A broken mirror reunites, it’s a metaphor for reuniting a couple after they have been separated or reconnecting after a breakup.
Idiom Pronunciation:
破镜重圆
pò jìng chóng yuán
Origin:
《本事诗·情感》：乃破一镜，人执其半，约曰：“他日必以正月望日卖于都市，我当在，即以是日访之。”及陈亡，其妻果人越公杨素之家，宠嬖殊厚。德言流离辛苦，仅能至京，遂以正月望日访于都市。有苍头卖半镜者，大高其价，人皆笑之。德言直引至其居，设食，具言其故，出半镜以合之，仍题诗曰：“镜与人俱去，镜归人不归。无复嫦娥影，空留明月辉。”陈氏得诗，涕泣不食。
Story:
At the end of the Southern Dynasty of China, Sui Emperor Yang Jian destroyed the surrounding Southern Chen and Northern Qi and established the Sui Dynasty. At this time, several small states existed side by side in the south, and the state of Chen, whose capital was in Jiankang, was one of them. The Sui dynasty had long coveted the small southern states and was ready to unify the whole China. Xu Deyan was the retainer of Chen Shubao, the emperor of the state of Chen. He married the emperor’s sister, Princess Lechang, and they were very much in love. But at that time, the dynasty of Chen was corrupt and it was a great trend to unify the world. Xu Deyan foresaw that one day the country would suffer the scourge of destruction and was therefore very worried.
One day, he said to his wife with a sad face, “There may be a war soon, and when I have to protect the emperor, we will be forced to split up as husband and wife. But as long as we live, there will always be a chance to meet again. We should leave one thing first, as a proof of our future reunion.” Then, Xu Deyan took a round bronze mirror and broke it into two, half of which he kept for himself and half of which he gave to his wife, telling her to keep it well and saying to her, “If we are separated, on the 15th day of the first month every year, ask someone to send this half mirror to the market and sell it. As long as I am still alive, I will definitely go to inquire and use my half mirror as a proof to find a way to reunite with you.”
Soon after, Emperor Yang Jian, who had already unified northern China, did send an army to attack Jiankang, the capital of the state of Chen, and the tiny state of Chen was destroyed, the king of Chen was killed, and Xu Deyan was forced to flee. The Sui emperor rewarded those who had been successful in attacking the state of Chen, and the captured Princess Lechang was rewarded to minister Yang Su as his concubine.
Xu Deyan, who was in exile, heard that his wife had arrived in Daxing, the capital of Sui, and traveled there to inquire about her whereabouts. Whenever it was late at night, he always took out a half mirror and recalled the good times he had with his wife. And his wife, Princess Le Chang, although she was living a luxurious life in Yang Su’s official residence, she always thought of her husband and often touched the half mirror to remember the past.
The 15th day of the first month finally came. Xu Deyan rushed to the bustling market and saw an old man hawking a half bronze mirror at a high price. Naturally, no one was willing to pay a high price for a half mirror, so the old man walked back and forth in the market. Xu Deyan pretended to buy the old man’s mirror and looked at it carefully, and it was indeed the half of his wife’s mirror. It turned out that he was a servant of the Yang house, commissioned by Princess Le Chang to sell the mirror to find his husband. So Xu Deyan wrote a poem and gave it to the servant to bring back. The poem reads.
The mirror has gone with the person, the mirror has returned to the person has not returned. There is no more Chang’e’s shadow, leaving the bright moon glory. This poem means that both the mirror and the person have gone, but now the mirror has returned but the person has not returned. It is just like the absence of Chang’e’s figure in the moon, leaving only the glory of the bright moon behind.
After seeing her husband’s half bronze mirror and the poem she wrote, Princess Lechang thought of her husband and the distance between them, and could not see each other, but she let out a loud voice of sorrow, and her face was miserable all day long, and she did not think about her food. Yang Su repeatedly interrogated, only to know the reason, and could not help but be deeply impressed by the true feelings of the two of them. He immediately sent someone to summon Xu Deyan into his house and hosted a banquet for him to celebrate. The whole family sighed for the reunion of Xu and Chen and the generosity of Yang Su, the Duke of Yue, and the beauty of manhood. After the banquet, the couple returned to their hometown in Jiangnan together. This story was spread around, so the story of “broken mirror reunited” has been passed down to this day.
Similar Idioms:
- 和好如初
