CULTURAL relics from the ancient State of Chu are on display at the Shenzhen Museum through April 9.

The show provides an opportunity to see 158 examples of the magnificent bronze and lacquerware works that represent the height of the Chu artistic legacy.

The exhibits are selected from more than 120,000 antiquities collected by the Jingzhou Museum in Hubei Province.

Among the most impressive lacquerware items are a drum with tiger seat and bird frame and a tomb guardian with antlers.

The drum, an art object unearthed from a Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.) tomb in Jingzhou, is typical of Chu craftsmanship.

The exhibit reveals details of daily life in the ancient state with weapons and mirrors, jade items for personal adornment and some rare examples of bamboo writing slips.

Four bronze swords used by kings of the ancient State of Yue are show highlights.

The swords were still sharp when they were unearthed in different royal tombs in the 1970s. Buried for more than 2,000 years, they are among the most treasured relics in the Jingzhou Museum.

Most historians believe these swords were probably brought to Jingzhou as war trophies when the State of Chu conquered the Yue kingdom around 306 B.C. Located in the central part of the Jianghan Plain on the Yangtze River, the city of Jingzhou was the Chu capital for more than 400 years. The city is now a national historical and cultural site.

In the Spring and Autumn Period (770-475 B.C.) and the Warring States Period, Chu was the largest state in the area, within today's Hubei and Hunan Provinces.

Over time, through the annexation of more than 40 smaller states, the territory of the Chu kingdom expanded, creating a culture with a rich and exotic mix of influences.

Chu artisans reached a high level of skill in bronze smelting, colorful silk weaving, embroidery and lacquerware.

The ritual bronze vessels were fashioned with unprecedented ornateness, showing mastery of the complex technological processes involved in bronze work, most notably the lost wax technique.

The bronze inlay shows the close interrelationship between the state's bronzes and lacquerware, one of the most significant Chu art forms.

While lacquerware objects imitate elaborate bronze shapes and designs, bronze designs would themselves undergo transformation under the influence of lacquerware innovations.

The exhibition is jointly presented by the Jingzhou Museum and Shenzhen Museum.

Editor: Wing