solar Terms |