Exquisite mirrors from ancient royal court

The Palace Museum in Beijing has shared a range of photos of its collection of mirrors on micro blog Sina Weibo in celebration of the autumn.

China has a long history of mirror culture, dating back to the late Neolithic Age. The ancient poem Mulan has sentences that portray a woman primping in front of a mirror. With the introduction of Western glass mirrors in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the shapes, structures and decorations of Chinese mirrors became highly diverse. Some mirrors were even placed into jade pendants so that people could carry them everywhere. Let's take a look at the various mirrors in the Forbidden City.

A handled bronze mirror painted with pagodas from Qing Dynasty. [Photo/Official Weibo account of the Palace Museum]