Cao Cao was a general and statesmen in The Three Kingdoms period over two thousand years ago. It is a relatively short period in China's long history. It lasted only 60 years, between 220 and 280 AD. But it's one of the best-known for the struggles and intrigues between three rival states.

Now selected relics from the time are on display at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing.

Relics of the Three Kingdoms offer a close authentic look at the warring period which has been greatly romanticized in various art forms, literature and even computer games in Asia.

This small army is the highlight of the exhibition. It was discovered in the same tomb with the famous "Galloping Horse Running on Flying Swallow", one of the finest ancient bronze statues found in Gansu province in the late 1960s.

Other big draws are inventions of Zhuge Liang, premier and military counselor of the Shu Kingdom

There's also the jade suit sewn with gold thread that belonged to the father of the wily Cao Cao.

Experts are especially interested in the coffin's tiger head stone pier. A researcher from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Yang Hong, says that the same kind of pier was found in the recently discovered tomb of Cao Cao in Henan province. They were only used in the tombs of people of the highest rank.