There is an oil lamp made of mermaid cream in Qin Shihuang's tomb. What is mermaid cream?

Historical Records of the First Qin Emperor: Take mermaid cream as a candle, and it will last for a long time. When describing the interior of Qin Shihuang's mausoleum, Historical Records of Qin Shihuang said: candles made of mermaid fat can burn for a long time without going out. So what is this mermaid cream? How long can it burn?

Generally speaking, mermaid cream has two possibilities:

One is the fat of giant salamander.

The so-called giant salamander, called giant salamander, is a fish with a flat body and four short feet. This kind of fish is a special kind of fish, and its cry is like that of a baby, so it is called giant salamander. The giant salamander will not starve to death if it doesn't eat for 2~3 years, and its life span is as long as 50~60 years. Now it is an endangered animal.

Scenery of Mountains, Seas, Beijing and Northern Mountains: There are many mermaids who are shaped like fish, have four feet, sound like babies, and eat without idiots. But in the Qin Dynasty more than two thousand years ago, there must have been a lot of this kind of fish, because the ancient book Shan Hai Jing recorded the giant salamander, and its description is the same as the giant salamander we see now. It has four feet and sounds like a baby. Eating it can cure dementia.

According to research, the giant salamander originated in Devonian 350 million years ago and is known as a living fossil. Of course, there were candles in the Qin Dynasty, but it was the first time to use the fat of giant salamander to make candles. Candles in the pre-Qin period are still high-grade items, and only princes and nobles can afford them, but there is no problem in using this mermaid cream candle in Qin Shihuang's tomb.

Fire was discovered as early as primitive society. Primitive people knew how to use fire and save kindling. If they want to keep the fire, they must use grease. Primitive people gradually found that adding oil to flammable materials can preserve the fire for a long time. In the Qin dynasty, they naturally knew how to save the fire.

Generally speaking, as long as it is animal fat, it can basically be burned and preserved, but why is it a giant salamander?

Because according to research, the most wild giant salamander in China is in Shaanxi, Gansu and Sichuan today, which is the core area of the Qin Dynasty. This kind of fish must have been too much to eat two thousand years ago, so it was caught in large quantities to make mermaid cream, which was used in the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor. You know, when the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor was built for 37 years, there was plenty of time to make this mermaid cream.

The second is whale or shark fat.

Historical Records of Qin Shihuang: It is to let those who enter the sea catch huge fishing gear and wait for the big fish to shoot. From Langxie North to Rongcheng Mountain, you can see it. When you see a huge fish, you shoot a fish. Then merge with Haixi. So let the people in the sea carry the equipment to catch the big fish, and use their crossbows to wait for the big fish to appear before shooting. From the wave to the north to Rongcheng Mountain, I didn't see any big fish. When I arrived (now in the north of Yantai, Shandong Province), I saw a big fish and killed one. So the coast extends westward.

In other words, Qin Shihuang shot a big fish off the coast of Shandong. This happened because an alchemist told Qin Shihuang that there was an elixir of life in Penglai at sea, but it was often attacked by mackerel, so we couldn't get to Penglai. We hope to send some archers to join us. When the mackerel appears, we will shoot it with a crossbow.

This giant mackerel is generally considered to be a whale or a shark, because both kinds of fish are giant fish in the ocean, weighing from tens to hundreds of tons. As long as you catch one, you can squeeze out at least a few tons of oil, and the fat and oil on it can be used for a long time. Even if you burn 0.5 kg of oil an hour, a whale or shark can extract 5 tons of oil, so the oil of a whale or shark can burn 65438+.

65438+100000 hours is 4 16 days, almost more than a year. It can burn for more than a year without anyone, which is a miracle in itself. So how long can these candles made of mermaid cream burn in the underground palace of Qin Shihuang's mausoleum?

Let's talk about why the imperial tomb should be lit by candles.

First of all, fire had the function of exorcism and lighting in ancient times. The so-called exorcism is mainly to avoid some imaginary ghosts and bring good luck, and the role of lighting is relatively easy to understand. Ancient emperors generally liked brightly lit places. They were all emperors admired by the world before their death, and they all wanted to enjoy treatment before their death. They even built their palaces in proportion and put them in one hundred tombs.

This was the case with Qin Shihuang, for example. His mausoleum not only buried a large number of terracotta warriors and horses, but also allowed the late Qin Shihuang to enjoy this treatment. There were also a large number of palaces, even rivers and lakes made of mercury, and things made of the sun, the moon and the stars, which symbolized that the emperor still enjoyed all this after his death, including the light brought by lighting wax.

Finally, candle burning will consume a lot of oxidation and produce a lot of carbon dioxide, which exists in the relatively closed space of the underground palace, making it impossible for grave robbers to survive in the mausoleum and effectively preventing grave robbery. Therefore, ordinary emperors like to place ever-burning lamps or candles in their tombs, such as the tomb of Qin Shihuang and the tomb of Emperor Wanli of the Ming Dynasty.

In the mausoleum of Qin Shihuang, there must be candles made of fish paste, which are generally divided into three parts:

One is the wick.

The second is animal fat.

The third is a container for oil.

Candle burning consumes wick and animal fat. The storage of animal fat is relatively simple and can be packed in containers. However, it is difficult to automatically replenish wick consumption. Remember to light a kerosene lamp at home when the power goes out. There is a wick made of cotton rope in kerosene. The flame burns mainly at the wick, and the kerosene lamp is lit. If there is no wick, the kerosene lamp will go out.

Mermaid cream candles should be based on the same principle, and a wick made of cotton rope is soaked with oil. Grease can be connected with the container with lamp by the principle of connector, but it is difficult to solve the wick. If you want to burn for a long time, you must make the wick made of cotton rope infinitely long, but this is almost impossible.

Moreover, the size of the lighting container determines that the wick will not be very long. Once the wick is burned out, no amount of mermaid cream can burn out. Not only this principle, the mermaid cream candle in Qin Shihuang's tomb can only be burned for a few days at most, not more than ten days.

Another reason is the oxygen content in the underground palace. Qin Shihuang's underground palace has two floors, with a length of 260m, a width of160m and a depth of 26-37m, with an average of 31.5m.. The total space volume is 13 10400 cubic meters, according to the principle that the oxidation content in the air accounts for about 2 1%.

Therefore, the short board that affects the burning time of mermaid cream is the length of wick. According to the wick length of burning 10cm in one hour, the total wick length of burning 10 day needs 24 meters, and the total wick length of one year needs 876 meters. Such a long wick length is impossible for anyone, so I said that the mermaid cream candle in Qin Shihuang's underground palace burned for no more than 10 days. No one can say for sure.