Not what you want?
Try other similar-meaning words, fewer words, or just one word.
Feel free to email me with your request. If it's easy, I'll translate it for free and add it to this database of calligraphy for you.
Buy a Broken Mirror calligraphy wall scroll here!
Used in modern times for divorced couples that come back together
破鏡重圓 is about a husband and wife who were separated and reunited.
About 1500 years ago in China, there lived a beautiful princess named Le Chang. She and her husband Xu De Yan loved each other very much. But when the army of the Sui Dynasty was about to attack their kingdom, disposed of all of their worldly possessions and prepared to flee into exile.
They knew that in the chaos, they might lose track of each other, so the one possession they kept was a bronze mirror which is a symbol of unity for a husband and wife. They broke the mirror into two pieces, and each of them kept half of the mirror. They decided that if separated, they would try to meet at the fair during the 15th day of the first lunar month (which is the lantern festival). Unfortunately, the occupation was brutal, and the princess was forced to become the mistress of the new commissioner of the territory, Yang Su.
At the Lantern Festival the next year, the husband came to the fair to search for his wife. He carried with him his half of the mirror. As he walked through the fair, he saw the other half of the mirror for sale at a junk market by a servant of the commissioner. The husband recognized his wife's half of the mirror immediately, and tears rolled down his face as he was told by the servant about the bitter and loveless life that the princess had endured.
As his tears dripped onto the mirror, the husband scratched a poem into his wife's half of the mirror:
You left me with the severed mirror,
The mirror has returned, but absent are you,
As I gaze in the mirror, I seek your face,
I see the moon, but as for you, I see not a trace.
The servant brought the inscribed half of the mirror back to the princess. For many days, the princess could not stop crying when she found that her husband was alive and still loved her.
Commissioner Yang Su, becoming aware of this saga, realized that he could never obtain the princess's love. He sent for the husband and allowed them to reunite.
This proverb, 破鏡重圓, is now used to describe a couple who has been torn apart for some reason (usually divorce) but have come back together (or remarried).
It seems to be more common these days in America for divorced couples to reconcile and get married to each other again. This will be a great gift if you know someone who is about to remarry their ex.
This in-stock artwork might be what you are looking for, and ships right away...
Gallery Price: $60.00
Your Price: $36.88
Gallery Price: $60.00
Your Price: $36.88
Gallery Price: $67.00
Your Price: $36.88
Gallery Price: $60.00
Your Price: $36.88
Below are some entries from our dictionary that may match your Broken Mirror search...
| Characters If shown, 2nd row is Simp. Chinese |
Pronunciation Romanization |
Simple Dictionary Definition |
破鏡重圓 破镜重圆 see styles |
pò jìng chóng yuán po4 jing4 chong2 yuan2 p`o ching ch`ung yüan po ching chung yüan |
More info & calligraphy: Broken Mirror Rejoined |
破鏡 破镜 see styles |
pò jìng po4 jing4 p`o ching po ching hakyou / hakyo はきょう |
broken mirror; fig. broken marriage; divorce (1) broken mirror; (2) marital separation; divorce; (3) partially eclipsed moon |
樂昌破鏡 乐昌破镜 see styles |
lè chāng pò jìng le4 chang1 po4 jing4 le ch`ang p`o ching le chang po ching |
lit. the story of the broken mirror of Princess Lechang 樂昌公主|乐昌公主[Le4 chang1 Gong1 zhu3] (In the tale, the princess and her husband, fearing separation during the turbulence of war, broke a bronze mirror in half. They each kept one half as a token, with the promise to reunite by matching the pieces together. They were indeed separated, but eventually reunited, with the mirror playing a crucial role in their reunion.) (idiom); fig. the reunion of separated lovers or the restoration of a relationship |
破鏡再び照らさず see styles |
hakyoufutatabiterasazu / hakyofutatabiterasazu はきょうふたたびてらさず |
(expression) (proverb) a broken relationship can never be repaired; a divorced couple are never reconciled; a broken mirror will never shine again |
落花枝に帰らず破鏡再び照らさず see styles |
rakkaedanikaerazuhakyoufutatabiterasazu / rakkaedanikaerazuhakyofutatabiterasazu らっかえだにかえらずはきょうふたたびてらさず |
(expression) (proverb) fallen blossom doesn't return to the branch, a broken mirror can not be made to shine; what's done is done; there's no use crying over spilled milk |
The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...
| Title | Characters | Romaji (Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Romanized Chinese | |
| Broken Mirror Rejoined | 破鏡重圓 破镜重圆 | pò jìng chóng yuán po4 jing4 chong2 yuan2 po jing chong yuan pojingchongyuan | p`o ching ch`ung yüan pochingchungyüan po ching chung yüan |
|
| In some entries above you will see that characters have different versions above and below a line. In these cases, the characters above the line are Traditional Chinese, while the ones below are Simplified Chinese. | ||||
Successful Chinese Character and Japanese Kanji calligraphy searches within the last few hours...
All of our calligraphy wall scrolls are handmade.
When the calligrapher finishes creating your artwork, it is taken to my art mounting workshop in Beijing where a wall scroll is made by hand from a combination of silk, rice paper, and wood.
After we create your wall scroll, it takes at least two weeks for air mail delivery from Beijing to you.
Allow a few weeks for delivery. Rush service speeds it up by a week or two for $10!
When you select your calligraphy, you'll be taken to another page where you can choose various custom options.
The wall scroll that Sandy is holding in this picture is a "large size"
single-character wall scroll.
We also offer custom wall scrolls in small, medium, and an even-larger jumbo size.
Professional calligraphers are getting to be hard to find these days.
Instead of drawing characters by hand, the new generation in China merely type roman letters into their computer keyboards and pick the character that they want from a list that pops up.
There is some fear that true Chinese calligraphy may become a lost art in the coming years. Many art institutes in China are now promoting calligraphy programs in hopes of keeping this unique form
of art alive.
Even with the teachings of a top-ranked calligrapher in China, my calligraphy will never be good enough to sell. I will leave that to the experts.
The same calligrapher who gave me those lessons also attracted a crowd of thousands and a TV crew as he created characters over 6-feet high. He happens to be ranked as one of the top 100 calligraphers in all of China. He is also one of very few that would actually attempt such a feat.
Check out my lists of Japanese Kanji Calligraphy Wall Scrolls and Old Korean Hanja Calligraphy Wall Scrolls.
Some people may refer to this entry as Broken Mirror Kanji, Broken Mirror Characters, Broken Mirror in Mandarin Chinese, Broken Mirror Characters, Broken Mirror in Chinese Writing, Broken Mirror in Japanese Writing, Broken Mirror in Asian Writing, Broken Mirror Ideograms, Chinese Broken Mirror symbols, Broken Mirror Hieroglyphics, Broken Mirror Glyphs, Broken Mirror in Chinese Letters, Broken Mirror Hanzi, Broken Mirror in Japanese Kanji, Broken Mirror Pictograms, Broken Mirror in the Chinese Written-Language, or Broken Mirror in the Japanese Written-Language.