Author(s)

Shuang Liu ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan, Anhui, 232001, China

Corresponding Author

Shuang Liu

ABSTRACT

More than 700 lacquered wooden artifacts were unearthed from the Wuwangdun Tomb, the highest-ranking Chu tomb unearthed to date. The sheer quantity, complete range of types, and intricate decorative motifs of these artifacts are rarely seen among excavated tombs of the State of Chu. The phoenix motif was the most frequently used design on the lacquerware from this tomb, covering various poses such as standing, looking back, and calling to each other. Taking the phoenix motifs on lacquerware from the Wuwangdun Tomb as the research object, this paper conducts a typological comparison with phoenix motifs on lacquerware unearthed in the Jingchu region (represented by the Chu Tombs at Wangshan in Jiangling and Baoshan in Jingmen) in order to explore the evolution of phoenix motifs on Chu lacquerware during the middle and late Warring States periods from "bizarre and exquisite" to "flowing and rounded, and increasingly geometric". This paper argues that the stylistic evolution of the phoenix motifs from the Wuwangdun Tomb embodied the aesthetic transformation of Chu art during the late Warring States period, under the influence of multiple factors. Its "restrained abstraction"—a tendency toward geometric and orderly forms while preserving the identifiability of the phoenix image—formed the core visual characteristic of the "Huaichu Style". This transformation not only followed the intrinsic logic of artistic development from figurative to semi-abstract and finally to abstract, but also reflected a conscious adaptation of Chu cultural aesthetic concepts under the influence of Qin culture.

KEYWORDS

Wuwangdun Tomb; Lacquerware; Phoenix Motifs; Stylistic Evolution; Huaichu Style

CITE THIS PAPER

Shuang Liu. From Jingchu to Huaichu: Stylistic Evolution of the Phoenix Motifs on Lacquerware from the Wuwangdun Tomb. Art and Performance Letters (2026). Vol. 7, No. 2, 48-54. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/artpl.2026.070207.

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