Dimensions:Height: 57cm; diameter at belly: 35cm

Origin: Unearthed from Han Tomb No.1 at Mawangdui, Changsha in 1972

This lacquer zhong has a huge belly, coated with vermillion lacquer on the outside and black lacquer on the inside. Its neck is covered with bird design while its rim edge and round foot are covered with vermillion twist-and-turn design and dot design. Its shoulder and belly are covered with three bands of vermillion and grayish green floating cloud designs and geometric designs. Its cover is painted with cloud designs and affixed with three orange-colored lugs. The whole object has smooth and fluent lines. There is a Chinese character “石” written in the center of the bottom. “石” in the Han measurement system equals 60 kilograms, equivalent to present-day 13.5 kilos. The actual measurement shows its capacity is 19.5 liters. Such a gigantic lacquer zhong was normally used on occasions with big banquets. The wooden body of this lacquer zhong was shaped by trimming, so its base is rather thick, giving people a feeling of firmness and solidness. It is very difficult to make such a large lacquerware of trimmed wooden bases. This is really an exquisite piece of artwork.

What is the use of such a huge lacquer zhong? The wine residue inside it when it was unearthed and the Inventory of Burial Objects unearthed from the tomb both indicate that this is a utensil for holding warm wine.