Overview

Even among the many pictorial mirrors produced around the 2nd and 3rd centuries in the Yangzi basin area in China, this extremely rare one has few counterparts. Next to each of the figures in the inner zone are Chinese characters for "Zixu," "Emperor Wu," and "Emperor Yue ." This tells us that the mirror depicts a historical event which occurred during the battle of Wu and Yue. The angry facial expression and posture of Zixu, who holds his sword to his neck as if about to slit his own throat, are vividly depicted.

To Fucha, the Emperor Wu, who has defeated Goujian, the Emperor Yue, the loyal Zixu advocates taking this opportunity to slay his old enemy. Emperor Wu, however, through the efforts of his minister who has received gifts of beautiful women and treasures from Emperor Yue, spares his life. Afterwards, Emperor Wu, believing that this minister has been slandered, orders Zixu to kill himself with a famous sword. Zixu, while uttering abuses at Emperor Wu's stupidity, kills himself in the end. We can assume that the two females depicted in the inner zone of the mirror represent the beautiful women given to the minister of Emperor Wu by Emperor Yue since they are accompanied by Chinese characters which mean "Two Women of Emperor Yue," or possibly, "Two Princesses.