展品欣赏

T-shaped painting on silk from Xin Zhui’s tomb Early Western Han dynasty (206 to 163 B. C.) Length 205cm, width at top 92cm, width at bottom 47.7cm Unearthed in 1972 from Tomb No. 1 at Mawangdui, Changsha city The T-shaped silk painting is wider at the top and narrower at the bottom. It was then laid on the innermost coffin at the burial. It was composed of three layers of fine silk, the top of which was supported by a bamboo rod wrapped with silk ribbons. The silk painting could be raised up. The middle and the four bottom corners are decorated with tassels made of hemp in dark green color. This was a banner carried at the front in the funeral procession, and it was then laid on the innermost coffin at the burial. With the ink drawing and heavy-coloured drawing techniques, the painting can be divided into the heavenly world, the human world and the underworld from the top to the bottom. In the part of the heavenly world are the sun with its crow, the moon with its toad and rabbit, Zhu Long (a mythical god in