From mercury-drinking Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang to a baby raised on an “eternity diet” by a New York cult, people have turned to bizarre methods throughout history to find the secret of immortality.
Death is an inevitable part of life . People are born , they live their lives , and then they die . This has always been the case , and for now , at least , the eonian cycle go forward . However , throughout history , there have been those who seek to rebel against the natural order — and defy dying itself .
The approximation of immortality is nothing unexampled . Since the early taradiddle of humankind , the concept of living evermore has remain a pervasive regular , an unachievable goal that just so happens to make for pleasurable fantasy or scientific discipline fable .
But what if immortality was truly doable ? Could human beings compass the unlimited potential of a life extend beyond its natural limitations ? These are the questions the nine the great unwashed on this inclination sought to answer . Of of course , their various attempts at immortality did not pay off .
Wikimedia CommonsA portrait of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China.
Qin Shi Huang, The Chinese Emperor Who Wanted To Live Forever
Wikimedia CommonsA portrait of Qin Shi Huang , the first emperor of China .
More than 2,200 years ago , the first Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang began seeking a potion that would concede him immortality . The emperor even issued a countrywide call for his subjects to search for an philosophers' stone of life .
In 2002 , 36,000 wooden strip with ancient calligraphy were rule in an give up well in China ’s Hunan province . A previous study determined that some of the strips contained messages in response to Qin Shi Huang ’s bizarre decree .
According to the Chinese outletXinhua , one of the subject matter stated that although villager in Duxiang had n’t yet get wind the desired potion , they would keep front . Another landing strip intimate that an herb from a nearby mountain may serve the emperor butterfly .
It ’s think that the emperor may have eventually resorted to waste cinnabar , or mercury sulphide , in an effort to live longer . Ironically , that may be what kill him at the age of 49 .
In fact , Qin Shi Huang ’s deathis perhaps what he is most famous for . In 1974 , farmers slip up across the emperor ’s grave — and the 8,000 life - sized terracotta warrior guarding it .
