In the exhibition hall for “Ancient Liaoning” in Liaoning Provincial Museum, an elegant and antique painted pottery fang stands out gracefully in the soft light, making visitors linger on here.

More than 2,000 years old, it was unearthed from Tomb No. 40 of Dongdazhangzi Cemetery of the Warring States Period in Jianchang County, Huludao City, Liaoning Province. It was  sucessfuly selected into “2011 Top Ten New Archaeological Discoveries in China”.

Fang，a container for wine or grain in ancient times, has a square cover, with two sides of its neck decorated with beast-mask door knockers, and two other sides decorated with tiger-like ornaments, painted in red with single-line cirrus cloud design.

This painted pottery fang and other pottery were buried about four or five meters underground in a decaying large wooden box. Two thousand years later, it was still colorful and lustrous the moment when unearthed from underground.

These pieces of pottery, which are imitations of bronze ritual vessels, were made by the State of Yan (currently Hebei Province) in the Warring States Period.

The basic combination of pottery ding, pottery dou and pottery pot unearthed from the tomb conforms to the burial system of the Warring States Period, indicating that the rituals of China’s Central Plain had been practiced in Liaoning at that time.

The Dongdazhangzi Cemetery of the Warring States Period is the largest one of the same period in the Northeast.

It reflects the trend of integration of Yan culture as the main culture and local cultures with ethnic characteristics of Northeast China, and shows the development of a unified multi-ethnic country.

It proves once again that in the middle and late Warring States Period, ancient Liaoning was already included in the sphere of influence of the State of Yan.