What is the Priceless Treasure in the Ancient Tomb?
A surprising discovery during the construction of the Chengdu Metro line (located in Sichuan Province, China) has drawn widespread attention from the Chinese archaeological community and has shocked the country’s medical field.
In 2012, while Chengdu was building its subway, three ancient tombs were unearthed. These tombs had long been plundered by grave robbers, but surprisingly, the robbers, in their haste or blinded by wealth, did not realize that underneath the coffins lay a “treasure” that would send shockwaves through the Chinese medical community.
A Series of Treasures that Shook China
The detailed story of this groundbreaking archaeological discovery began in July 2012, when Chengdu was constructing Metro Line 3. Large construction machinery was operating noisily, and workers were busy on the project extending to Laojun Mountain (located in the northern suburbs of Chengdu, Sichuan, China).
Suddenly, someone discovered a large, dark pit, quickly identifying it as an ancient tomb and reporting it to experts from the Chengdu Cultural Heritage and Archaeology Institute.
Xie Tao, a cultural relic expert, rushed to the scene and carefully climbed into the dark, foul-smelling ancient tomb. When he turned on his flashlight, he found that the area inside was quite spacious. Based on his previous experience, he judged that this was a tomb from the Han Dynasty.
The team of experts immediately began excavating and safeguarding the site. As the Han tomb emerged before them, the experts realized it had been disturbed by grave robbers.
In ancient times, if a tomb was robbed, the robbers usually only took gold, silver, and other valuables. However, if it was robbed more recently, they would take most of the significant cultural relics.
Delving deeper into the archaeological study, the experts discovered a total of three large tombs, referred to as Tomb 1, Tomb 2, and Tomb 3.
1. Treasure Number 1
At Tomb 1, the experts discovered beneath the coffin the most valuable treasure of the tomb. It was not gold, silver, or jewels, but rather bamboo slips filled with handwritten text and a few coins. This discovery delighted the archaeological team.
In total, more than 50 bamboo slips were found in Tomb 1. After careful collection, the experts immediately placed them in a box to protect them from air and bacteria.
Among the bamboo slips was an inscription: the family name Jiang.
In other words, the owner of Tomb 1 had the surname Jiang. Upon further research, the experts discovered that Jiang was a noble family name from the state of Chu. This leads to the inference that the tomb’s owner was a Chu person who had moved to Sichuan.
To date the Han tomb at Laojun Mountain, the experts meticulously studied the coins unearthed in the tomb, which included coins from the Han Dynasty as well as from the Qin Dynasty.
Based on the latest coins, it can be inferred that the tomb’s owner lived during the early Han Dynasty, likely buried during the reign of Empress Dowager Liu or no later than the reign of Emperor Jing of Han in Chinese history.
2. Treasure Number 3 – Shocking the Chinese Medical Field
After the archaeological team finished examining Tomb 1, they began their search for Tomb 3 (the delay in opening Tomb 2 was due to existing buildings above it). Similar to Tomb 1, Tomb 3 had also been ransacked by grave robbers, and the exquisite cultural relics inside had long been taken away.
Based on their experience from Tomb 1, the experts also began to search at the bottom of the coffin. Just as expected, there was indeed a small “secret chamber” underneath the coffin, but it was much larger than in Tomb 1.
The archaeologists retrieved a large number of funerary objects from Tomb 3. Unfortunately, most of the exquisite gold, silver, and bronze items had already been taken by robbers, leaving only wooden fragments and lacquered items.
The team carefully cleaned the mud off a lacquered wooden statue. After cleaning, the experts gasped in astonishment: Look!
Before them was a wooden statue of a person. According to ancient customs, these were attendants who accompanied the tomb’s owner in the afterlife. But upon closer inspection, the experts noticed that the lines drawn on the statue were actually the meridians of the human body!
The wooden statue with the lines drawn on it is actually the meridians of the human body!
This caused the experts to tremble with excitement. They initially concluded that the owner of Tomb 2 was a renowned physician of ancient times.
Previously, the earliest wooden statues depicting meridian lines discovered in China were excavated from a Han Dynasty tomb at Songbao Mountain in Mianyang, Sichuan, in 1993. From this discovery, experts believed that traditional Chinese medicine only flourished during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han.
The reason is that acupoints are a crucial part of traditional Chinese medicine, and the clearer the location of the acupoints on the meridian statue, the more it demonstrates the progress of ancient acupuncture.
