The Mawangdui Han Tomb is located in Wulipai, the eastern suburb of Changsha City, Hunan Province. It is a mound opened for a saddle. The sealed mound is more than 10 meters high and about 30 meters in diameter. It was originally thought to be the tomb of Ma Yin, King of Chu of the Five Dynasties. Excavations were carried out from 1972 to 1974, and three tombs of the Western Han Dynasty were unearthed. According to research, this is the cemetery of the princes' families in the early Western Han Dynasty. The tomb structure is very grand and complex, and the coffins, coffins, and burial tools in tombs No. 1 and 3 are well preserved. Tomb No. 1 is 20 meters deep from the top of the tomb to the coffin chamber. The coffin chamber is built at the bottom of the tomb and consists of three coffins (the first coffin, the middle coffin, and the inner coffin), three coffins (the outer coffin, the middle coffin, and the inner coffin), and cushion wood. The sides and top of the wooden coffin are stuffed with charcoal, which is 30-40 centimeters thick and weighs about 10,000 kilograms. The outside of the charcoal is filled and sealed with white plaster mud, with a thickness of 60-130 cm. There is a female corpse in the coffin, which is very well preserved and is the only one seen in the country. The burial items are very rich, totaling more than 3,000 pieces, including silk fabrics, silk books, silk paintings, lacquerware, pottery, bamboo slips, bamboo and woodware, wooden barrels, agricultural and livestock products, Chinese herbal medicine, etc. Among them is a painted silk painting covering the inner coffin, with bright patterns and colors, and rich imaginative content. It is a treasure of lifelike silk paintings in China that exists more than 2,100 years ago. Based on lacquerware inscriptions, seals, seals, etc., it is inferred that tomb No. 1 is the wife of Han Hou Li Cang, tomb No. 2 is Li Cang himself, and tomb No. 3 is Li Cang's son. The three tombs are more than 20 years apart. According to research, the Hou family was granted the title in the second year of Emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty (193 BC) and was abolished in the fourth year (191 BC).
The excavation of the Mawangdui Han Tomb is of great value to our country’s history and scientific research, and the unearthed cultural relics are extremely precious. For example, the silk book "Fifty-two Prescriptions for Diseases" unearthed from Tomb No. 3 may be earlier than the "Huangdi Neijing" (written in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period). The book records 52 kinds of diseases and mentions more than 100 diseases. There are more than 280 prescriptions for each disease and more than 240 medicines used. This is the earliest prescription that can be seen in our country now. The discovery of "Fifty-Two Prescriptions for Diseases" supplements the medical content of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region before the "Nei Jing" and is a very precious medical heritage. The unearthed cultural relics were moved to the Hunan Provincial Museum for display, while Tomb No. 3 remains intact for Chinese and foreign tourists to visit.