Phoenix Kingdoms

Book excerpt: "Featuring about 150 loans from China's Hubei Provincial Museum, this exhibition, set to open at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco under the name Lost Kingdoms of Ancient China, examines the new finds of Zeng and Chu tombs together to explore the cultural landscape of the southern borderland of the Zhou dynasty. It also reveals the legendary rising story of the phoenix kingdom erased by the Qin, highlighting the importance of the middle Yangtze River region in forming a southern style in Chinese art. For a better understanding of the Zeng and Chu material, the exhibition catalogue consists of seven essays to elaborate the introduction to the remarkable art and culture of this region, with entries of about 150 works in six categories (jade, bronze ritual vessels, musical instruments and weapons, lacquerware for luxury and ceremony, funerary bronze and wood objects, and textiles and artefacts with designs). Seven contributors have written for this catalogue, including five outside scholars with expertise on different subjects"--