Until the wooden statues were unearthed from the Han tomb at Laojun Mountain, the understanding of the meridians in traditional Chinese medicine had been pushed back nearly 100 years!
In terms of size, the meridian statues at Songbao Mountain are larger than those at Laojun Mountain.
The experts used special chemicals to clean the meridian statues excavated from Tomb 3 at Laojun Mountain and then took magnifying glasses to observe them closely.
It was evident on the bodies of the meridian statues that there were dense acupoints. Next to each acupoint, there were small inscriptions. Through these small inscriptions, the acupoints of the internal organs, face, and limbs of the human body could be clearly seen.
The complex meridian pathways spread across the small statues, with the heart, liver, spleen, and lungs clearly marked, along with various acupoints on the shoulders and even acupoints around the navel. All of this left the archaeological experts truly in awe.
Whenever texts are discovered in cultural relics excavated from ancient tombs, they can enrich the history of China. The small statues unearthed from Tomb 3 at Laojun Mountain sent shockwaves through the Chinese medical community.
For students studying traditional Chinese medicine, they often encounter bronze acupuncture figures, with the earliest dating back to the Northern Song Dynasty. Therefore, practitioners of Chinese medicine often mistakenly believe that acupuncture only developed during the Song Dynasty.
In fact, acupuncture has a history of over 4,000 years, and the meridian statues excavated from the Han tomb at Laojun Mountain have proven that the Han Dynasty had developed acupuncture techniques and was skilled in acupuncture.
What made the archaeological experts even more thrilled was that they had unearthed over 900 thin wooden slips filled with ancient writings.
Bamboo slips found in the ancient tomb.
The experts in Chengdu were unable to decipher the writings on the wooden slips, so they invited leading experts in Chinese archaeology to decode them – Dr. Wu Jiabi.
When this expert picked up the wooden slips, he was astonished to say: These are writings on the medical techniques of Bian Que (407 BC – 310 BC) – a famous physician of the Warring States period, who founded the pulse diagnosis method in traditional Chinese medicine.
Portrait of Bian Que – the legendary physician of ancient China. (Source: Baidu).
Bian Que’s real name was Qin Yiren. The reason people call him Bian Que – the name of a sacred bird in Chinese mythology – is to show respect for his rare medical talents.
Among these medical texts are “The Five-Color Pulse Diagnosis,” “Ancient Medical Specialties,” “Sixty Recipes for Healing,” “Causes of Diseases,” “Symptoms of Various Illnesses,” and more…
The excavation of these medical texts from Bian Que holds great significance in understanding the development of traditional Chinese medicine; it also opens up a valuable resource regarding ancient medical practices. According to accurate historical records, Bian Que’s medical techniques had been lost and disappeared for thousands of years.
Ten years after this precious treasure was discovered, in 2022, the People’s Daily (China) reported that a collective of experts from the Institute of History and Medical Literature of China – part of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences; Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine; Jingzhou Cultural Heritage Protection Center; and Chengdu Cultural Institute had compiled the 900 wooden slips into 8 valuable medical books.
Thus, the medical texts from thousands of years ago have been “reprinted,” providing China with an opportunity to research and preserve this priceless treasure.
3. Treasure No. 2
The excavation of Tomb No. 2 was delayed until 2013, mainly due to the presence of a large number of commercial buildings above the tomb. As the archaeological team dug through each layer of soil, important historical discoveries were revealed to the world.
In terms of area, Tomb No. 2 is larger than the other two tombs, and in terms of craftsmanship, it also appears to be more intricate. This analysis suggests that, among the three tombs in the Laoqian Mountains, the owner of Tomb No. 2 held the highest status.
However, a skeleton found outside the coffin caused widespread confusion.
Upon opening the coffin, experts realized that the skeleton found outside belonged to the tomb’s owner. The positioning of the remains indicated that grave robbers had removed the body from the coffin to facilitate easier looting. This also proves that the owner of Tomb No. 2 was robbed shortly after burial.
After 30 days of cleaning the tomb, the experts finally made a breakthrough discovery: There were many pieces of brocade in the tomb.
Previously, the famous brocade of Shu originated from the pre-Qin era, but no pieces of Shu brocade from before the Han Dynasty had ever been excavated in Sichuan.
Due to wars later on, only one of the four main weaving techniques of the Shu dynasty was passed down.
After restoring the pieces of brocade, experts successfully revived the ancient Shu brocade craftsmanship.
