In the previous article, Xi Qimei wrote that the Yongzheng Emperor "took the initiative to take poison" (taking Dan medicine), and this article is about what is the principle of the ancients' "silver needle test poison"? How did the real ancients prevent poisoning?
▲ Stills: Ancient poisoning.
There are always people who want to harm them:
Whenever you see the harem women in the TV series, they have a silver hairpin on their heads, and they must drink loudly before the emperors eat - and slowly! Please let the concubines test the poison! The subsequent operation was fiercer than the tiger, the silver needle was indeed blackened, and the emperor took down the evil man.
Little sister for such a bridge section, just want to sigh. Why?
▲ Stills: Ancient silver needle test poison.
In fact, the ancients' "unnatural death" methods were very limited, such as torture and poisoning.
In terms of taking poisons related to today's theme alone, there are three rough categories. The first type is poisonous plants, such as: aconitum, hook kiss, blood-sealed throat, broken intestinal grass and so on. The second category is poisonous animals, such as: venomous snakes, spiders, scorpions, poisonous bees, etc. The third category is toxic minerals, such as lead, arsenic, mercury and so on.
Among them, animal and plant poison eating is not very eating to death, eating is basically vomiting up and down diarrhea, but in severe cases, hepatomegaly and urine blood may also have to be sick for a year and a half to get better. But the Chinese people have always been cautious, the concept of "eating poisoning" is deeply rooted in the minds of Chinese, "famous gourmet" Mr. Lin Yutang summed up Chinese the first impression of living things is like this - is it poisonous?
So, why did the ancients believe that using silver needles could test poison?
▲ Legend has it that the Guangxu Emperor died of arsenic poisoning.
In fact, in ancient times, in the use of poison, it must die, and we hear the most than arsenic, for example, the Guangxu Emperor died of arsenic poisoning, and Yongzheng took Dan medicine and died of arsenic poisoning. Arsenic, also known as "Crane Top Red" in ancient times, is a kind of dikun trioxide polymer, and its form is a white powder. But! Little sister stroked the point: the ancient purification technology you also understand, driving chemical overtaking failed "arsenic" Jun, in ancient times presented as a red powder, because of the same color as the top of the red-crowned crane, so it was also called "crane top red" by the ancients. (Red-crowned crane: I'm really not poisonous, I'm too hard!) ）
▲ Stills: Ancient crane top red poisoning.
And the red impurities that ran in during the refining process to frame the red-crowned crane were actually
sulfur or sulfide,
Sulfur or sulfides will react chemically when they meet silver, resulting in black
"Silver sulfide
”。 This process, that is, the "silver needle turns black" that we can see with the naked eye. In other words, insert a silver needle into any substance containing sulfides, and it will turn black, such as egg yolk. For example, if you wear silver jewelry for a long time, the surface of silver jewelry will turn black. So, are you and the egg yolk poisonous? Apparently not. Therefore, the so-called silver needle test poison is only to test whether the substance contains the impurity sulfur contained in the refining of arsenic. If you switch to modern high-purity arsenic, even if you insert 100 silver needles, it will not turn black. Therefore, silver needle poison testing was feasible in ancient times, but it was very limited.
▲Is the silver needle poison test useful in the end?
How the Emperor prevented poisoning:
Since the silver needle test poison is not reliable, how did the ancient emperors prevent poisoning? In addition to the strict legal provisions (responsibility to people), the system (do not eat overdue food), there is a method that is 100 times more effective than the silver needle test poison test - special person test poison. Before the emperor eats, he is first eaten by the poison testers around him, and after no problem, the emperor eats again.
In ancient times, each dynasty would generally set up a special agency, similar to the "Internal Affairs Office" of the Qing Dynasty, to take care of the emperor's eating and drinking. And this institution, in the Tang Dynasty, was called the "Shang Food Bureau". When Xi Qimei visited Huaqing Pond many years ago, 15 meters west of the Emperor's Xingchen Soup, she saw a pool named "Shang Food Soup", which was the "bathhouse" set up by Tang Xuanzong Li Longji to serve his Shang Food Bureau officials, and it is conceivable that the Shang Food Bureau was an important position at that time. Generally speaking, there are 12 people in the Shang Food Bureau, including two "Shang Food" of Zheng Wupin, whose main job is to "test poison" for the emperor (who eats, tastes it first).
What do you think about that? Welcome to leave a message to Sicchi sister and post your thoughts.
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Author: SiqiMei
This article was originally published by the Seacity Museum. Reproduction without permission is strictly prohibited!