Online claims link Xunyang cinnabar evidence to Qin Shi Huang’s tomb mercury mystery

Online claims revive mercury mystery around tomb of first Chinese emperor

Claims circulating on Chinese social media have drawn fresh attention to three ancient sites in Xunyang, where archaeologists found evidence of cinnabar mining, processing and transport during the pre-Qin and Qin-Han periods.

The claims suggested that archaeologists had identified the source of mercury believed to have been used in the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, China’s first emperor, who unified the country more than 2,000 years ago.

Related hashtags trended on social media late last month, reviving interest in ancient cinnabar sites in northwestern China’s Shaanxi province.

Evidence from three Xunyang sites

The discussion centred on three locations in Xunyang that were examined by archaeologists last year.

Findings at the sites included evidence linked to the mining, processing and transport of cinnabar.

Cinnabar is at the centre of the online claims because the material is connected to mercury, the metal described in historical accounts of Qin Shi Huang’s tomb.

However, the source material describes the identification of the mercury source as an online claim, while separately confirming that the Xunyang sites produced evidence of cinnabar-related activity.

Mausoleum remains unopened

The underground burial complex stands at the northern foot of Lishan Mountain and has never been opened.

That inaccessibility has helped sustain interest in accounts of what may lie beneath the mausoleum.

One of the longest-standing accounts comes from Sima Qian, an early Han dynasty historian whose period is identified as 206BC-AD220.

In the Shiji, or Records of the Grand Historian, Sima Qian described a vast subterranean realm whose design and ambition mirrored the heavens above and the Earth below.

He wrote that mercury was used to recreate the “rivers and seas” inside the tomb.

His account also described a mechanism intended to keep the metal flowing, giving the mercury mystery its enduring place in discussions about the unopened mausoleum.

Source: South China Morning Post