Taoism is the indigenous culture of the mainland and has a history of thousands of years. According to legend, Taoism has many immortals and many "immortal secret arts".
So, is this really the case? The accidental excavation of an ancient tomb of the Han Dynasty has made everyone have different opinions.
Experts from the archaeological department, in this ancient tomb, accidentally found a mysterious woman, whose body has not decayed for thousands of years and still has a certain elasticity. Some people were very surprised by this and asked, is it true that Taoism has the secret art of becoming immortals?
This Han Dynasty tomb is located in Mawangdui Township, Changsha City, Hunan Province, which was the fiefdom of Changsha State Minister Licang in the early Western Han Dynasty. In 1971, the 366 Hospital of Hunan Provincial Military Region, because of the needs of development, decided to carry out construction on two small earth slopes in Mawangdui and build an underground hospital.
During the excavation, members of the construction team accidentally encountered a landslide. Soon, a very pungent smell rose from underground, and some blue flames came out.
This strange phenomenon startled everyone present. When experts from relevant departments learned of this incident, they immediately judged that below the collapsed area, it was likely to be an ancient tomb.
Archaeologists believe that the workers' previous excavations are likely to have destroyed the internal structure of the tomb, and if it is ignored, it is likely to cause greater damage to the tomb.
Therefore, archaeologists and leaders of relevant departments reported the news and applied for protective excavation of the tomb. After approval, experts officially carried out a protective excavation of this underground tomb.
Changsha, Hubei Province, is an ancient cultural place with a long history, where many thousand-year-old tombs are buried, and experts have also found many historical sites in the Hunan region before. Unfortunately, most of these places have been destroyed by tomb robbers, who have not found much valuable in them.
After discovering the ancient tomb of Mawangdui, the experts were very anxious, they were looking forward to finding some valuable treasures in it, and they were afraid that this ancient tomb had been destroyed by tomb robbers.
In this tense atmosphere, archaeologists continued to excavate. Coincidentally, when the experts were digging, the weather in Hunan was very bad, and it often rained heavily.
Archaeologists can only fight against the harsh natural environment while carefully excavating the tomb. The whole process is very dangerous, and the slightest carelessness can lead to security problems. Fortunately, the people in charge of the excavation work were more cautious and did not cause too serious problems.
In the process of continuous excavation, archaeologists have discovered a deep hole. The cave is 17 meters deep, and experts thought that the tomb had been destroyed by tomb robbers.
At the end of the digging, it was found that the tomb robbers had only dug part of it and did not continue. Because there are still many things below, ordinary tomb robbers, there is no way to dig them completely.
In the process of excavation, archaeologists have gradually cleared out 5,000 kilograms of charcoal. This is what the ancients used to seal the tomb, and it is not difficult to see from the weight of these charcoals that the identity of the tomb owner is certainly extraordinary.
Otherwise, there could not have been so much charcoal around the perimeter of its tomb. In addition to these charcoals, archaeologists have also found a lot of things related to Taoism.
The tomb owner's sleeping coffin, decomposed into 64 wooden planks, coincides with Taoist gossip. After seeing these things, the experts were particularly surprised, and some staff even suspected that the tomb owner might be a Taoist disciple.
Archaeological research is a very serious matter, and all conclusions must have a physical basis and cannot be simply guessed out of thin air. In order to find out the true identity of the tomb owner, archaeologists completely opened the coffin and found the remains of the tomb owner inside. At that time, the remains of the tomb owner were wrapped in dozens of layers of silk. Through the thick silk, the experts could not see the true face of the tomb owner.
In order to facilitate the study, experts carefully dismantled the silk outside the remains of the tomb owner. The owner of the tomb is a woman, and when she sees the light of day, her skin is slightly yellow, but it is still very elastic when touched with her fingers.
Her body is soft, and some of her joints are still like living people, allowing them to rotate freely. After seeing this scene, the experts were shocked, and this kind of strange scene was very rare at that time.
Some people even speculated that the occurrence of the tomb owner's body was related to the Taoist secret transmission spell. Judging from the many clues before, there are indeed many things closely related to Taoism in the tomb, and everyone has this speculation, which is also reasonable.
In order to find out the identity of the tomb owner, archaeologists have carried out a more comprehensive protective excavation of the tomb, and many treasures have been unearthed. Among them, one of the treasures is a seal with the word "Xin Chai" engraved on it. Experts believe that this may be the name of the tomb owner, so the tomb owner has become what everyone calls "Mrs. Xin Chai".
So, why can the body of Lady Xin Chai not be incorruptible for a thousand years? In order to solve this puzzle, experts from relevant departments used modern medical means to dissect it, and it turned out that the owner of the tomb should have died of disease.
She suffered from coronary heart disease, multiple cholelithiasis and so on. In the process of dissection, experts found more than 130 melon seeds in Mrs. Xinchai's intestines.
Hence the expert judgment. Mrs. Xin Chai should have died in the melon ripening season. Judging from the traces of the body, the root cause of her death was coronary heart disease caused by biliary colic, and when she died, she should have been about 50 years old.
Mrs. Xin Chai's flesh is not decayed, probably because the environment in the tomb is relatively special, and the oxygen content inside is very low, which inhibits the growth of microorganisms. In other words, The fact that Madame Xin Chai's body has not decayed for thousands of years has little to do with the "Immortal Secret Technique" that everyone has speculated.
Regrettably, after the unearthing of Mrs. Xin Chai's body, because it was not protected in time, it had long-term contact with the outside air, and after only one year, her body was seriously decayed, and the original lifelike appearance became unsightly and looked very bad.
In order to avoid greater damage to the body, archaeologists specially tailored an "underground bedchamber" for Mrs. Xin Chai. This underground building, about 8 meters from the ground, has a constant temperature and humidity in the environment, which is very similar to the original environment of the Mawangdui Tomb.
In addition to the remains of Mrs. Xin Chai, archaeologists have also found a large number of books on Taoism in the ancient tomb. Its content covers medicine, astrology and divination, etc., and these books are the crystallization of the wisdom of the ancients.
Among the many books, there is a Taoist classic that is particularly interesting, with dozens of drawings on it, somewhat similar to the martial arts of monasticism. Experts speculate that this may be a classic used by the ancients to strengthen the body and prolong life. The specific effect must be studied in depth before a conclusion can be drawn.