Warning: Undefined variable $q in /home/gwest/web/orientaloutpost.com/public_html/includes/calligraphylist.php on line 44

Broken Mirror Rejoined Chinese Calligraphy Wall Scroll

You can choose from many options to create artwork with Broken Mirror Rejoined characters on a wall scroll or portrait. Start your project by clicking on the "Customize & Buy" button below after you read the story...

Broken Mirror Rejoined

Used in modern times for divorced couples that come back together

 pò jìng chóng yuán
Broken Mirror Rejoined Scroll

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.


The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...

Title CharactersRomaji (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.


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.


A nice Chinese calligraphy wall scroll

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.

A professional Chinese Calligrapher

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.

Trying to learn Chinese calligrapher - a futile effort

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.

A high-ranked Chinese master calligrapher that I met in Zhongwei

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.



ZhongHuaRui
Chinese antique furnitureThrone-type mirror platform.
... Chinese antique furnitureFull-length mirror, a type derived from a screen set...

Chinadaily BBS - Translation Tips ·­Òëµã_ ò - ÇëÎÊ£¬ÆÆ_ µÖØÔ²ÔõÃ'·­Ò룿
The Chinese would say ÆÆ_ µÖØÔ² (= A broken mirror rejoined ) to describe the making up or reunion of a broken relationship.

Regional Folklore and Mythology
...about folklore and mythology topics broken down by cultural and geographical region.
... Chinese ... Isis rejoined the pieces and brought Osiris back to life.

Sample Chapter from Counting Mantou
Each number began with a Chinese character and an English letter.
... hard to prove such exercises had broken any of the recently implemented rules...

Side Show Campfire Stunt (Skit)
The Chinese Giant is built up by one lad riding on the ... These are previously broken and rejoined with thread. ( For detailed act see separate article.

The Lost Library of Florestica
Please," she whispered in Chinese, "Ranma has done nothing to be blamed for, Shan Pu.
... man smiled at the news and then tucked the mirror in his sleeve.

The Golden Bowl, by Henry James
...and differences might of course not have broken out at all, but from the moment ... wonderful tune, the very record and mirror of the general adventure of one's...

The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura
...been derided as ignorance, Chinese sobriety as stupidity, Japanese patriotism ... of the time was urging one to mirror the Universal in the Particular.

The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura
No student of Japanese culture could ever ignore its presence.
... The pantheistic symbolism of the time was urging one to mirror the Universal in the Particular.

Regional Folklore and Mythology
...about folklore and mythology topics broken down by cultural and geographical region.
... Isis rejoined the pieces and brought Osiris back to life.
... Japanese...

GrandPrix.com > GP Encyclopedia > Races > 1996 Results > Japanese GP
When I looked in my mirror he was a long way back.
... wheel had cross-threaded it would have broken the safety device as it came off.

Multibeam interferometer for use in a Fourier transform spectrometer and a driving device for moving the mirrors ...
...mirror 54 driven by means of a linear motor, as disclosed in said Japanese ... beam and the transmitted beam are rejoined at the beam splitter 52, there is...

The Crawfish Boxes :: A Blog Devoted to the Houston Astros
...second place finisher would go the mirror gold version of the same card, ... given up his number if/when Clemens rejoined the Yankees, so why give it up now?...

11th marines
...1/11, as part of 7th Marines (Reinforced), rejoined the 1st Division from Samoa.
... Japanese resistance in that area was broken.