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Museum showcases ‘oriental sleeping beauty’
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RELICS from one of China’s greatest archeological discoveries in the 20th century are now on display at Liangzhu Museum in Hangzhou’s Yuhang District.
The 120 items include a well-preserved female corpse dubbed “oriental sleeping beauty” and date back to the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24).
The relics are from the Mawangdui Tomb in Changsha City of Hunan Province and were unearthed in the 1970s. The sophisticated grave structure, rich burial objects and corpse created a stir across China and the world at the time.
A total of 3,000 relics were excavated from the tomb — accidentally discovered by a hospital when it was building an air-raid shelter — including some that had never been discovered in other ancient Chinese tombs. The discovery has provided exceptional insight into the lives of Western Han Dynasty nobles and the quality craftsmanship around the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.
The female corpse is the highlight of the exhibition as it is often referred to as an “archeological miracle” since the body was so well-preserved. Archeologists have been able to perform an autopsy and discover that the woman had died of a heart attack.
When disinterred from the tomb, archeologists said it was as if the corpse had been buried yesterday because the body was moist and supple, the joints could move, the skin was elastic and the organs were intact.
Researchers have used modern image restoration technology to reconstruct the face of “oriental sleeping beauty,” who was a pretty woman with classic Chinese features.
Mawangdui consists of the graves for Li Cang (chancellor of Changsha Kingdom in the Western Han Dynasty), his wife Xin Zhui (the female corpse) and their son Li Xi.
Archeologists said the graves were built about 20 years apart, with Xin outliving both her husband and son.
Xin’s tomb was the best preserved with a cosmetics set, lacquered pieces, a painted T-shaped silk banner and a finely woven silk garment found in her coffin.
The silk garment is almost as light as the mist and as fine as gossamer, making it an example of the superb silk weaving techniques during the Western Han Dynasty.
The T-shaped silk banner was used for funerals and covered Xin’s coffin, archeologists said. This silk banner depicts the netherworld, earth, heaven and the character Xin.
Other highlights include lacquered wine bowls and cosmetic boxes that showcase the craftsmanship of the regional lacquer ware industry dating to the Western Han Dynasty.
The cosmetics box has been coated with layers of black lacquer and then embedded with gold leaves. Artisans used black, red and gold paint to draw auspicious cloud patterns on the surface of the box.
There’s also a drawing of 44 figures doing qigong — a practice of aligning the body, breathing and mind for health, meditation and martial arts training. It measures 133 centimeters by 50.8 centimeters and is the oldest of its kind ever discovered in the country.
Date: Through March 15, 9am-5pm
Venue: Liangzhu Museum, 1 Meilizhou Rd, Yuhang District
Admission: Free
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