CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

wrapped around some of the handles on the lid, and
a jade bi disk found at the base of the eastern endpanel
originally hung from the ring handle. 3
The inside of the coffin is coated in plain red
lacquer; the exterior sides and the top are nearly
completely filled with a polychrome decoration
of seventy-two serpentine dragons and an equal
number of mythical birds. Bird motifs, often juxtaposed
with dragons or serpents, seem to have been
particularly important in Chu and its satellites: a
bronze figure of an antlered crane (cat. 100), was
found in the eastern chamber of the tomb of Marquis
Yi of Zeng, and crested birds perched on dragons
are depicted on his inner coffin. A screen from
the fourth-century BCE Chu Wangshan Tomb i
at Jiangling (cat. 110), depicts birds and snakes in
combat. 4 The dragons on the Baoshan coffin, although
serpentine in appearance, do not seem to
be in an adversarial relationship with the birds, and
it seems likely that both these motifs possessed
auspicious and protective symbolism. 5
The attenuated profiles and strong diagonal
axes of the birds on the Baoshan coffin resemble
those found on an embroidered silk from the
fourth-century BCE Chu Tomb i at Mashan (cat.
H2a). The crossing of one element of the design
by another is a salient feature of the Mashan embroideries
and seems to have been the inspiration
332 CHU AND OTHER CULTURES