We continue our series "If Treasures Could Talk", showcasing some of China's most valuable ancient treasures. Today, we take a look at the Lotus and Crane square pot, the finest bronze vessel in Henan Museum's collection. Let's find out what message the masterpiece has for us.

You have a new message from an ancient treasure.

This bronze vessel gets its name from the lotus and crane sculpture on its top. The crane is about to take flight, stirring the lotus petals. This creates waves that have reverberated down through millennia.

Its purpose was ceremonial, serving as a container for wine. At its base are two strange animals with outstretched tongues, and at each of its corners is a magical beast. The handles are shaped like dragons. Although it hasn't held wine for thousands of years, its very age is intoxicating.

Many bronze vessels of the time were designed to inspire fear and awe.

Ceremonial vessels like this one were symbols of power, both secular and divine. Ferocious animals such as snakes and tigers were given unnatural features, including wings and excessively large eyes. This gave rise to popular motifs such as snake-like dragons, horned beasts, and monsters with wings and horns.

These designs were initially products of a craftsman's imagination. But over time, they were copied onto a wide variety of bronze vessels, intended to reflect their owner's status and position.

This particular vessel, with its many beasts and dragons, reveals a very different world. In the heart of a blooming lotus is a crane, its wings spread.

This pot was discovered in the tomb of a King of Zheng. The Classic of Poetry contains a romantic description of the State of Zheng: "On the mountain is the mulberry tree; In the marshes is the lotus flower." The poem goes on to describe a boy and girl laughing and joking in what seems to have been a carefree place.

Perhaps it was this carefree atmosphere that inspired the craftsman to adorn his masterpiece with a lotus in bloom. The effect is to give the heavy bronze vessel a feeling almost of weightlessness. Later, under the Han Dynasty, bronze would be replaced by iron, lacquer and pottery.

But cranes and lotuses would continue to capture people's imagination. The lotus, because it remained clean though surrounded by mud, would be used in poetry to symbolize a pure character. As for the crane, it appeared in legends as a messenger from heaven.

But during the Spring and Autumn Period, the crane had yet to come to prominence. Here, it's just a small ornament on top of a pot.

Unlike the solemn and heavy bronze vessels of previous eras, this pot reveals a willingness on the part of its maker to introduce new ideas. Born of the well-established styles of the Western Zhou Dynasty and shaped by the upheavals of Eastern Zhou, the mixture of old and new embodied in this pot tells us that a new era is on the verge of blossoming. The crane, with its wings spread, is looking to the sky, towards two thousand more years of change.