Dear Dr. Sabine Schuster,
In ancient China, Enormous quantities of Hg ware used in burials, such as Qi Huangong (the king of Qi State, died in 642 year BC), Qin Shihuang (the first king of the Qin-dynasty, died in the late of 3rd c. BC). The same things were found in Song-dynasty. The rercordations can been in many literatures. And archaeologists have been found that the tomb of Qi Shihuang has higher Hg content.
These interesting things related to the alchemic ideology of ancient Chinese. Chinese alchemists believed that taking elixir could directly remove corrosion (resistant power, volatility, and evil spirits), or, more specifically, could drive the exorcising power and some superfine functions of certain metals and ores into the human body in order to make it possible for a human being to enjoy eternal life and became celestial. As a result, mercury, gold, dansha (cinnabar), jade, mica, xionghuang (realgar) received great attention from those alchemists. Ge Hong (notability alchemist of the Eastern Jin-dynasty) said, ¡°when mercury or gold in nine apertures (in China points to two ears, mouth, and so on), the died bogy will be eternal.¡± So enormous quantities of Hg are used therefor some kind of conserving the body of the death persons.
Chen Jianli
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Institute of Historical Metallurgy & Materials
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