In 1971, on the outskirts of Changsha, local people were building air raid shelters. But soon after, the workers noticed what appeared to be something underground, so they stopped their work. Later, after surveying, it was as if there was a huge ancient tomb under the ground, and after reporting, the people from the cultural relics department rushed to the scene. After a series of excavations, the Mawangdui Han Tomb revealed its true appearance, and a female corpse was excavated in this ancient tomb, shocking China and foreign countries, which is the thousand-year-old incorruptible female corpse "Lady Xin Chai". The female corpse is very well preserved, and the outer coffin has four layers, each with exquisite funerary objects in the middle. When the staff opened the last layer of the coffin, a sour smell wafted over. But the staff at that time could not help but rejoice in their hearts, if this thousand-year-old tomb unearthed an uncorrupted female corpse was definitely a big news.
There was an archaeologist Hou Liang present at the time, who could not hide his inner joy, and with experience, he knew that the owner of the tomb was probably not decaying. At that time, Mrs. Xin Chai's body was wrapped in a weakly acidic solution, and after extracting the solution, people saw Mrs. Xin Chai's true appearance. The people present were astonished and did not believe that after more than two thousand years, Mrs. Xin Chai's body had not yet decayed. At that time, the news of the discovery of the incorruptible female corpse in the Mawangdui Han Tomb spread throughout the country and even attracted the attention of the central government. Many people in Hunan rushed to Changsha to see what the thousand-year-old female corpse really looked like. Even at that time, the number of people who came to see the female corpse was large, and there were several stampede accidents.
After the discovery of the female corpse in the Mawangdui Han Tomb, the then Premier Zhou Enlai paid close attention to the matter, and also ordered the protection of cultural relics and sent a team of experts to study the female corpse. Later, after a series of medical dissections, people had a clearer understanding of Mrs. Xin Chai. Mrs. Xin Chai was about fifty years old, about one meter tall and five-four, and her subcutaneous fat was relatively plump. And Mrs. Xin Chai's body fat is mainly related to diet, so suffering from cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and even angina, researchers found that the female corpse has residues in the stomach, is more than a hundred melon seeds, according to this speculation, Mrs. Xin Chai ate a large number of melons at her last meal, and it was this overeating that caused physical discomfort, and finally died in her fifties.
In ancient times, in fact, the age of more than fifty years was already very large, and it was already considered an old man. Especially more than two thousand years ago, medical conditions could not keep up, and people's physical diseases could not be well treated, and they would be transformed into stubborn diseases over the years. Mrs. Xin Chai's poor physical condition was mainly because the medical conditions at that time could not keep up, coupled with the unreasonable diet, and eventually died. When the female corpse was first unearthed, it was very well preserved, it did not look like it died more than 2,000 years ago, and even the skin was still elastic. Why the female corpse has been preserved for so long is still inconclusive. It is likely to be related to the weak acidic liquid in the burial chamber, which may continue to grow bacteria to achieve antiseptic effect.
In addition to the female corpses found in the Mawangdui Han Tomb, many exquisite cultural relics have been unearthed, such as lacquerware, gold and silverware, and so on. These cultural relics have higher research value and are very elaborate in their production process. Although the discovery of the Mawangdui Han Tomb has been decades ago, at first people called the owner of the tomb Mrs. Xinchai according to the "concubine Xinchai" on the seal in the tomb, but in recent years, experts have found that "Xinchai" may not be the name of the tomb owner. Some experts believe that in fact, the seal is not engraved with "Xin Chai" but "avoidance".
Therefore, many experts nowadays feel that this Mrs. Xin Chai is likely to be called Mrs. Avoidance. In the face of such doubts, many people also have different views, and some people feel that experts are right, after all, in ancient times, many concubines had only one word in their names, and it was more likely that they were called Lady Avoidance. And according to the custom of seal engraving at that time, if it is three words, it is arranged up and down, and it will not be arranged in turn left and right, so the tomb owner is more likely to be called "Lady Avoidance". But after decades, people have become accustomed to calling Mrs. Xin Chai, so they can't accept this new name for a while. History is like this, and sometimes it takes many inquiries to get closer to the truth.
The female body unearthed at Mawangdui is well preserved and visited by many tourists every year. Perhaps the Mawangdui non-rotten female corpse is just an accident, but this accident satisfies people's infinite reverie about the life of the ancients. Through exquisite cultural relics, people have come up with scenes of the lives of ancients more than 2,000 years ago in their minds, narrowing the distance with the ancients. Perhaps this is the unique charm of history, posterity can only get close to the truth but never know what the truth really is.
References: "Mawangdui Han Tomb Book, Late Interpretation and Subversion"