Make a joke before the article and start the text.
There are various ways to preserve the body, from high to low, and alcohol is one of the choices.
In the early days, alcohol was also used to preserve the history of corpses:
For example, in BC 186, the female corpse of Mawangdui was buried and kept underground for thousands of years. When it came out of the coffin, the shape of the body was complete, the skin of the whole body was moist, and many soft tissues of the body were still elastic. If our technology was not up to standard at that time, it is estimated that it will be vivid now.
Mawangdui female corpse has been treated like this for thousands of years, bathing with millet wine. It is said that the body bathed in this way can keep fragrant and beautiful without rancid smell. In this regard, Jia Shangshu:
Bathing corpses with this wine mixed with turmeric juice is as fragrant and disinfectant as orchids used by living people to cook orchid soup for bathing.
After the excavation of Mawangdui No.1 Han Tomb in Changsha, relevant researchers tested the coffin fluid and detected ethanol and acetic acid. This means that there was wine in the coffin when it was buried.
According to chemical identification, the reason why Mawangdui's female corpse does not rot for thousands of years is that it has two obvious characteristics: one is that it has been treated with mercury, and the other is that the corpse has been soaked in rice wine and other items. Archaeologists analyzed the sediment of coffin liquid, and verified that it contained a large amount of mercury sulfide, ethanol and acetic acid, which fixed the cells of the corpse and became the key factor for the ancient corpse not to rot.
Thanks to the surrounding soil, which is deep buried, sealed, waterproof, antiseptic and weak alkaline water environment, Mawangdui female corpse is well preserved.
In addition to disinfection with wine, there are various ways to preserve the body, such as wrapping, dehydration and air drying, burying jade to preserve the body, pickling and so on.
Moreover, these subsequent methods are more practical and classy than using alcohol.
Alcohol, because it needs to be brewed with grain, was very precious in ancient times, so people gradually eliminated this method of corpse preservation.
And wine is used for drinking, but fortunately it has been eliminated. Otherwise, I will be very disappointed when I think about it when I drink.
First of all, the ancients knew how to use wine to preserve corpses.
Mawangdui female corpse in Changsha. The liquid sediment in the coffin contains a lot of mercury sulfide, ethanol and acetic acid. This ethanol is alcohol. The ancients did not have the technology to refine high-purity alcohol, so they used ordinary fermented wine.
(Mawangdui female corpse)
It is reported that the optimal concentration of alcohol is 70%-75%. Its antiviral principle is that ethanol molecules penetrate into bacteria through the cell wall, so that protein in the cell body condenses, thus achieving the effect of killing bacteria.
But also can kill putrefying bacteria that make the body rot. This is the principle of alcohol preservation.
Since the ancients knew that alcohol could preserve the body, why not use alcohol to preserve the body?
Second, the degree of ancient wine.
There are many factors that rarely preserve corpses with wine, one of which is the ancient winemaking technology. Before the Yuan Dynasty, the alcohol content was very low. They don't have a distiller or distillation technology, but they use fermentation, so the degree of wine brewed is similar to that of beer, and the strongest wine is about 20 degrees. Therefore, Song Wu was so fat that he could pass Jingyanggang after drinking 18 bowls of wine.
Obviously, this degree of wine can't achieve the effect of sterilization.
As for high-purity distilled liquor, that was after the Yuan Dynasty. Why didn't people after the Yuan Dynasty think of using wine to preserve the body?
Third, why didn't you see a large-scale wine bubble?
(1) is limited by the coffin material.
Let's imagine this picture: after the Yuan Dynasty, every household used distilled liquor to preserve the bodies of dead relatives. This coffin must be able to hold wine without leaking, so it can't be a wooden coffin, but a sarcophagus, an iron coffin, a copper coffin or a glass coffin.
(bronze coffin)
Obviously, the material of this coffin has brushed off most middle and lower class civilians, who have no money to make such a high-grade coffin. Besides, after soaking in wine, you won't put it at home or in the ancestral temple, will you? As the saying goes, yin and yang are separated, what should we see every day?
Well, even if we follow the ceremony of "the deceased is the biggest and buried in peace", we will be buried.
But this raises another question. That is the common psychology of ancient superstition.
(2) I am worried that I will cheat my body.
