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Mirror with Xiwangmu
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
This mirror depicts Xiwangmu, Queen Mother of the West, and her husband, Dongwanggong, King Father of the East, surrounded by mythical figures and animals. One of the earliest and most powerful goddesses in the Daoist pantheon, Xiwangmu can be identified by her U-shaped crown. Legend says that the two deities meet once a year representing the meeting of yin and yang, the two forces that constitute the universe. This mirror shows a band of 14 squares around the center containing a long inscription.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineMirror with Xiwangmu (西王母鏡), c. 317–400 CE. China, Six Dynasties period (220–589 CE). Bronze; diameter: 18.5 cm (7 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund, 1983.213
