Is Qin Shihuang's body well preserved?

/kloc-0 At the beginning of 0/0, a press conference was held in Xi 'an Terracotta Warriors Museum. Guo Zhikun, an expert in the history of Qin and Han Dynasties in China, made a bold guess at the Qin Mausoleum, an eternal mystery that affects hundreds of millions of people. One of the most striking is the idea that Qin Shihuang's body may be well preserved.

After the death of Qin Shihuang, the first method was to cool down, and the body was "cleaned" after mercury was found.

Qin Shihuang died at the age of 50, and ended his short life with a "dune platform" on his way out to patrol. But the legend about Qin Shihuang did not disappear with his departure. For 2200 years, no one dared to open the huge underground palace at the foot of Mount Li easily. People can only make subjective guesses about this legendary figure based on historical books and scientific common sense.

Guo Zhikun believes that from the point of view of location, Qin Shihuang died of illness on the sand dune platform (now northwest of Guangzong County, Hebei Province). The weather here in July is still relatively cool, not as hot and difficult as people think. In terms of riding equipment, Qin Shihuang's body was put in a cool car, which is called a refrigerated truck today. In addition, Hu Hai, Li Si and Zhao Gao, the core officials of the Qin Dynasty, were present at that time. Guo Zhikun speculated that Qin Shihuang died of a sudden illness, and they would try their best to preserve his body to avoid filial piety. There is also an important figure around Qin Shihuang, that is, Xia Wuxie, a doctor with superb medical skills. In the face of emergencies, he will use his knowledge of sterilization and disinfection at that time.

Guo Zhikun believes that after Qin Shihuang's death, he first used the method of cooling down. After discovering mercury, he "cleaned" the body, wrapped it in multi-layer silk, and then soaked it in a mercury coffin. According to relevant records, mercury was a common preservative in that era. Mercury produced by alchemy is a metallic substance, but it is in liquid state. It flows in a ring and is volatile, which is different from ordinary substances. Strange phenomena made the ancients feel incredible. Because mercury has the function of disinfection and sterilization, alchemists believe that taking "immortal" things as mercury can make human flesh and blood equally "immortal".

At the end of the 20th century, Chinese archaeologists had detected a large area of strong mercury on the surface of the underground palace of Qin Mausoleum, and concluded that there was a large amount of mercury hidden in the underground palace of Qin Shihuang Mausoleum. At the same time, it is also recorded in Historical Records of Qin Shihuang that the mausoleum of Qin Shihuang "takes mercury as a hundred rivers and seas and pours them into the machine." There is astronomy above and geography below. "Wang Xueli, a researcher at Shaanxi Institute of Archaeology, concluded that the mercury in the underground palace is just as described by Sima Qian: it is based on hundreds of rivers and seas. It is conservatively estimated that there is at least 100 tons of mercury. Guo Zhikun believes that the purpose of using mercury in the mausoleum is not only to create a magnificent atmosphere, but also to protect the remains of Qin Shihuang, and even to use mercury sulfide as a toxic gas to prevent the invasion of grave robbers.

Zhao Gao and Hu Hai put abalone and "corpse" together to make it stink.

However, experts with different views believe that although the underground palace of Qin Mausoleum was not stolen, Qin Shihuang may only have a skeleton left. The reason is that Qin Shihuang died on his way out, and it was on a hot day, so the body was not well protected; At that time, the "corpse" had not gone far, and it gave off a stench. In order to prevent the smell from spreading and leaking the "wind", Zhao Gao and Hu Hai immediately sent people to pick up baskets of abalone from the river and put them with the "bodies" to confuse the smell.

These statements are not groundless, because Sima Qian recorded in Records of the First Qin Emperor: "When the coffin was put on a cool car ... it would be hot and the car would stink, so the official ordered people to carry a stone abalone to make it stink."

Duan Qingbo, a researcher at Shaanxi Institute of Archaeology, believes that "recording" is the creative principle of Sima Qian's Historical Records. Ban Gu, a historian of the Eastern Han Dynasty, said in the biography of Sima Qian, "Historical Records is called a true record because its words are straight, its core is beautiful, and it does not hide evil." Affirmed Sima Qian's spirit of "recording". The authenticity of Sima Qian's Historical Records is also conclusive in history. Therefore, judging from the relevant records in Historical Records of Qin Shihuang, I'm afraid Qin Shihuang's body can't be well preserved.

If the female corpse of Mawangdui in the Western Han Dynasty, which is less than a hundred years away from the Qin Dynasty, can be well protected, the Qin Dynasty should also have anti-corrosion technology to protect the remains. The problem is that Qin Shihuang died on his way out. To make matters worse, it was in the hot summer. In this way, after more than 50 days of long-distance bumps, in September, the bones were finally transported back to Xianyang for mourning.

More than 2200 years ago, 100 tons of mercury was just an astronomical figure.

At the same time, many experts believe that the mountains, rivers, lakes and seas in the Qin Mausoleum are only models, and mercury will not be injected in large quantities. Chen Jingyuan, an architect who has been paying attention to and studying Terracotta Warriors for a long time, pointed out that the output of mercury has been very low. At present, the annual output of mercury in China is less than 1000 tons. More than 2,200 years ago, 65,438,000 tons of mercury was just an astronomical figure. If there is a lot of mercury, it is undoubtedly a huge source of mercury pollution, and there must be medical history information caused by mercury pollution in history, but as far as the current information is concerned, we have not found any relevant clues. In addition, the area of mercury detected on the surface of the underground palace of Qin mausoleum does not rule out the influence of mercury emission pollution around it. These pollution sources include mercury-containing wastewater and waste gas from electroplating workshop of Shaanxi Sewing Machine Factory, which used to be next to Qinling Mountains, mercury-containing pesticides used in nearby farmland, mercury-containing initiators used in Lishan blasting, etc.