In many costume dramas, when people do not want to live, a very common way of "committing suicide" is to "swallow gold" to kill themselves, for example, in "Yanxi Raiders", a lady who was sold into the Qinglou by the master, in order to keep his own reputation, finally chose the way of "swallowing gold suicide".
In "Dream of the Red Chamber", You Erjie, who was persecuted by Wang Xifeng, because she could not bear such humiliation, also chose to "swallow gold to commit suicide", and there are many similar bridge sections, including in Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica", it is also recorded that "swallowing gold" can commit suicide, because gold is "poisonous".
First, let's look at a "gold-swallowing suicide" that happened in real life. This incident occurred in 2018, a woman who lives in Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, because she was angry with her husband, learned to "swallow gold and commit suicide" in the TV series, but after being sent to the hospital, it took less than 10 minutes to be safe.
Because the gold she swallowed was not poisonous, she only needed to take it out, and the doctor also said that if she swallowed a small piece of gold, in fact, even if she did not go to the hospital, it would be excreted with defecation.
The original common way of "suicide" in costume dramas is now staged in real life, but it has not succeeded, and from the doctor's words, it seems that "suicide by swallowing gold" does not have any scientific basis.
So, why did Li Shizhen write in the Compendium of Materia Medica that gold is poisonous? Is it wrong? Or is there another reason? You know, in addition to the bridge section in the film and television drama, in history, there has indeed been a situation of "suicide by swallowing gold", for example, according to the record in the "History of Ming", the famous eunuch Zhang Min in history, the final result is "suicide by swallowing gold".
It can also be seen from here that it seems that the ancients ' suicide by swallowing gold" was really useful, so why is it that in modern people, it is as if they have swallowed a "foreign body", which will not cause any danger to their lives?
Could it be that the gold of ancient times is different from the gold of modern times? That's true. In ancient times, alchemy, that is, the purification technology of gold, is far less advanced than today, which is roughly the gold used by the ancients, the purity is not high, in addition to the gold element, in fact, it will be mixed with a large number of impurities.
And these impurities mixed into the gold, are mainly heavy metal impurities, mention heavy metals we all know, they are very toxic, in real life, heavy metal poisoning is not uncommon, natural, in fact, the ancients' "gold-swallowing suicide", are not killed by gold, but because of heavy metals and poisoned to death.
In addition, after watching costume dramas, we all know that ancient gold is also a kind of universal currency, but it is not regular in shape, most of them are angular, which leads to the ancients swallowing this kind of angular gold, the intestines will also be scratched, and the internal organs may also be damaged.
Therefore, even if the "swallowing gold" can really commit suicide, in fact, the process of death using this method is also very painful, and from the moment of swallowing the gold, all the way to death, it will take a long time, and some may even take days or even longer, far less than it seems in costume dramas.
What's more, in ancient times, ordinary people are actually very difficult to have gold, and even if there is a piece of gold, they will not be willing to use it to kill themselves, so the "gold-swallowing suicide" in the costume drama is actually good for everyone to see, don't take it seriously.
In fact, this reason has been explained to you above, and now people will not be poisoned after swallowing gold, mainly because the purity of gold is very high, and it will not cause heavy metal poisoning.
In addition, the gold in people's hands today is mainly based on jewelry, and the status quo is not so angular, even if swallowed into the stomach, it will cause certain damage, it will not be too serious.
For example, there was a woman who felt that she had lost the meaning of her life because of a quarrel with her family, so she secretly swallowed a gold ring, thinking that she would die after lying in bed for a while, as seen in the TV series.
However, after sleeping, she found that she was still alive and did not feel how uncomfortable it was, so she went to the hospital for examination, and soon the doctor took out the gold ring she had swallowed, and the woman also regretted it very much, thinking that she should not do it.
Therefore, from these modern cases, we can actually see that "gold-swallowing suicide" will not really make people die, but if the size of swallowing is too large, it can cause people to suffocate and die, which is not a joke, nor is it impulsive, therefore, or advise everyone to be calm in case of trouble, do not joke about your life.
In addition, I also need to tell you that many foods nowadays, will also add "gold leaf", which is actually a food additive that can be eaten, if you are buying "gold leaf" food in formal channels, you can also eat normally, do not need to worry too much.