Hello All
I'm new to this amazing forum and the level of knowledge and discussions are worth a compliment.
I'm no historian but a collector of chinese porcelain and of some other wares like bronzes. My question is about the latter. I have a bronze mirror which probably dates to the Tang period. It has a zhuanshu style inscription which I managed to translate myself and found out (via googling with the chinese characters) that it contains the first line of a poem written by Li Cheng (766-842) who wrote this at his imperial exam (AD 796) and became first of his class. Although chinese mirrors do contain inscriptions sometimes, it is not common that a direct connection can be made to a (apparently still-) known text and writer. Li Cheng is mentioned in the Xin Tang Shu (chapter 131) and the Jiu Tang Shu; from other sites I gathered he had a long career in the imperial court and at major cities during the reigns of some 7 emperors. I do not read chinese besides a few dozen characters but the automatic translators on the web can be reasonably helpful to at least understand the general idea.
Below some pictures of the mirror and the texts. I made them 200x200 pixels as I read that was the limit, so they are fairly small.
The text in the centre ring puzzles me most. The inner characters most probably are
表素傅家 (biao su fu jia) or
青素博家 (qing su bo jia)
This may translate 'blue robe Fu family' (or Bo family). The 'biao su' is an uncommon (old) combination but I found some translated old texts where it is translated 'blue/white robe' which I think was the dress color for imperial examination students ? Not sure. So it could be '(for) the examination candidate of the Fu/Bo family' assuming the mirror was a gift to a candidate. The using of Li's poem could be an honorific symbol or perhaps the mirror was even presented by Li himself. Or maybe given to him. All total speculation at this point. Many times the following can be found on the web 李程，字表臣 which translates to something like "Li Cheng, feudal official" I think. Notice the 'biao' character is in there too so maybe the 'biao' on the centre circle has something to do with that.
So I am hoping that you guys can help me out with the translation/meaning and/or direct me to some university department that would be interested to see this artefact and help out.
Best regards
Hans