Representation and Appropriation: Rethinking the TLV Mirror in Han China

Abstract

No decorative arts in China have aroused as intense modern academic interest as the TLV mirror that was mass-produced in the Han dynasty. Scholars from different fields have strived to rival one another in identifying its obscure design since the beginning of the twentieth century. With new evidence, particularly a mirror and a wooden board unearthed in 1993 at Yinwan, it is time to settle and set aside the old disputation about identification, and to move on to the intellectual adventure of the cultural significance of the TLV mirror in Han China. This paper first considers the complex of art, game and divination. It then discusses how the TLV mirror can serve a cultural sign that demonstrates the “auspicious mentality” of the Han. It also considers how the formal variants of the TLV mirror illustrate the life of a cultural sign.