Analytical Study of the Suspected Wushi Powder Excavated from the Southern Dynasty Tombs in Xiangyang, Hubei, China

Abstract

Wushi Powder initially was used as medicine for typhoid fever in ancient China. In the Wei, Jin and Northern and Southern dynasties, Wushi Powder became fashionable among the upper classes. However, because of the limitation of documentary evidence, it is difficult to find the true identity of Wushi Powder. Little archaeological evidence has been discovered to date, and no scientific analysis have been performed for Wushi Powder. This paper focuses on the suspected items of Wushi Powder from the Xiangyang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. X‐ray diffraction (XRD), X‐ray fluorescence (XRF), polarized optical microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and atomic fluorescence spectrophotometry (AFS) were employed to characterize the compositions. The results show that the granular suspected items consist of quartz (SiO2), magnesium calcite [(Mg0.03Ca0.97)CO3], muscovite [KAl (Si3AlO10)(OH,F)2], alum [KAl (SO4)2(OH)6], sulfur (S8), chlorite or clinochlore [(MgAl)6(Si,Al)4O10(OH)8], kaolinite [Al2Si2O5(OH)4] and albite (NaAlSi3O8). According to the mineral paragenetic relationship and modern knowledge of mineral medicine, the granules contain quartz, alum, kaolinite, sulfur, stalactite and lapis chloriti. They are probably the famous Wushi Powder from history. These findings provide further new clues for the study of Chinese medical history.