Is corpse poison real? Just look at the tomb of "Lady Xin Chai"

People who like to read tomb robbery novels must not be unfamiliar with a word, it is corpse poison.

In many literary and artistic works, corpse poison is spread to the gods, especially in the expression of several fire tomb robbery themes, once unfortunately contaminated with corpse poison, then the light may appear "corpse change" situation, the heavy is directly killed.

Therefore, it is often discussed whether corpse poison is real in real life.

There is a very typical example, which is the tomb of "Lady Xin chai", because after the excavation of "Lady Xin Chai", the whole person looks lifelike, and some people speculate that this is the role of corpse poison.

So, is corpse poison real? How toxic it is, just look at the tomb of "Lady Xin Chai".

The mystery of the incorruptible "Lady Xin Chai"

In 1951, a famous archaeologist came to Changsha, Hunan Province, to look for the remains of ancient architecture and excavated many ancient tombs.

On the eastern outskirts of Changsha, there are two very strange mounds, both of which stand out on the flat ground, like saddles, and the local people call this place "Mawangdui", according to folk legend, this is the tomb of the two emperors.

Experienced archaeologists, after studying the area around the mounds for a while, thought there should be one after them, thinking that they should be very early, should be tombs around the 2nd century BC.

In 1971, locals were preparing to build a hospital nearby, but during the construction process, they often encountered inexplicable landslides, especially when workers were drilling down with steel brazes, and suddenly a burst of gas appeared.

The gas that was drilled out also showed that it was still in a very well sealed state, and in 1972, the excavation work began, which lasted for 4 months, and everyone finally saw the tomb, which gave people the feeling that it was an underground palace.

Next to the huge coffin, everyone also found a lot of treasures, and no one thought at the time that the coffin was the real treasure.

After the outer pavilion was opened, archaeologists saw the hostess wrapped in bright silk, sleeping peacefully in the coffin.

Moreover, she is not left with only a skeleton.

She seemed to have just died, her skin was still pale yellow, even elastic when pressed, and some of the joints could still move, giving a lifelike feeling.

As long as the body does not decay, it must be successfully isolated from the air, which means that the coffin must always be kept in a vacuum.

Experts believe that there is a very thick white paste mud and a large amount of charcoal outside the burial chamber, which are highly absorbent and can block the air, but this method is also commonly used in ancient tombs in the south, but the corpses in other tombs are also decomposed.

This incident has also set off a lot of waves at home and abroad, and people have begun to speculate about the reason for the immortality of the female corpse of Mawangdui for thousands of years.

In the ensuing investigation, archaeologists found the coffin.

At the beginning, some experts believed that these coffins were deliberately sprayed preservatives when burying corpses, which was also an important reason for the imposition of corpses.

According to the results of the test, the coffin liquid has ethanol and acetic acid components, which is also in line with an important reason for the immortality of the corpse for thousands of years, but an archaeologist named Peng Longxiang believes that the coffin liquid is not a preservative, but the water vapor that has penetrated for a long time has slowly condensed.

The other two tomb owners of Mawangdui were not so lucky, the second tomb had been patronized by thieves many years ago, and the corpse had long since become a dead bone.

When the seal was discovered, the veil of the mysterious woman finally surfaced.

The mysterious female corpse is named Xin Chai, but the historical record about her is a blank, leaving people with unlimited imagination space.

In 2002, Zhao Chengwen, a professor in the forensic department of the China Criminal Police College, began to restore the image of Mrs. Xin Chai, arguing that the key to the human face also depends on the shape of the skull, as long as the skull is intact, then it is likely to be restored.

After a long period of work, Professor Zhao finally completed the tracing work on the computer, it seems that she is a very authentic Chinese beauty, about one meter six in height, according to that era, this is also a medium height.

Since there is no specific origin, people can only speculate about Xin Chai's past.

According to the records of the autopsy, Mrs. Xin Chai once gave birth to a child, perhaps the owner of Tomb No. 3.

Her past glory is also recorded by the funerary goods.

The reason why Mrs. Xin Chai is really famous is not because of her historical status, but because of her incorruptible legend.

During the excavation, some researchers inevitably touched the liquid in the coffin, but these liquids did not affect everyone much.

It seems that the legendary "corpse poison" will not have much impact on the human body, and the so-called "corpse poison" is not the main reason for the incorruptible life of Mrs. Xin Chai for thousands of years.

This also shows that "corpse poison", that is, bacteria and viruses produced by normal chemical changes that occur after the human body is buried, they themselves do not produce any danger, nor are they fatal, not as scary as described in film and television works.

As for the reason why Mrs. Xin Chai has not rotted for thousands of years, in addition to the protective role of the coffin, the most critical reason is deep burial and sealing, coupled with the geographical environment of Hunan, which originally allows the soil below 8 meters to have the characteristics of constant temperature and pressure, and the external charcoal and white paste mud can be used as important materials to make the coffin internal hypoxia and sterility.

After that, the matter of Mrs. Xin Chai turned over, but her status in the Chinese archaeological community is still high, and people are even more surprised by the wisdom and creation of the past two thousand years, especially in the textile industry.

