jun 7, 180 BC - Funeral Banner of Lady Dai (Xin Zhui)

Description:

Date: 180 BCE

Artist: unkown

Medium: painted silk

Location: Hunan Provincial Museum, Changsha

Function:
- Lady Dai died 168 BCE in Hunan Province;
Han Dynasty
- Tomb found with over 100 objects in 1972
- Probably carried in a procession to the tomb then placed over the body to speed its journey to the afterlife

Form:
- T-shaped silk banner covering the inner coffin of the intact body
- Yin symbols at left; yang symbols at right; center mixes the two philosophies
- painted in three distinct regions
- Top: Heaven with crescent moon at left, and the legend of the ten suns at the right; in the center two seated officers guard the entrance to the heavenly world
- Middle: earth with Lady Dai in center on while platform about to make her journey to heaven with a walking stick that was found in her tomb; mourners and assistants appear by her side; dragons' bodies are symbolically circled though a bi in a yin and yang exchange
- Bottom: the underworld; symbolic low creatures frame the underworld scene: fish, turtles, dragon tails; tomb guardians protect he body

Comparison:
- Hiapo
- All-T'oqapu Tunic
- Ringgold, Dancing at the Louvre

Added to timeline:

7 May 2019

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