Quote from source:

Western Han (206-25 B.C.)

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

Height: 28cm; Diameter at mouth: 23cm

This lacquer tripod is ellipsoid shaped, with a spherical cover. There are three orange-colored loop lugs on the cover, and the cover and the body are closed in a snap fastener fashion. The body is swelled and the bottom is rounded. There are two upright ears attached to the mouth of the body and the three legs are shaped like animal hooves. The outer surface of this tripod is coated with black lacquer while the inside surface with vermillion lacquer. Around the outer rim of the mouth is drawn a band of lozenge designs while the cover and the body are drawn with geometric cloud designs formed by vermillion and grayish green whirlpool patterns and joint-square patterns. The surface of each leg is painted with a beast mask design and the two ears with a cloud design. The bottom of the tripod bears two Chinese characters “二斗” (two dou) in red color, indicating the capacity of this vessel.

The basis of lacquer ware unearthed from the Han tombs at Mawangdui is mainly of wood and hemp cloth, with a few of bamboo. The methods of preparing wooden basis include rotating a single piece of wood against a knife, cutting and hewing, chiseling and sharpening, with different methods applied for utensils of different shape. Hemp cloth basis is prepared first by creating a wooden or earthen roughcast as the inner mould. Then multi layers of hemp or silk fabric are attached to the inner mould and each layer is coated with lacquer. When these layers are dry enough, the inner mould is cast away, leaving behind only the hemp cloth basis. This is also known as “making bodiless lacquerware”. Of the lacquerware unearthed, over ninety percent are of wooden basis which is subdivided into trimmed basis, hewed basis and rolled (carving up a thin sheet of wood to form a cylinder) basis. This Lacquer Tripod with Cloud Design has clear traces of being rotated against a knife on the inner surface of its body to fashion it to its desired shape.

Most amazing is that when archaeologists were cleaning this tripod, they discovered there was soup with slices of lotus root inside it and the slices of lotus root in the soup were still clearly visible even after more than 2100 years. A more puzzling thing is that the slices of lotus root continuously diminished with each move of the tripod and with each added minute when they were exposed to air, and by the time the tripod was moved to the museum the slices had all miraculously disappeared. Why then had these slices of lotus root remained undecayed after being soaked in liquid for over 2100 years and disappeared soon after they were unearthed? Experts explained that the fibers inside those clearly visible slices of lotus root when unearthed had in fact decayed, leaving behind only some seemingly complete external forms. The oxidization process after they were unearthed and the unavoidable shake when the tripod was taken out caused the quick dissolution of these slices of lotus root. This indicates that the Changsha region has very rarely been hit by big earthquakes. Otherwise, if there have been frequent earthquakes (with an occasional big one), either the tripod would have collapsed or the slices of lotus root would have been dissolved long ago.