Scientists have found traces of “the elixir of eternal life”

The Chinese people, especially officials, were instructed to look for the “elixir of eternal life”

Chinese archaeologists have discovered two thousand years of documents testifying that in the distant past the people of China were looking for a recipe for “elixir of eternal life.”

These searches were conducted on the personal order of the first Emperor of the country called Qin Shi Huang, who hoped to achieve immortality. In the hands of the researchers was not only a decree, but a number of other documents on this subject.

Qin Shi Huang, whose name translates as “great Emperor, the Founder of Qin” to the year 221 BC established one-man rule throughout the Domestic of China and went down in history as the ruler of the first centralized Chinese state. With his name linked to the construction of the great wall of China, which replaced the defensive walls separating subsequently formed the China Kingdom.

Sometimes the experts is quite difficult to separate reliable information about the Emperor from the many myths surrounding his reign, and one of the “gray areas” of this kind remained evidence that Qin Shi Huang sought to eternal life. In the ancient work of the Han historian SIMA Qian mentions that the Emperor during his travels, became acquainted with magicians and sorcerers, hoping to find out from them the secret of the elixir of immortality. There is a legend that after the Governor spoke about the huge fish in protected “Islands of immortality”, he sailed to them, even if not successful. There is also a version that because of the “elixirs of immortality” containing mercury and its compounds, the Emperor lived a short life, died at the age of 39 years.

A collection of 36 thousand bamboo planks that are discovered by Chinese archaeologists in the Central part of Hunan province, suggests that the desire of the Emperor to eternal life really is not just a myth. Among the documents was the official decree, Shi Huang, according to which all the inhabitants of China and, in particular, the officials were instructed to look for the “elixir of eternal life” and to report on progress in the search. Some of the other plates contained the answers from some of the settlements — in particular, the suggestion that the Emperor should try some plants growing near one of responding to the call of the villages.

Anyway, the Emperor foresaw the possibility that his quest will not succeed — during the life of the ruler for him was created by the great tomb, the creation of which, as expected, attracted 700 thousand workers and artisans. The perimeter of the outer wall of the disposal was equal to 6 kilometers.

paradox