Mawangdui Han Tombs Museum (Hunan Provincial Museum)

Home to the most remarkable Han Dynasty archaeological finds ever made, including the 2,100-year-old preserved body of Lady Xin Zhui and thousands of silk manuscripts, lacquerware, and organic burial goods from the Mawangdui tombs.

The Mawangdui tombs, excavated in Changsha between 1972 and 1974, yielded discoveries that transformed scholarly understanding of Western Han Dynasty life, thought, and material culture. Three tombs dating to approximately 160–168 BCE contained the burials of Li Cang (Chancellor of the Changsha Kingdom), Lady Xin Zhui (his wife), and a young man believed to be their son.

Lady Xin Zhui's burial, Tomb 1, was the most extraordinary find. Her body was preserved in remarkable condition — skin still supple, limbs mobile, internal organs intact — by a combination of airtight sealing, lacquer coatings, charcoal packing, and white clay. At the time of discovery she had been buried for over 2,100 years. The body, displayed in a sealed case in the museum, remains one of the best-preserved ancient human remains anywhere in the world.

Surrounding her coffin were over 1,000 grave goods, many organic and perfectly preserved: lacquered dining vessels still containing food residue, silk garments in multiple colours and patterns, wooden figurines of servants, musical instruments, and foodstuffs. The T-shaped painted silk burial banner above her innermost coffin — depicting her ascent to heaven through registers of cosmos — is considered one of the masterworks of Han Dynasty painting.

Tomb 3 yielded the Mawangdui silk manuscripts: 120,000 characters of text on silk, including the oldest known versions of texts such as the Tao Te Ching (Laozi), military strategy manuals, medical texts including China's oldest known anatomical illustrations, and astronomical charts. The manuscripts are studied by scholars worldwide and have reshuffled understanding of the textual history of several major Chinese classical works.

The Hunan Provincial Museum was substantially rebuilt and expanded in 2017 specifically to properly house these collections. The new galleries are world-class in presentation.