Who Was Lady Dai

Xin Zhui, also known Lady Dai was the wife of a high-ranking Han official named Li Cang (the Marquis of Dai), and she died at the age of 50. Her fatal heart arrest was said to have been caused by a lifetime of obesity, lack of exercise, and an affluent and over-indulgent diet.

For her time, Xin Zhui led a lavish existence. She had private musicians who would play for her parties as well as for her own enjoyment. Most of her clothing was made of silk and other valuable textiles

Nonetheless, her body is thought to be the best-preserved corpse in history. Xin Zhui is now housed in the Hunan Provincial Museum and  is the main candidate for their research in corpse preservation.

Discovery Of Her Mummy

When her mummified remain was discovered she still had her own hair, her still was soft to the touch, and has ligaments that bend like a living person. She is commonly regarded as history’s best-preserved human mummy.

Workers digging near an air raid bunker near Changsha nearly accidentally came across Xin Zhui’s huge tomb in 1971. Her funnel-shaped crypt included almost 1,000 priceless treasures, including makeup, toiletries, hundreds of lacquerware pieces, and 162 carved wooden figures representing her team of servants. A meal was also prepared for Xin Zhui to enjoy in the afterlife.

While the elaborate edifice was astounding, retaining its integrity nearly 2,000 years after it was created, it was Xin Zhui’s physical condition that truly astounded scholars.

When she was discovered, it was discovered that she still had healthy skin, soft to the touch with wetness and suppleness. Her natural hair, including that on her head and inside her nose, as well as her brows and lashes, was discovered to remain intact.

Scientists were able to do an autopsy on her 2,000-year-old body — she died in 163 BC — and determined that it was in similar condition to that of a recently deceased person.

Xin Zhui’s preserved corpse, on the other hand, was quickly damaged when the oxygen in the air reached her body, causing her to deteriorate. As a result, the pH๏τographs of Xin Zhui we have now do not do the original discovery justice.

Furthermore, researchers found that all of her organs were intact and that her veins still housed type-A blood. These veins also showed clots, revealing her official cause of death: heart attack.

An array of additional ailments was also found throughout Xin Zhui’s body, including gallstones, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and liver disease.

While examining Lady Dai, pathologists even found 138 undigested melon seeds in her stomach and intestines. As such seeds typically take one hour to digest, it was safe to ᴀssume that the melon was her last meal, eaten minutes before the heart attack that killed her.

So, how did this mummy survive so well?

Researchers credit the airтιԍнт and elaborate tomb in which Lady Dai was buried. Xin Zhui was placed within the smallest of four pine box coffins, each resting within the one larger (imagine Matryoshka, only you’re faced with the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ body of an old Chinese mummy once you reach the tiniest doll).

She was wrapped in twenty layers of silk fabric, and her body was discovered in 21 liters of a “unknown liquid” that was examined and found to be slightly acidic with traces of magnesium.

The floor was lined with a thick layer of paste-like earth, and the whole thing was packed with moisture-absorbing charcoal and sealed with clay, keeping both oxygen and decay-causing bacteria out of her eternal chamber. The top was then capped with three feet of clay to prevent water from entering the structure.