The reporter learned from the press conference held by the Hunan Museum on May 16 that experts from the Hunan Museum discovered for the first time that there were many traces of repainting on the T-shaped silk paintings of national treasures in the collection of national treasures.

The picture shows a T-shaped silk painting unearthed from Tomb No. 1, Mawangdui. (Photo provided by Hunan Museum)

The T-shaped silk painting with the modified traces found was unearthed in Tomb No. 1, Mawangdui. The owner of the tomb is Xin Zhui, the wife of Li Cang, the prime minister of Changsha. This silk painting with magnificent scenery and unique imagination is known as one of the "treasures of the museum" of Hunan Museum.

The picture shows a partial close-up of the T-shaped silk painting unearthed from Tomb No. 1, Mawangdui. (Photo provided by Hunan Museum)

T-shaped silk paintings are painted with brush and ink and heavy colors, and are divided into three parts: heaven, earth and underground from top to bottom. The sky is the widest place at the upper end of the "T-shaped" with a candle dragon sitting in the middle of the top. There is a crescent moon hanging on the left, with toads and jade rabbits painted on the moon, and a goddess supporting the moon under the moon.

The picture shows a partial schematic diagram of the T-shaped silk painting unearthed from Tomb No. 1 of Mawangdui with traces of repainting. (Photo provided by Hunan Museum)

Yu Yanjiao, director of the Mawangdui Han Tomb and Collection Research and Exhibition Center and research curator of the Hunan Museum, said that the places where the modified traces were found, including the jade gui in the hands of some gatekeepers in the sky, only the manuscript traces, the leopard next to the gatekeeper had movement traces, and the increase in the number of people sacrificing the tomb owners under the lower layer of the jade bi in the world.

The picture shows a partial schematic diagram of the T-shaped silk painting unearthed from Tomb No. 1 of Mawangdui with traces of repainting. (Photo provided by Hunan Museum) Yu Yanjiao said that T-shaped silk paintings are drawn with brushes, first outlining the lines and then painting and coloring, etc. Revising them may be a routine operation by the painter when painting, but Yu Gui, which originally painted the draft, was not used, it may be that the T-shaped silk painting was prepared earlier, and by the time of Mrs. Xin Zhui's death, etiquette had changed. "The gatekeeper painted on the T-shaped silk painting is guarding the Tianmen and also taking on the function of welcoming Mrs. Xin Zhui's soul ascension to heaven. Holding the jade gui in his hand is a very high etiquette of observing, mostly used in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Perhaps this etiquette changed in the Han Dynasty. There is no need to hold the jade gui in his hand when meeting."

The picture shows a partial schematic diagram of the T-shaped silk painting unearthed from Tomb No. 1 of Mawangdui with traces of modification. (Photo provided by Hunan Museum)

In addition, experts also discovered through multimodal image information collection methods that the 14 powerful cavalry phalanxes unearthed from the Mawangdui Tomb No. 3 unearthed from the 14 powerful cavalry phalanxes in the lower right of the 14 rows of powerful cavalry phalanxes, all of which were repainted later.

According to reports, the owner of the tomb No. 3 of Mawangdui is Li Feng, the son of "Madam Xin Zhui". The entire picture of "Carriage and Horse Guard" is centered on the tomb owner, which may be the carriage and horse guards held a grand review ceremony during his lifetime. This purely realistic realistic expression method is rare in early Chinese painting art and is particularly precious.

The picture shows the "Carriage and Horse Guard" unearthed from the Tomb No. 3 of Mawangdui. (Photo provided by Hunan Museum)

"We found through hyperspectral imaging that there were originally carriages here. For some reason, 4 people suddenly increased, and the characters were relatively large. As for why they were repainted and their identities, there is still controversy in the academic community at present." Yu Yanjiao said.

Experts pointed out that in-depth research on the identification of seals in Mawangdui silk books and silk paintings, fragment conjugation, pollutant identification, ink and pigment component recognition, etc., can further solve the text and image restoration problems of Mawangdui silk books, and help protect, organize and research the Mawangdui silk books. "In the next step, we will apply for a national project based on the collation and research of the seals and fragments of Mawangdui silk book based on artificial intelligence. We hope to deeply integrate document collation with artificial intelligence technology, explore and solve the practical problems of "not seeing clearly, not being able to match, and not being able to decorate" in the collation of silk book, and then open up a new path for research on bamboo and silk." Yu Yanjiao said.

The Han Tomb of Mawangdui, Changsha, was excavated from 1972 to 1974, is a tomb of the three of the Prime Minister of Changsha State of the Western Han Dynasty, Li Cang, a family of three. A total of tens of thousands of exquisite cultural relics such as well-preserved female corpses, silk fabrics, silk books, silk paintings, lacquerware, etc. were unearthed. It is one of the most important archaeological discoveries in China in the 20th century. (Reporters Zhang Yujie and Xue Yuge)