And of course, all the coffins are designated List of Chinese cultural relics forbidden to be exhibited abroad 禁止出境展览文物 and part of an elaborate permanent exhibition of the purpose-built Hunan Provincial Museum in Changsha. I could have written one post for the three lacquered coffins, but I shall not bore you with details.
Lady Dai’s underground wooden burial structure was divided into five compartments, including a central coffin chamber surrounded by four compartments on each side for burial furnishings. At the centre of the tomb, Lady Dai was buried in a series of four nesting coffins.
Black Lacquer Coffin 黑漆素棺
The outermost coffin was a plain box, while the three nesting coffins inside were painted with lacquer in black, red, and white. The use of lacquer, a substance derived from the lac tree native to China, is a testament to Lady Dai’s wealth and status in Han society. Lacquer was more valuable than bronze1. The application of lacquer involved a tedious process of applying one layer and letting it dry before adding another, increasing the value of the material.
The decoration on the three painted coffins refer to the journey of Lady Dai’s spirit to the afterlife and the world of the immortals. During the Western Han, southerners like Lady Dai believed humans had two souls, a hún 魂 (soul) that makes a dangerous journey to the afterlife, or the world of the immortals, and a pò 魄 (spirit) that remains in the tomb with the body, enjoying the many funerary offerings within.
National Treasure 国宝
Coffin With Painted Design On Black Lacquer Coating 黑地彩绘漆棺
Lacquerware | Western Han Dynasty (202 BC-9 AD) | From Tomb 1, Mawangdui, Hunan Province, China | Hunan Provincial Museum collection 漆器 | 西汉（公元前202年-公元9年） | 湖南省马王堆1号墓出土 | 湖南省博物馆藏
The largest of the lacquered coffins has a black background decorated with stylised cloud forms and mythological creatures. On each side of the coffin the cloud forms are bordered by a rectangular frame of abstract patterns. At times, the clouds drift over the frame as though the celestial world populated by horned creatures, feathered immortals, and birds cannot be contained.
National Treasure 国宝
Coffin With Painted Design On Vermilion Lacquer Coating 朱地彩绘漆棺
Lacquerware | Western Han Dynasty (202 BC-9 AD) | From Tomb 1, Mawangdui, Hunan Province, China | Hunan Provincial Museum collection 漆器 | 西汉（公元前202年-公元9年） | 湖南省马王堆1号墓出土 | 湖南省博物馆藏
The second lacquered coffin has a red background and features auspicious animals, such as tigers and dragons, which are among the protective creaturesof the cardinal directions.
On one long side panel of the coffin, two sinuous dragons confront one another at the centre of the rectangular panel. On the left, a deer, contorted in a manner that shows influence from “animal style” art of the steppe, is nestled in the body of the dragon. On the right, a feathered immortal seems to dance beneath the arch of the dragon’s body. These auspicious motifs helped to guide and protect Lady Dai’s soul on its journey to immortality.
National Treasure 国宝
Lacquer Coffin Decorated With Brocade 锦饰漆棺
Lacquerware | Western Han Dynasty (202 BC-9 AD) | From Tomb 1, Mawangdui, Hunan Province, China | Hunan Provincial Museum collection 漆器 | 西汉（公元前202年-公元9年） | 湖南省马王堆1号墓出土 | 湖南省博物馆藏
The innermost coffin is painted with black lacquer and covered with embroidered silk and satin appliqued with red and black feathers, symbolic of the immortals. The theme of immortality is consistent across the three lacquered coffins, perhaps to keep Lady Dai’s hun spirit focused on its destination as it makes the dangerous journey to immortality. 2
Western Han Tombs of Mawangdui 马王堆汉墓
The discovery of three tombs at Mawangdui in Hunan Province, China in 1972 yielded thousands of artefacts, including some of the world’s oldest preserved silk paintings, clothing, and textiles. All three date to the Western Han dynasty in the 2nd century BC. and belonged to a family of Han Chinese aristocrats.
During the Western Han dynasty, elaborate tombs were constructed for the elite across the Han empire in an effort to care and appease the spirits of deceased ancestors. The three tombs at Mawangdui are rectangular vertical shaft tombs dug deep into the earth. At the bottom of each shaft, the tombs were originally equipped with a rectangular wooden burial structure (guǒ 椁) constructed of cypress planks fitted together using mortise and tenon joinery.
