Inside the west gate of the ancient city of Jingzhou, a quiet courtyard established in 1958 holds the physical memory of the Jianghan Plain. Here, the Jingzhou Museum sits adjacent to the Kaiyuan Guan, a Taoist temple complex built during the Tang Dynasty between 713 and 741 AD. Over decades of regional archaeology, researchers excavated more than 7,000 ancient tombs and nearly 200,000 square meters of historical sites, gathering a collection of nearly 200,000 cultural relics.

The museum preserves the tangible traces of those who lived along the Yangtze River. In the silk galleries, the ancient weavers of Mashan Tomb No. 1 leave their legacy in whisper-thin pre-Qin fabrics, their advanced embroidery surviving centuries in the damp earth. Nearby, the cold, sharp gleam of the bronze sword of Zhougou, great-grandson of the legendary Goujian, remains clean and lethal, its gold-inlaid bird-seal script catching the light.

In the lacquerware hall, the Tiger Seat with Phoenix and Drum stands as a masterpiece of ancient engineering. Crafted from 34 separate wooden pieces, it relies on precise mortise-and-tenon joints to hold two slender phoenixes upright on the backs of crouching tigers. When struck, the drum once sent a deep, resonant thrum through Chu state rituals.

Beyond these galleries, the museum continues to grow. A new 45,000-square-meter campus, the Chu Culture Museum, is rising near Fuxing Avenue. Its exterior mimics the textured, rammed-earth platforms of the ancient Chu capital, Jinan City. This modern structure will soon house these ancient treasures, connecting the deep past with the expanding horizon of the modern city.