I’m surprised more people haven’t taken advantage of another Ancient Chinese Embalming Secret, which reportedly was highly effective, environmentally non-toxic and moreover continued the embalmed person’s usefulness to society after death.
*"…the mellification process would ideally start before death. The donor would stop eating any food other than honey, going as far as to bathe in the substance. Shortly, his feces (and even his sweat, according to legend) would consist of honey. When this diet finally proved fatal, the donor’s body would be placed in a stone coffin filled with honey.
After a century or so, the contents would have turned into a sort of confection reputedly capable of healing broken limbs and other ailments. This confection would then be sold in street markets as a hard to find item with a hefty price."*
Something I don’t think has been mentioned is that I assume the ancient Chinese had similar beliefs as the ancient Egyptians. They believed that the physical body was needed in the afterlife, ah, somehow, so therefore preserving it after death was extremely important. More modern religions adopted the idea that the soul ‘leaves’ the corpse upon death and embalming and funerals etc. were mostly ceremonies for the living (and acknowledgement as to following your particular god’s wishes after death).
I saw an hour-long special on TV about Lady Dai, might have been on National Geographic or Discovery, I don’t know, this was a number of years ago. From what I remember, its not just the liquid they preserved her in but also the layers of her coffin encased in wood and clay and a whole bunch of other things. That method would take up a lot of room, a lot of time, and a lot of money. It was pretty remarkable, but I don’t see how an ordinary undertaker could do that. But they did mention how the mysterious liquid was baffling them and had something to do with it.
Another reason we need to consider: corpses with supple limbs are going to be a lot faster when the Zombie Apocalypse comes. That’s not going to end well.