This type of tomb construction had an earlier precedent and was common in this region during the earlier Eastern Zhou period (771–221 BC) when it was occupied by the Chǔ 楚 kingdom. As with earlier Chu tombs, the underground wooden burial structures at Mawangdui were compartmentalised.
The Mawangdui tombs contained nesting coffins at the centre and extensive inventories of burial items in separate chambers surrounding the main coffin chamber. Layers of charcoal and white kaolin clay around the wooden burial structures and pounded earth in the shafts insulated the structures, and, in the case of Lady Dai’s tomb, helped preserve the entire contents, including her body.
Tomb 1 belonged to a female aristocrat named Xīn Zhuī 辛追, popularly known as “Lady Dai” (who died in 168 BC.) Tomb 2 belonged to the noble Lì Cāng 利蒼, Marquis of Dai, Lady Dai’s husband (who died in 186 BC.) Tomb 3 belonged to Lady Dai’s son (who also died in 168 BC.)3
If you do not like to see corpse of any kind, this is where you can leave the museum. The actual body is now protected and placed behind this specialised room separated from the model of the tomb.
Xin Zhui 辛追, also known as “Lady Dai,” was preserved in 21 gallons of an “unknown liquid.” With her original hair, organs, eyebrows, and eyelashes intact, the mummy still has blood in her veins4. Her skin and ligaments are soft and as flexible as that of a living person.
These days, you are not allowed to take any photo of the corpse although you can still see her under the protection of glass and very faint lighting.
Photos taken at Hunan Provincial Museum in Oct 2025, unless otherwise indicated. Text mainly from Dr. Cortney E. Chaffin, “The search for immortality: The Tomb of Lady Dai,” in Smarthistory, January 10, 2022, accessed November 23, 2025, https://smarthistory.org/tomb-of-lady-dai/.
About Chinese National Treasure Series
中華國寶系列 Chinese National Treasure series feature specific artefacts and relics from museums all around the world that are historically significant to be considered a National Treasure. The series covers the 5,000 years of Chinese civilisation from Neolithic periods before the Xia dynasty (c. 2070-1600 BC) to modern day.
Footnotes :
- By the Warring States period (475–221 BCE), lacquerwork had developed into a major industry; and, being approximately 10 times more costly than their bronze equivalents, lacquer vessels came to rival bronzes as the most esteemed medium for providing offerings in ancestral ceremonies among the wealthy aristocracy. “Chinese Lacquerwork“, Britannica Online, https://www.britannica.com/art/Chinese-lacquerwork, accessed 26 Nov 2025 ↩︎
- Dr. Cortney E. Chaffin, “The search for immortality: The Tomb of Lady Dai,” in Smarthistory, January 10, 2022, accessed November 23, 2025, https://smarthistory.org/tomb-of-lady-dai/. ↩︎
- Li Cang (the Marquis of Dai), a prominent Han official, was married to Lady Dai, who passed away at the young age of 50 due to her penchant for excess. Her fatal cardiac arrest was thought to have been caused by a lifetime of obesity, a lack of exercise, and a lavish and too much diet. https://weeklyrecess.com/article/lady-dai-mummy/?fbclid=IwY2xjawOTavNleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFwMFRLNEFCaFgwSGR6UmQyc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHpTHrSX_TZeu1jNbPgg-bGQGZEpeBpn6QDAyTSaY_9B3Rcr0JgTpYCGqepJ3_aem_W4XGZj30OhWQZQNZBvFZ5w, accessed 26 Nov 2025 ↩︎
- Researchers also discovered that she had all of her organs, and that type-A blood was still present in her veins. Her official cause of death—a heart attack—was revealed by the presence of clots in these veins.
Gallstones, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and liver disease were among the additional illnesses that were discovered throughout Xin Zhui’s body. https://weeklyrecess.com/article/lady-dai-mummy/?fbclid=IwY2xjawOTavNleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFwMFRLNEFCaFgwSGR6UmQyc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHpTHrSX_TZeu1jNbPgg-bGQGZEpeBpn6QDAyTSaY_9B3Rcr0JgTpYCGqepJ3_aem_W4XGZj30OhWQZQNZBvFZ5w, accessed 26 Nov 2025 ↩︎
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