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Admire lacquered mirror with Confucius portrait to celebrate Teachers' Day
Updated: Sep 10, 2025
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Today marks the 41st Teachers' Day in China. Let's pay tribute to the great ancient educator Confucius by admiring the earliest and most complete portrait of Confucius ever discovered in China – a lacquered mirror depicting Confucius and his five disciples, alongside inscriptions of their lives.
On the mirror, Confucius is shown as tall and slender, with a small crown, a beard, a long robe and a scholar's dignity — reflecting how Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24) nobles envisioned him. Unearthed at the Haihun Fief site, the remarkable piece is housed in the Nanchang Museum for the Haihun Fief of the Han Dynasty in Jiangxi province.
