The story of 鑑

mirror, reflect

鑑 is composed of 金(metal) and 監(a picture of an eye looking at the image reflected by a container, means supervising or watching something). Ancient Chinese used polished copper plates to reflect their own images, at that time, the mirrors were made of metal, so 鑑 meant mirror. However, now we use 鏡 instead to represent the meaning of mirror. On the other hand, since the image shown on the metal mirror is clearer, 鑑 also means 'to study' or 'to examine'.