US museum returns ancient silk manuscript to China

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art on Friday officially returned the Zidanku silk manuscript volumes II and III: Wuxing Ling and Gongshou Zhan from the Warring States period to China’s National Cultural Heritage Administration. 

The handover ceremony took place at the Chinese Embassy in the United States in Washington, D.C. The silk manuscripts were unearthed in 1942 from the Zidanku site in Changsha, Hunan Province, and were illegally taken to the United States in 1946. 

The silk manuscripts are currently the only known silk manuscripts from the Warring States period (475-221 BC). These manuscripts will be publicly displayed for the first time in July 2025 at the National Museum of China as part of an exhibition on the repatriation of cultural relics.