书名：The Allure of the Mirror: Mass Consumption of Fine Things in the Han Empire / 铜镜的魅力：汉代“好物”的大众消费众消费
定价：540.0
ISBN：9780231217781
作者：Yanlong Guo
版次：1
出版时间：2025-09

内容提要：

书名：The Allure of the Mirror: Mass Consumption of Fine Things in the Han Empire / 铜镜的魅力：汉代“好物”的大众消费
作者：Yanlong Guo 
出版社：Columbia University Press (哥伦比亚大学出版社)，2025年
装帧：精装，376页
语种：英文
尺寸：约 15.6 x 23.5 cm
ISBN：978-0-2312-1778-1

简介

在汉代中国（公元前202年–公元220年），铜镜是极受追捧的奢侈品之一。本书探讨了这些被称为“好物”的物件何以在整个帝国时期广受欢迎。作者追溯了铜镜从生产到消费的全过程——从皇室、王侯及私人作坊的制造，到其在生与死中的角色，揭示了这些看似微小的物件如何承载丰富的社会与文化意义。铜镜跨越社会阶层，兼具地位象征、个人用具、爱情信物、家族传家宝、吉祥护符、珍贵赠礼及丧葬用品等多种功能。本书展现了“好物”如何从精英阶层专属逐渐普及至更广泛的社会群体，连接着帝国上下，从宫廷到乡野，构建了一个共享美学品味与社会价值的文化共同体。

In Han China (202 BCE–220 CE), few luxury objects were as widely coveted as bronze mirrors. The Allure of the Mirror explores how and why these objects, historically known as haowu (“fine things”), became so beloved throughout early imperial China. Tracing their production and consumption—from manufacture in workshops to their roles in life and death—Yanlong Guo uncovers the varied ways these seemingly trivial objects took on social and cultural significance. Across social classes, mirrors had a wide range of uses as status symbols, personal tools, romantic tokens, family heirlooms, auspicious amulets, treasured gifts, and funeral offerings. Guo demonstrates how these “fine things,” once exclusive to elites, gradually became accessible to a wider segment of society. Mirrors, he argues, connected people across the empire, fostering a shared cultural community of aesthetic tastes and social values from royal courts to rural households.