Three national treasures from the Hunan Museum were featured on CCTV's popular cultural program, National Treasure at 7:30pm, Jan 13.

The age-old wine vessel Min Erquan Fanglei, a silk painting and a brown porcelain ewer etched with poetic designs were selected from thousands of historical pieces for the audience to enjoy.

Entertainers will give insight about these artifacts to the audience throughout the 100 running minutes of the show.

The Min Erquan Fanglei, in Chinese means a fanglei owned by a man named Min Erquan. A fanglei is a type of ancient wine vessel that is aptly described by the two Chinese words it consists of fang which means to be of square shaped and lei, a word used to denote a container of wine during ancient times.

Chinese actors, Huang Bo (L) and Wang Jia, portray the history of separation and reunion behind the Min Erquan Fanglei on the National Treasure TV program. [Photo/rednet.com]

This ancient vessel is from the Shang Dynasty (c.16 century-11th century BC), which was the peak of the Chinese bronze age. What makes this fanglei special is that it has been hailed as the "King of all fangleis" for its varied intricate carvings.

Since its excavation in 1919, the body of the vessel had been long separated from its lid for nearly a century until 2014, when it was brought from overseas and reunited with the other part. It now sits as a part of the Hunan Museum's collection.

Huang Bo and Wang Jia who have been nicknamed the 'Relic Guardians' made this story of reunion come alive by acting out the artifact's history.