The ancients were quite superstitious. I believe most people have seen Ching-Ying Lam's zombie movies. They believe that under certain conditions, corpses will cause degeneration, which will endanger people and animals. For example, in folklore, on a moonless night, a passive cat just jumps over the heart of a corpse at this time, which will lead to fraudulent corpse. So when it comes to changing bodies, everyone is afraid of discoloration, so how can we do everything possible to preserve the bodies?
(3) The concept of "filial piety" is not allowed.
The concept of "the dead are the biggest" is the values and morality of the whole feudal society. If relatives embalm the deceased, they must take out the internal organs of the deceased and then preserve them with salt or wine. Otherwise, there is no guarantee that the body will not rot from the inside.
However, this method of evisceration is inevitably too blasphemous to the remains of the deceased. According to the concept of "filial piety" is disrespectful. It is absolutely impossible to do so.
Moreover, it is unacceptable for many relatives to marinate corpses with food seasonings such as wine, salt, sugar and spices.
Of course, nothing is absolute, and there are exceptions. Some rich and powerful people specially ordered their relatives to keep the bodies. For example, a body discovered in Huian, Fujian, contained camphor oil. And completely seal the body, this method is to learn from foreign honey to soak the body for preservation. Similar to the production of "mummies" abroad.
However, this method of preserving the body is not great.
Conclusion: The greatest wish of human beings is to live forever. No matter the emperor or the emperor, the husband and the pawn are the same.
But people always die, even if there are thousands of disappointments, they can't keep dying lives. Sadly, alas.
Wai Xiao Yan Shi studio
Text: Liang Sheng
This is an archaeological problem, so I don't feel uncomfortable at all. First of all, how much wine does it take to make wine? The grain used for wine making in ancient times is a strategic material, which is difficult to buy. Besides, the poor can't afford to buy so much wine for other purposes.
2) Due to the limitation of the times, it was not easy to brew wine with a temperature above 50 degrees in ancient times, which would lead to a lot of impurities in the wine and accelerate corruption.
3) Ordinary medicinal liquor is nothing more than soaking some small things like snakes and scorpions. The theme is too strong to penetrate, and there is no guarantee that it will not be corrupt. It would be disrespectful to get rid of the internal organs, so considering this matter from all aspects, we have to give up.
4) In ancient times, superstitions were used to soak corpses with food and drink, and it was disgusting to think of it. Besides, no one dares to do this, for fear that they will not be reborn in the next life.
Such a large glass container is hard to find.
As we all know, the important component of wine is alcohol. Alcohol with a concentration above 75% has bactericidal effect and is often used for skin disinfection. At the same time, high-concentration alcohol has a very remarkable feature, which is volatility. Therefore, high-concentration alcohol, such as 95% alcohol, is usually used to clean special instruments and equipment.
Since alcohol has bactericidal effect, why didn't it be used to preserve corpses in ancient times? The answer is simple.
The technology of distilled liquor didn't appear until the Song Dynasty, and it didn't become popular until the Yuan Dynasty. The ancients mainly used non-distilled liquor, and there was no high-concentration liquor at all.
The brewing technology of human beings should be originated from the dropping system of fermented fruits after natural ripening. Later, people planted more and more grains, and when there was surplus, they began to use grains to make wine. At that time, the alcohol content of wine was similar to that of modern rice wine or beer, and the high alcohol content was about 10 degrees.
When we listen to storytelling, we often say that the ancients drank in big bowls, ate meat and drank one altar at a time. In fact, this is nothing to us modern people. Just like the so-called "three bowls without postal service" before Song Wu killed the tiger, it is estimated that it is similar to the amount of three bottles of beer that modern people drink.
Such a low alcohol concentration has no bactericidal effect at all. Ancient wines can all be real pure grain wines. If stored in the open air, it may continue to ferment and deteriorate, accelerating corruption.
Li Shizhen said in Compendium of Materia Medica that "all sour wine can be steamed and burned", which shows that there are many phenomena of corruption and deterioration of ancient wine. Li Shizhen also said that the distilled things are "as clear as water, with extremely strong taste ... and huge poison". Li Shizhen thinks that high-concentration wine is poisonous. He also found that "drinking too much will damage the stomach, hurt the gallbladder, lose people's hearts, lose their lives, and even die of black intestines and rotten stomachs." It can be seen that the ancients did not understand clearly the function of high-concentration wine, for fear of avoiding it, and it would not be used for embalming corpses.
