Bamboo strips, mid-4th century B.C., Jingzhou Museum. Shao Tuo's tomb also contained 480 inscribed bamboo strips, some of which concern divination. The records indicate that Shao consulted diviners regarding an illness that eventually killed him.

This is the innermost of three nested coffins from Tomb 2 at Baoshan, which is northeast of present-day Jiangling, near the ancient Chu capital. Buried in it was Shao Tuo, a high-ranking Chu official who died in 316 B.C. Peppercorns were packed around the coffin, probably to deter insects. The coffin is lacquered inside and out; lacquer was also used to seal the joints.

The sides and top are decorated with swirling serpents and birds, the ends with abstract curvilinear patterns. The bright palette includes red, black, and yellow. Metallic pigments were apparently added to the serpents' scales. The painterly effects and fluid designs achieved in lacquer and textiles were beginning to eclipse the more static decorations seen on early bronzes made in piece-molds. The coffin's crossing serpent and bird shapes, which scroll into a continuous pattern, are similar to embroidered work (see Embroidered gauze weave sleeve).

Bizarre creatures figure in descriptions of paradise in the most important poetry anthology to have survived from the Chu, the Chu ci. Certain animals probably had protective functions as well, and it is likely that the birds and dragons on the coffin had auspicious and protective symbolism.