In the Song Dynasty, bronze mirrors became more practical and folk. In addition to the official mirror, the folk mirror is more common, which benefits from the development of handicraft industry and the circulation of commodity economy. So when it comes to bronze mirrors in the Song Dynasty, the representatives are often private rather than official. Based on this point, compared with the previous dynasties, the most important change of bronze mirrors in Song Dynasty is the generalization of casting mirror location and the formation of several famous casting mirror centers. For example, Huzhou and Lin' an in Zhejiang, Tanzhou in Hunan, Jiankang in Jiangsu, Rao and Jizhou in Jiangxi, Chengdu in Sichuan and Jianzhou in Fujian are the most famous. In addition, bronze mirror itself has a very strong folk characteristics.

First of all, from the perspective of decoration, the most common themes used in real life, such as peony, chrysanthemum, peach blossom, twirling flower, Pisces and fish pattern, bird and beast pattern, double dragon pattern, double phoenix pattern, landscape figures, pavilions and pavilions, fairy stories, are the most common pictures. For example, the old collection " Lotus flying butterfly mirror" of the Qing Dynasty palace is decorated with a circle dot pattern around the mirror button, surrounded by three lotus flowers and three butterflies in between, which is very pictorial. This kind of bronze mirror was unearthed in Luoyang. Another example is " tortoise crane fairy mirror", which is in the shape of a Yuanbao button. On the side of the button, there is a fairy with a long beard sitting upright and decorated with a backlight. On the other side of the button is the picture of the boy offering his birthday. There are flying cranes on the button, tortoises and flowers under the button. The gap between the patterns is large and the casting is rough. This kind of mirror is compared with the unearthed one. In 1974, a rhombic flower mirror was unearthed in Longyou commune, Quzhou City, Zhejiang Province, with the same pattern (bronze mirror unearthed in Zhejiang 147); the fourth 29 of the mirror in the Grottoes is the same as the picture of this mirror, but the pattern is opposite to the left and right, it is said that it was " unearthed during the construction of roads in Southeast Shandong in song and Jin Dynasties"; In addition, the bronze mirror unearthed in Sichuan Province also contains two sides, one is unearthed in Chongqing and the other in Mianyang.

Secondly, from the perspective of shape, there is a handle mirror, such as the old " fairy mirror with long handle". This kind of mirror pictures are published more books, and now there are many imitations, but imitators often cast the mirror body and handle together in one time without any clue. There is also a short handled bronze mirror. The upper part of the handle is provided with a mirror holder, and the lower part of the handle is provided with a tie hole. The picture of the mirror body is a large "& quot; pattern, surrounded by turtle and fish patterns. This kind of short handle mirror pictures are rarely published in books, and no copy is found now. In addition to the handle mirror, the shape of the mirror body has also changed, such as sub shape, peach shape, sunflower shape, tripod shape, bottle shape, square shape, rectangle, etc. In addition, the rise of epigraphy in the Song Dynasty, good ancient, antique fashion, so this stage also appeared a number of antique mirror, such as Han mirror, Tang mirror and so on.

Finally, the contents of the inscriptions changed a lot, which was also the most obvious feature of the bronze mirrors in the Song Dynasty. At that time, there were many words on the back of the mirror, such as the name of the caster, the surname of the craftsman and the location of the workshop. At the same time, some well-known workshops in order to prevent counterfeiting, but also on the back of the mirror marked with specific street locations and publicity Seiko produced advertising. For example, " the real stone family in Huzhou is incomparable in copper smelting (Zhaozi)", & quot; the story of the real one color bronze Zhaozi of the yifengqiao stone family in Huzhou", & quot; the long-time bronze Zhaozi of the Ye family in Raozhou" and so on. Huzhou mirror is the most common and the largest preserved mirror. For example, the old " Huzhou mirror" in the palace is decorated with a rectangular inscription mark on the left and right, which are respectively " Huzhou ten true copper smelting and zhaoziji" and " every two hundred". This kind of mirror was unearthed and published many times. It was mostly made of " Shijia", which was a material of the Southern Song Dynasty.

In a word, the bronze mirrors in Song Dynasty were mostly used in daily life, with light and thin body and small or no buttons. There are obvious characteristics of folk decoration. Also because of the private casting, the quality is uneven.