But the ancients used ordinary fermented wine as a flavoring agent to clean the residue, which was quite a lot.
Moreover, people's habit of preserving remains, until modern times, is more accustomed to drying than soaking. Immersing the remains in liquid, even if modern people do so, is usually for research or other special purposes.
In order to preserve the remains, the ancients usually used spices and other things to repel insects and sterilize them. At the same time, use dry sawdust and other items to prevent moisture. Plus the coffin is sealed to prevent corrosion. Some extreme practices, such as the remains of martyrs, may be preserved by pouring silver. But this is a very low-end and cruel anti-corrosion method, which is generally not used on the tomb owner.
The reason why the ancients didn't use wine to preserve corpses is clear. Because the alcohol concentration of ancient wine is very low, the wine itself will be sour, and there is no bactericidal and antiseptic effect at all, so the ancients naturally did not use wine to preserve their bodies. Coupled with the preservation of the body, there is no habit of soaking, and the ancients will not use wine to preserve the body.
Why can't we use wine to preserve the body in ancient times? That's because the conditions required in this way are very harsh. People will be eroded by countless bacteria after death, and because the immune system will quickly lose its function after death, without the immune system, bacteria will continue to spread and begin to destroy human tissues and organs, and people's bodies will begin to rot.
Wine can be sterilized because the ethanol in it can denature bacteria protein, thus killing and inhibiting bacteria. However, the ancient brewing technology does not have the present conditions. Coupled with the shortage of food, ancient wine-making was basically based on food, so it was difficult to brew high-grade wine. Even if there is highly alcoholic liquor, we know that alcohol is highly volatile. As long as it is not 100% sealed, it will evaporate slowly until it finally fails.
I believe many people will think of Mawangdui when they read the ancient anti-corrosion technology. During the excavation of Mawangdui No.1 tomb, archaeologists detected ethanol and acetic acid in the tomb fluid. This is because wine is stored in the tomb, wiping the corpse with wine and spraying wine in the tomb can consume more oxygen in the coffin, establish an anoxic environment and slow down the growth and reproduction of bacteria. In addition, in ancient China, chemicals such as mercury and arsenic were used for anticorrosion. According to research, these chemicals can play an ancient role in cells. Because of the volatility of wine, wine was not used as the main way to preserve corpses in ancient times, but Mawangdui seems to show that the ancients already knew that wine could prolong the preservation time of corpses, and other conditions such as air isolation and heavy metals also kept Mawangdui female corpses for thousands of years.
In ancient times, food was very precious, and wine-making technology did not meet the conditions for preserving corpses. In particular, the ancients thought that after death, the body rotted and the soul could ascend to heaven, so they did not want to keep the body from rotting. Realistic conditions and religious beliefs make people reluctant to preserve bodies with wine.
Why can't ancient bodies be preserved with wine? This question can be answered from two aspects, on the one hand, what is the wine in China from ancient times to the present, on the other hand, it is about the preservation of meat, or the preservation technology of ancient people in China.
China's wine is said to have existed in the Xia Dynasty, with a history of more than 4,000 years. There is also a saying that in Yangshao culture, that is, more than 5,000 years ago, there were jars and special drinking vessels for wine making in China. But until the Song Dynasty, China's wine was always fermented wine. The degree of fermented wine is not very high, basically reaching more than ten degrees, and the fermented wine stops. Therefore, don't think that Li Bai's poems about fighting wine and Su Shi's wine asking for heaven can all be drunk well. Besides, Song Wu has drunk three bowls 18 bowls, which are just a few bottles of beer.
It was not until the Han Dynasty that I mastered the technology of making wine with distiller's yeast, and then I was able to brew better yellow wine, more than ten degrees. But as we all know, the higher the degree of wine, the higher it tastes. At that time, you can make 18 degree wine, which is absolutely invincible.
It was not until the Yuan Dynasty that high-alcohol liquor appeared, which was probably related to the drinking habits of ancient Mongols. At that time, high-alcohol liquor was not very common, and it was only served on important occasions in the palace. Later, the technology gradually became popular. In Qing Dynasty, people from Northeast China entered the customs, and people from Changtian also liked to drink high-alcohol liquor, so high-alcohol liquor gradually became popular with technology and habits. Erguotou was also in the middle of Qing Dynasty.
