2,000-year-old bronze mirror with Confucius portrait exhibited in East China

NANCHANG -- A 2,000-year-old bronze mirror with a Confucius portrait was exhibited in the provincial museum in East China's Jiangxi province, according to the museum.

This was the first time that the mirror was exhibited since Chinese archeologists unearthed it from the Marquis of the Haihun tomb dating back to the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-24 AD) in 2015.

There are 1,850 characters on the portrait, which is on the back of the mirror that is around 50 to 60 centimeters wide and 70 to 80 centimeters tall.

"The characters include the names of Confucius and his disciples, along with a brief biography of Confucius," said Zhang Zhongli, deputy chief of the excavation team in the province.

"The mirror was probably used to block evil spirits," said Wang Renxiang, a researcher from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The Chinese have revered Confucius and followed his teachings for centuries. He is respected as "the teacher of all teachers," and children learn to recite his quotes at a very young age.

The Marquis of Haihun cemetery is the most complete Western Han cemetery ever discovered in China. Archeologists have so far unearthed more than 10,000 heritage pieces from the tombs. The exhibition of the tombs in Jiangxi Provincial Museum has received 2.38 million visitors.