In more than 10,000 artifacts unearthed from Tomb No. 1 at the Wuwangdun Site in Huainan, Anhui, there are over 700 lacquerware pieces. Taking the Theory of Material Engagement (MET) as a framework, this paper provided a cognitive archaeology interpretation of the lacquerware collection unearthed from the Wuwangdun Tomb in Huainan, Anhui, a King-level tomb of the Chu State dating to the late Warring States period. The study suggested that these lacquerware pieces were not merely decorative art objects or utilitarian items, but key material vehicles to externalization of cognition, power construction and cultural expression of the elite of the Chu royal court. From the perspective of “material engagement cognition”, this study systematically analyzed how the forms, patterns, colors, and combinations of lacquerware encode abstract ruling ideologies, cosmological concepts, and identity into tangible and practical material forms. The study found that, firstly, by the“embodied design” of lacquerware, ritual norms and power dynamics were inscribed into the user’s bodily experience, thereby achieving the embodied discipline of power; secondly, as an effective “visual cognition technique”, its decorative system shaped collective imaginations regarding the legitimacy of royal authority, soul beliefs, and the cosmic order; the creative process itself is a “enactive cognitive practice” that constantly generates and reinforces specific social orders and ideologies in the dynamic interactions of artisans, materials, tools, and cultural paradigms. Thus, the lacquerware from the Wuwangdun Tomb constituted a sophisticated “technological system of power cognition”, and served as a crucial material means for the Chu royal court to consolidate its rule and foster a sense of identity against the backdrop of the social upheavals of the late Warring States period. This paper aims to provide a novel path of cognitive archaeology to understand the philosophy of creation in the State of Chu, and to offer a Chinese case for research on material culture.

Shuang Liu. The Form of Thought: An Analysis of Aesthetics and Power Encoding in the Lacquerware of the Wuwangdun Tomb. Frontiers in Art Research (2026), Vol. 8, Issue 2: 1-6. https://doi.org/10.25236/FAR.2026.080201.

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