Original title: 47 years after the excavation of Mawangdui Han tomb, it was found that the tomb owner's' old lady 'name was wrong, and more cognition will be subverted
It has been 47 years since Mawangdui Han tomb was excavated. An accidental discovery in a special era, coupled with the attention from top to bottom at that time, not only created an archaeological excavation that took the power of the whole country, but also the unearthed cultural relics have become an important cornerstone of the collection of Hunan Museum. The interpretation and research of these cultural relics, especially the unearthed silk books, still needs the efforts of scholars for generations and even decades.
If you want to see the "exhibition of Mawangdui Han tomb in Changsha", you should first take the elevator to the third floor of Hunan Provincial Museum, follow the flow of people to see the archaeological excavation materials of that year, as well as the unearthed cultural relics such as lacquerware, silk books and plain yarn clothes, and then enter a huge exhibition hall, which is the excavation site of Mawangdui No. 1 tomb pit restored one by one. In the interior space of a museum, the grave is up to 18 meters deep and runs through the whole three floors of the museum. Walking down the next stairs, people also gradually move from the top of the tomb to the depth of the tomb. The surrounding light is getting darker. The displayed cultural relics have changed from lacquer ware, silk books and other funerary objects to well coffins and t-shaped silk paintings covered on the cover plate of the inner coffin. Reaching the bottom of the tomb pit, the huge quadruple coffin was placed in the center, but the flow of people did not surround the coffin, because next to it was the body of Xin Zhui, the wife of Li Cang, the Prime Minister of Changsha in the early Han Dynasty, the original owner of tomb No. 1. It was also the most famous collection of Hunan Museum.
Under a huge horizontal glass plate is the underground space of the museum. Here, Xin Zhui is stored in a sterile constant temperature and humidity glass box, soaked in formalin based soaking solution. The glass box is connected with many equipment, which should not only keep low temperature, but also not freeze. The body unearthed after more than 2100 years of burial still has light flesh colored elastic skin and movable joints. Therefore, it has been known as the 'old lady' since it was unearthed.
This is the new display of Mawangdui Han tomb after the opening of the new museum of Hunan Province at the end of 2017, which makes people feel the truth and shock of archaeological excavation in that year. Duan Xiaoming, curator of Hunan Provincial Museum, told me that in order to solve the problem of large passenger flow since the free opening in 2008, the museum decided to close in 2012 for a five-year reconstruction and expansion project, which put great pressure on the museum. At the beginning of the design, xinzhanchen determined that the main structure of the whole building should reserve space running through the upper and lower floors, so as to restore the Han tomb pit of Mawangdui in equal proportion. It can be seen that Mawangdui is of great importance to the Expo of Hunan Province.
Since the excavation, the legend has been shrouded in Hunan Bo. Xin Zhui's body has always been the focus of visitors. Shortly after the excavation of Mawangdui No. 1 tomb in 1972, Xin Zhui's body was briefly displayed in Hunan Museum for 22 days, attracting tens of thousands of people into the museum every day. At that time, it was early summer. The air in the exhibition hall was dirty and stuffy. Due to the crowded population, many people could not clearly see the ancient corpses, so many legends came out: 'the old lady 2000 years ago could sit up and laugh', 'and talked to Guo Moruo (then president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences') & hellip& hellip; These legends continue to evolve, allowing more visitors to pour into the museum. Later, with the approval of the State Council, Hunan Provincial Museum built the most advanced cultural relics warehouse in Asia at that time to store and exhibit Xin Zhui's remains, making it the only museum equipped with central air conditioning in China at that time. It maintained constant temperature and humidity of cultural relics and was equipped with three sets of generators in case of power failure. Since then, Hunan Bo has changed the exhibition Chen several times, and Xin Zhui's body has always been at the core of the exhibition.