The secret behind Mrs. Sim chai

At the beginning of the founding of the Western Han Dynasty, the national strength was relatively weak, the people's life was also very hard, in order to allow the people to rest and recuperate, several generations of emperors have adopted a gentle national policy, and the king and hou are also required to be frugal, and the subsequent burial items usually do not include gold and silver jewelry.

In ancient times, when funerary culture was practiced, marquises and ladies also wanted to "live" more comfortably after death, so they also brought expensive silk and lacquerware, and with them, they could be more steadfast in their hearts.

The tomb was so luxurious that it was easy to imagine what it was like to be in the palace where the Marquise had lived before, at least with a host of slaves and countless delicacies around her.

138 and a half melon seeds were found in Mrs. Xin Chai's intestines

That is, in the less than a day before Mrs. Xin Chai's death, she had also eaten a large number of melons, and it seemed that she was also a greedy lady.

The final explanation is that Mrs. Xin chai's coronary artery blockage is very serious, after eating a large amount of melon, gallstones have an acute attack, reflexes caused coronary artery spasm, resulting in acute myocardial ischemia and causing sudden death.

The servants also did not know that the cause of the hostess's death was related to improper diet, so in her tomb, there were countless delicacies, including melons that killed her, and they hoped that their hostess would be able to eat their favorite food in another world.

The excavation work takes a long time, and people are very confused, even the subsequent excavation is so difficult, what was the construction process in that year?

Archaeologists recall that from the outside of the burial chamber, there were several truckloads of charcoal alone, not to mention gypsum mud.

On the contrary, when burying Mrs. Xin Chai, it also cost a huge amount of manpower and material resources.

In addition to these charcoal and plaster mud, Mrs. Xinchai's huge coffin has a total of 4 layers, each of which is made of natural wood, using a total of 70 planks, reaching 52 cubic meters, of which one fir board is 4.84 meters long, 4.52 meters wide and 26 centimeters thick.

In addition, the rammed soil of Tomb No. 1 is 7 meters, the sealing soil is 8 meters, and the excavation and filling work requires 30,000 square meters of soil, which is transported from the time it is transported to the compaction, and it takes about 300 days for 100 people to complete, plus other work, and the entire tomb can only use more labor.

It is also speculated that the work began before Mrs. Sinchai was confronted with physical signals, and perhaps she herself had been here to instruct the workers in their work.

At that time, the ancient Chinese also believed that there was heaven and hell in the world, and people longed for heaven, and a painting made of drapery was unearthed in the tomb, which revealed the secret of My Wife Xinchai and expressed the traditional view of Chinese on life and death.

In Madame Xin Chai's yearning, it can also be seen that there are 9 suns shining among the huge branches, there are fairies dancing by the moon, and the gods are welcoming the marquise to enjoy her second life.

Lady Xin Chai was creating a posthumous world, but she also did not expect that the family she and her husband had painstakingly created was not smooth in the process of development, and in order to control the imperial court, the Western Han Dynasty let all the houdu go to Chang'an, and later, the story of her family was soon ended.

The records of her husband in the history books also came to an abrupt end, and in just a few decades after the death of Mrs. Xin Chai, a once-huge family was destroyed, and most of the descendants were reduced to the people, living the lives of ordinary people, and everything that was before was also gone.

However, she estimated that what she did not expect was that after a thousand years, she would appear in front of the world, and she would have such a high status, even higher than all the funerary goods around her.

Because some of the puzzles on Mrs. Xin chai's body have not been completely solved, folklore about her has often appeared, especially "corpse poison".

Although the definition of corpse poison in the novel does not exist, and that description makes the word famous, it is explained in a narrow sense that corpse poison is a chemical substance.

Although the products of corruption do not kill people, they will also have a certain impact on the human body, and archaeologists will pay special attention to the process of contacting corpses, wearing sterilized masks, gloves and hoods to isolate this possibility.

As for Mrs. Xin Chai, she is also famous because she was discovered, and her character image has also appeared in TV series such as "The Lament of the Great Han" and "The Great Han Towel", which is known by more and more people.

Since 2003, Mrs. Xin Chai has been protected in the "underground residence" of the Hunan Museum.

In this "underground dormitory", there is also a temperature automatic sensor, which transmits the temperature and humidity change information to the control system, and the staff can also monitor the situation in the "underground dormitory" for 24 hours and do a good job of data statistics.

Due to the fear that too much humidity will cause mold on Mrs. Xin Chai's body, the museum also specially reduces the humidity in the "sleeping palace".

The current "underground dormitory" is 8 meters away from the ground, the constant temperature system has an automatic constant temperature function within 8 hours of the power outage, the thermal insulation state is very good, and the Hunan Provincial Museum is also specially equipped with a generator to cope with long-term power outages.

Chen Jianming, then director of the Hunan Provincial Museum, said: "Under the protection of modern science and technology, Mrs. Xin Chai will definitely be able to sleep peacefully for a thousand years. ”

The historical mystery behind her still needs to be solved by future generations.

reference

Continue to write the world's ancient corpse protection miracle: Mawangdui Han tomb owner Xin Chao relocated to the "new residence" Xinhua net

YU Yanjiao. The historical and cultural value of mawangdui Han tomb[J].

HONG SHI. Study on oil painting lacquerware excavated from Mawangdui Han Tomb[J].Jianghan Archaeology