Top 9 national treasures from hit TV show
4. Ceremony of Honor at Side Tower, a mural in the tomb of crown prince Yide, from Shaanxi History Museum
In the fourth episode of the show, actor Guo Tao served as a keeper of the famous painting, Ceremony of Honor at Side Tower. It was unearthed from the tomb of Crown Prince Yide, a grandson of Empress Wu Zetian, who died at age 19.
Excavation on the tomb began in 1971, and its east and west walls were found painted with side towers, typical architectural style in front of palace doors. The mural paintings show a spectacular scene consisting of as many as 196 people, with city walls, side towers and hills as the backdrop.
The mural is a high point of architecture artwork in ancient China in the realistic style. The structure of the building, even the conjunctions of each structure, are depicted exactly and in proportion to the real object.