Now everyone buys yellow rice wine, which has a shelf life. Fermented wine is difficult to preserve. So at that time, it was said that after giving birth to a daughter, the jar was buried underground, and when the girl was not married, it was gone. This wine is called carved flowers, and when a daughter gets married, it is called Daughter Red. If you don't bury it, this wine won't be preserved until your daughter gets married. Even though girls used to get married when they were teenagers. So why couldn't you use wine to preserve your body in ancient times? The answer is clear to everyone. You can't put the body in a bucket. You can put another one on it when it's full. The shelf life is eight years.
The main purpose of embalming the corpse is to prevent the reproduction of bacteria, so that the decomposition of the corpse will be very slow. If this is the slowest, the anti-corrosion is successful. From now on, there are probably several ways to achieve it. One is to have a low enough temperature, which should be below absolute zero, that is, the current temperature of liquid nitrogen. In addition, there is a sterile or vacuum environment, which can be realized in modern times. In addition, there are enough preservatives. For example, now that medical schools put teachers in formalin solution, there may be a radioactive substance that may also play an antiseptic role.
There are probably only a few kinds of embalming techniques in ancient China. In the early days, jade was thought to be antiseptic, so it was stuffed in the seven orifices of the dead. The emperors used jade clothes, but those who wore jade clothes basically had no bones. Later, lime and mercury were added to the coffin for anticorrosion, and then the coffin was sealed with glutinous rice or paint to isolate the air. This produced a mummy, basically similar to a mummy. And the Xin Zhui, in fact, was an accident, but it was not sealed, and finally the result was produced.
From another point of view, China is a country of etiquette, and it has been paying attention to the etiquette of weddings and funerals. The living have parents, and their bodies are affected by flesh. How dare they be disabled? People die, let alone take out their internal organs after death, which is absolutely incomprehensible in China culture. But to be well preserved, viscera itself is the biggest pollution source, which is undoubtedly a particularly difficult problem to deal with. Unless the whole person is soaked in mercury, it is estimated that it can be preserved for a long time.
As for antisepsis, I think it is better to mummify in ancient Egypt, but in the end it is a piece of bacon. First, the brain should be hollowed out, then the internal organs should be hollowed out, and then the seasoning should be added. If you put it in the oven, it will be roast duck. The next step is dehydration, mainly soaking in alkali. About forty or fifty days, the water in the meat is almost absorbed. Then take out the contents, put all kinds of spices back in, such as 13 kinds of spices from star anise and Wang Shouyi, sew them on, coat them with a mixture of honey, beeswax, milk, turpentine and asphalt, then wrap them in linen and seal them with coffins. I really don't know what it will be like after this treatment, even if it can be resurrected.
Because wine has no antiseptic function at all! So you can't keep the body!
Not in ancient times, not in modern times and not in the future! ! !
Theoretically speaking, alcohol can kill the bacteria that make the corpse rot, but it would be a big mistake to judge that alcohol can preserve the corpse.
First of all, the ancient brewing technology is far from what it is now, and it is impossible to brew high-concentration alcohol, so it has no strong bactericidal effect.
Secondly, even if there is a high concentration of alcohol, the body can not be preserved permanently if it is soaked in alcohol, and the alcohol itself will volatilize and continue to ferment. If there are nutrients in alcohol, it will even accelerate fermentation and be unstable.
Finally, there is a practical problem. In ancient times, it was impossible to make a completely sealed container, and it was impossible to avoid the destruction of coffins by changes in the external environment. Once the container is destroyed, alcohol as a liquid will soon leak and volatilize. Therefore, wine is not suitable as an antiseptic material.
Some people say that Xin Zhui unearthed in Mawangdui in Changsha used wine to preserve the body, but this is actually some people's own understanding. Xin Zhui's coffin did detect ethanol, but it wasn't the only one. There are a lot of other components such as mercury sulfide and acetic acid, and the special and stable geological environment makes Xin Zhui's body preserved to this day. To be precise, Xin Zhui is definitely not embalmed with wine. In addition, according to archaeologists, Xin Zhui's body may be well preserved, but judging from the image data and photos, this body is terrible, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it looks like a real person.
Since technology is becoming more and more developed, why not use alcohol to preserve the body in the future? It's simple. First, there is formalin. Secondly, most bodies don't need to be preserved! ! !
Not enough alcohol.