There is such a sentence in Li Bai's "After the Chaos and Departure of Heavenly Grace Flow Night Lang Remembers the Old Travel Book Huai Gift Jiang Xia Wei Tai Shou Liang Zai": The immortals caressed my top, and the hair was born forever.
For people living in ancient times, the pursuit of immortality was the goal of many people's lives. From the time Qin Shi Huang ordered Xu Fu to go into the sea to seek immortality to find the art of immortality, the emperors of successive dynasties were obsessed with the word immortality. It is precisely for this reason that the alchemists of ancient times have always been highly respected by the royal family, and the emperors also expect these alchemists to be able to refine a pot of elixir that can make people immortal, so that they can sit on the emperor's throne forever.
Judging from the records in the history books, none of the emperors in ancient times who were obsessed with immortality were immortal, but many emperors died because they took the elixir indiscriminately. In the Ming Dynasty, for example, several emperors died because they took the so-called "elixir". This is not an isolated phenomenon in history, and even the heroic Tang Taizong Li Shimin, whose death has a lot to do with the indiscriminate consumption of Dan medicine in his later years.
What is this elixir taken by the ancients? Why is it so attractive? None of these people who can become emperors are fools, why are they so obsessed with elixirs? On these issues, archaeologists once unearthed a father-daughter burial tomb in Nanjing, and 200 red pills were piled up next to their daughters, which are the so-called "elixirs" of the ancient population, but the results of the tests are infuriating.
In early 1965, archaeologists discovered an ancient tomb from the Eastern Jin Dynasty in Nanjing, and the tomb was also a joint burial tomb. Archaeologists initially thought it was supposed to be a husband and wife burial tomb, but the epitaph that was unearthed later made archaeologists feel very strange. Soon after the excavation of the ancient tomb, archaeologists excavated a piece of "Wang Danhu Epitaph", from the content of the epitaph, this ancient tomb is not a husband and wife tomb, but a father-daughter joint burial tomb, the tomb owner is the Eastern Jin Dynasty minister Wang Bin and his eldest queen Danhu.
Archaeologists have unearthed many precious cultural relics from this ancient tomb, and the most surprising thing for experts is the discovery of 200 red pills next to Wang Danhu. This discovery puzzled experts what the pills were. In order to solve the mystery, the experts took 3 of them to the test, and the results of the test made the experts angry. These elixirs are the elixirs refined by the ancient alchemists, and their effects not only cannot make people immortal, but will greatly damage the health of the user.
According to historical records, Wang Bin was the cousin of Wang Dun, a powerful minister of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and came from the famous Wang family of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Wang Bin was known for his good character since childhood, although he was born in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, he was not arrogant, and his daily life was to wear cloth clothes and eat vegetables, which was not luxurious. Like most people at that time, Wang Bin's only hobby was to refine Dan medicine and take Dan medicine, and wanted to refine the elixir for immortality. To this end, he also specially gave his daughter the name of Wang Danhu.
Wang Bin took the elixir every day, but he did not get immortality, and only lived for 59 years before he died. Moreover, Wang Bin's own pursuit of immortality was over, and he also took his daughter to cultivate immortals together and distributed the refined elixir to his daughter to take. According to the laboratory tests of archaeologists, the red pill in Wang Danhu's tomb is the so-called "immortal elixir" of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. This elixir is not only useless to the human body, long-term use will damage health, Wang Danhu chose to be buried with his father, and the reason why he took this elixir has a lot to do with it.
According to the records in the "Epitaph of Wang Danhu", Wang Danhu lived for 58 years, she did not marry in her life, although she lived in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, but she was not happy, her life can be said to be a tragedy. Before she died, she chose to be buried with her father Wang Bin, who loved her most, hoping to stay by his father's side forever.
In fact, Wang Danhu's tragic life has a deep relationship with his father Wang Bin, and it is precisely because he has taken the Dan medicine refined by his father for a long time that Wang Danhu's body has become very weak, and he has lost his own happiness in life. Although she was born in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, no one wanted to marry her, after all, no one wanted to marry a sick straw man to go home. Moreover, in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, where the mendi were quite deeply seen, a rich lady like Wang Danhu naturally could not commit herself to marrying those cold disciples. In this way, she eventually died alone and was buried with her father after death.
epilogue:
During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, people were obsessed with cultivating immortals in history, and it was no secret in history that men at that time, in addition to applying grease and powder to their faces, their biggest hobby every day was to stay in the Danfang to refine the elixirs. However, these refined elixirs actually contain a large number of toxins, and long-term use of these elixirs containing lead and mercury will have a huge impact on people's health. The Eastern Jin Dynasty was one of the dynasties with the shortest average lifespan in ancient history, and may also have a deep relationship with the Eastern Jin Dynasty people's love of taking Dan medicine.