Mawangdui is located in the eastern outskirts of changsha, about 4km from downtownchangsha,In the preceeding centuries, it was bured here, hence the name "mawangdui"formerlythere were two eastern mounds here closely linked together.

From 1972 to early 1974, chinese archacological workers unearthed three tombs of the westerhan dynasty here and achieved tremendous results that attracted wide attention at home andabroad.they excavated more than 3000 cultural relied and a well-preserved female corpse fromthe tombs.according to seals unearthed from tomb no2"chancellor to the prince tochangsha","seal of the marquis of dai".

We know that the mawangdui was burial ground of licang , chancellor to the prince of changshastatte and mqrquis of dai in the early western han dynasty and his family.

According to the historical records , licang died in the secong year of the reign of Empress lu .the occupants in tomb no3 were believed to be his son. unearthed from the tomb was awooden tablet with the burial bate, which reads"the first day of the second month in thetwelfth year" after careful textual research this was indentified as the twelfth year of reign of thehan emperor wen ci . the corpse in tomb no1 is that of licang ' wife, whose personal name ,according to an unearthed seal, was xingzhui, a study of conclusion that "tomb no1 datesfrom about the 6th dacade of the 2nd century B,C.

A little later than tomb no3 tomb no1 is the best preserved, and most of the relies showedhere were excavated from this tomb.　　now , i will introduce this thing to you one by one:these are figurines 162 wooden figurines were unearthed from tomb no1 and 104 form tombno3 , they fall into three categories:attendants, musicians and odd-jobservants. no doubt ,they represent the numerous servants enslaved by the marquis of dai, which reveal theparasitic life of the family.

Now , pls look at these instuments, an intact zither with 25 strings, pipes composed of 22pierced bamboo sticks and a set of pitch pipes were found in tomb no1 , in addition , a zither ,a T- stringed harp, pipes and bamboo flutes were excavated from tonb no3 . strinkinglybamboo reads were found inside . the pipes found in tomb no3 , there is a silvery point on eachreed, which controls the pitch, this is the material evidence of the earliest reeds , ever used inwind instruments in the world.

These are weapons:they wre excavated from tomb no3, there are 38 weapons altogether,including bows a crossbow, arrows , an arrow seabbard, a weapon stand , halberds,spears.etc.compared with the weapon of the warring state period, the bow , the crossbow andarrows were somewhat improved so that arrows could travel futher, along with the garrisonmap. they help us to get an idea of the military situation in chansha state.

We know that china is a very big agricultural state, and long long ago, when people lived inwestern han period , there had come into being somewhat developed cultivation and animalhusbandry. look ,all these things were excavated from the tombs . the agricultural produceincludes rice , wheat , barley, soybean, red peas, hemp seeds, vegetable;the animal produceincludes deer , oxen, goats , sheep, pigs, bares ,chickens , fishes and even chicken eggs.

Well. lacquer ware, so beautiful! 184 pieces of lacquer ware were unearthed from tomb no1and 316 pieces from tomb no3, they includ tripods vases, square vases, boxes , toilet boxes,pitchers, ladles, cups, caved cup - containers, an armreat, a screen, a game tool and adustpam , most of them r made of a wood base coated in lacquer, and some of a bamboo orhemp base, the designs, either painted in lacquer or pasted or incised with very fine strokes,were done in smooth and graceful.lines with gorgeous color, the exquisitely wrought lacquerwares indicate the highly developed state of lacquer crafts- manship and a side light on theeconomic situation of the early han dynasty. now, we have seen the areound parts of the firsthall, pls follow me to the central past.Here you can see the silk fabrics.