How did Bao Zheng die?

Bao Zheng (commonly known as Bao Gong) was born in Luzhou (now Hefei, Anhui) in the Northern Song Dynasty. Born in 999 AD, he died in the sixth year of Jiayu (1062). During the reign of Injong Zhao Zhen. Bao Zheng's Tomb is located in Daxing, the eastern suburb of Hefei. As for Bao Zheng's death in Kaifeng at that time, the epitaph records: "In May of the seventh year of Jiayou, he died, so he went back to China with illness. I was sent to give good medicine, but I didn't like it, so I couldn't smell it. " As can be seen from the above records, Bao Zheng only had 13 days from onset to death, during which he also took "the medicine of envoys". Because Bao Zheng dared to remonstrate before his death, was not afraid of powerful people, enforced the law without favoritism, and was hated by corrupt officials, so people had to wonder and pay attention, that is, did Bao Zheng die of illness? Or did you get poisoned after taking the medicine? Recently, the Institute of High Energy Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences cooperated with Anhui Museum and other units to study Bao Zheng's remains by using the synchrotron radiation generated by the Beijing Electron Positron Collider. It is found that the contents of calcium, iron and mercury in Bao Zheng's remains are higher than those in modern human bones, while the contents of arsenic and lead are lower or close to those in modern human bones. As we all know, the ancient poisons are mainly arsenic (arsenic) and cinnabar (mercury), both of which are highly toxic. The arsenic content in Bao Zheng's remains is lower than that of modern people, which can preliminarily rule out the possibility that Bao Zheng took a lot of arsenic-containing drugs when he was sick. As for the mercury content in Bao Zheng's remains, there are two possibilities: one is that the ancient people embalmed the remains. Another possibility is that Bao Zheng took a small dose of mercury-containing drugs and food before he died. The research results of synchrotron radiation ruled out the possibility that Bao Zheng took a large amount of arsenic-containing drugs before his death, but did not rule out the possibility of taking a small dose of mercury-containing drugs or food. The analysis results support the conclusion that Bao Zheng died of natural causes.