From ancient times to the present, the wisdom of the ancients has given us too many surprises. From the ingenious crafts and buildings to the most primitive prototypes of many technologies, we are shocked every time a variety of wonderful technologies appear. But the ideas of the ancients were not limited to this, and they also left us with some mysteries in the tombs. In the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, why is there a long lamp that will not be extinguished for a thousand years? This problem has plagued experts for many years, until an American expert came to the conclusion that it convinced China and foreign countries.
In 221 BC, Qin Shi Huang led a large army to sweep through the Central Plains with courage and strength, unifying the six kingdoms, and the Qin Dynasty was established. As the first emperor in China's history and the founder of the feudal dynasty, Qin Shi Huang can be said to have a very important position in history, and has been studied by scholars of later generations.
Soon after Qin Shi Huang succeeded to the throne, he already began to design and build the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang. When he was still the King of Qin, the construction of the Lishan Tomb had already been implemented in 246 BC, and he said that the empress dowager had arranged for the chancellor Li Si to preside over the construction on this basis. It was not until 208 BC that the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor was fully completed, which lasted 39 years, poured a lot of material and financial resources, and the extremely luxurious design also led to the deficit of the Qin Dynasty's national treasury and the grievances of the people to a certain extent.
In 206 BC, Xiang Yu entered Guanzhong, and the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang suffered the worst damage in history. According to the "History of Gao Zu Benji" and the "Book of Han", the ground buildings at that time were basically destroyed, and the imperial tomb was also excavated. But since then, Liu Bang ordered the protection of the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang in 195 BC, and since then successive dynasties have continued this protection.
In 1962, China's archaeological team conducted a comprehensive archaeological survey of this largest and most well-designed imperial mausoleum in China's history. In 1974, the Qin Terracotta Warriors were discovered, and in 1980, a large number of painted bronze carriages and horses were unearthed, and more copper carriages and horses, known as the "Crown of Bronze", were unveiled, and the archaeological findings were extremely fruitful.
However, experts also encountered many difficult puzzles in the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, the most famous of which is the lamp that burned for a thousand years. In ancient times in China, the folk have been circulating the tradition of changming lanterns, which are lit on the night of Chinese New Year's Eve to drive away evil spirits and avoid harm. According to the records of the "Records of History", in ancient times, emperors would place a long lantern in the tomb after death, expressing the meaning of continuing the glory of their lives.
The combustion of ancient lamps requires lamp oil and lamp threads, but with today's technology, it has not been possible to find what kind of substance can burn for thousands of years, and this long lamp has become a major problem for experts. This discovery has also aroused the interest of many experts abroad, because the long lamp has also appeared in the history of foreign countries, such as the tomb of Peles, the son of the ancient Roman king, discovered in 1400 AD. There is a lamp that has been burning for more than 2,000 years, and the only way to extinguish it is to suck away the lamp oil. Unfortunately, because it was too long ago, the principle of that lamp could not be studied.
Simon Effik is a physics and chemistry teacher in Idaho, USA, who has been interested in changming lanterns since childhood. Because of his American identity, it was difficult for him to find the ancient books of our country, so he repeatedly pondered the results already obtained by various scholars. Finally he found that in the "Chronicle of History", it is recorded that "with mermaid paste as a candle, the immortals will be long." In this case, according to the descriptions in the Chronicle of Foreign Objects and the Book of Aliens, the so-called "mermaid paste" is most likely whale fat.
According to Simon's theory, the scientists immediately conducted a comparative study, and sure enough, they found that this oil that burned for a long time was somewhat similar to the composition of lamp oil. At the same time, after 31 years of research, Simon discovered that the fusion of yellow phosphorus with flammables can be slow and natural. This makes scientists suddenly think that white phosphorus, a friend of yellow phosphorus, will burn immediately after contact with the air, and when it is used as an ancient wick, at the moment when the tomb is opened, the air will pour in, will it not burn again? As a result, the long light problem was answered under Simon's idea.
There are many precious cultural relics buried in the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, and there are also many incredibles, and the amazing water galaxy will still make people feel shocked. The diversity of the wisdom and ideas of the ancients is far beyond our expectations, but it is precisely because of this that history has left us with many exquisite buildings such as the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin.