Jin-silk with Motifs of Dancing Birds and Musical Instruments

Sewn together with several warp-faced patches, this piece of jin-silk adopted horizontal rows of beaded floral medallions as the decorative framework. Encircled by curly-cloud motifs, these roundels, each featuring a different pattern from the other, are jointed with small floral knots. The space between the upper and lowers rows is adorned with confronted birds with stretched wings, which many believe to be zhuque, an immortal bird in Chinese myths.
In the existent two groups of medallions, those in the upper row feature the image of the God of the Sun, who, with adorned hair and his palms of hands together, is sitting on a carriage drawn by four horses, followed by a phoenix with outstretched wings. The roundels in the lower row are found with three different pattern combinations, namely, elephants and pipi, a traditional Chinese musical instrument; a hunting scene with two horse-riding soldiers looking back and shooting arrows towards the beasts behind them; and two running animals, deer probably.