A panda-patterned Shu brocade piece. [Photo by Huang Zhiling/China Daily]

Dating back 3,100 years ago, the king's statue is crowned with a sun motif and coated with three layers of tight, short-sleeved bronze long shirt decorated with a dragon pattern and overlaid with a checked ribbon.

Huang, the Tsinghua University researcher in Chinese dynastic clothing, considers the garment to be the country's oldest existing dragon robe.

Thinking the pattern is the work of Shu embroidery, he has had the red silk dragon robe made on the basis of the king's garment and has donated it to the museum.

The robe has changed the traditional view that Shu embroidery began in the mid-Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Instead, it shows samples of the embroidery appearing in the Shang Dynasty (16th century-11th century BC), according to Wang Yuqing, a Taiwan-based Chinese clothing historian.

Contact the writer at huangzhiling@chinadaily.com.cn