Does this stone reveal Qin Shi Huang’s quest for immortality? A physicist chips in

High on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in southwestern China and northeastern India, archaeologists recently discovered a 2,246-year-old stone inscription that might record one of the most mysterious chapters in Chinese history.

The stone reads: in the 26th year of Qin Shi Huang’s reign, the emperor commanded the five Grand Master Yi to lead a group of alchemists westward to the Kunlun Mountains in search of the elixir of immortality.

The team travelled by carriage to the mountain, arrived at Zhaling Lake in what is now Qinghai province on the day of Jimao, or first in the third month, and would proceed another 150 li – about 75km – to reach their final destination, according to the stone found near the lake, at an altitude of 4,300 metres (14,100 feet).

The text was engraved in small seal script, or xiaozhuan, the written script standardised during the Qin dynasty (221-207BC).

Tong Tao, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of Archaeology, reported his findings in the state-run Guangming Daily on June 8.

“This stone carving at the source of the Yellow River is the only stone carving left by Qin Shi Huang after he unified China that still remains at its original site. It is also the most complete one and is of great significance,” he wrote

The discovery suggests that Qin Shi Huang, who was the founder of the Qin dynasty, may have launched a westward expedition in search of the elixir of life, an event not mentioned in ancient texts. History records the emperor sending alchemist Xu Fu eastward towards Japan on a quest for the elixir of immortality.

While some scholars reacted with fierce scepticism, questioning the feasibility of such a journey and claiming the stone inscription could have been a forgery, others have examined the stone and stated that their analyses support Tong’s discovery.

Now a Chinese scientist in the US joins the debate. Li Yuelin, a physicist at the Argonne National Laboratory in the United States, said the inscription appeared to be created with Qin-era tools and techniques.

By day, Li researches lasers in particle accelerators at the US Department of Energy’s lab near Chicago. In his spare time, he writes Chinese poetry and studies calligraphy.

Li, president of the Seven Seas Institute of Chinese Calligraphy in Illinois, based his argument on his expertise in carving techniques.

He said the carving technique seen on the Kunlun stone inscription was out of use after 150AD during the Eastern Han dynasty (5-220AD), meaning it could potentially match the time frame of the Qin emperor’s hunt for the elixir of life.

The Qin dynasty, China’s first imperial dynasty, unified the nation for the first time, but its reign was short-lived. It eventually gave way to the Han dynasty (206BC-220AD), which is divided into Western Han and Eastern Han periods.

His recent research into stone carvings on Han dynasty steles showed that carving techniques had already evolved and improved by then, meaning that the Kunlun carving would have been created earlier.

He said the Kunlun carving was created using a flat-edged chisel.

“It involved carving with the chisel parallel or at a small angle to the stone surface. When struck, the marks were flat in the centre but could cause the rock to chip on the sides. If the knife was angled, it would create varying depths, resulting in wider or narrower cuts.”

He pointed to a stone carving discovered in Xian, Shaanxi, not far from the Qin capital of Xianyang, which was identified as a block prepared for the construction of Qin Shi Huang’s underground palace.

“The methods used for the inscriptions on both stones are identical,” Li said, adding that iron and steel tool-forging techniques were already well established around Qin’s capital during the Qin dynasty for people across the country to carve in this way.

The chipping of the stone on the edges of the chisel marks was not visually appealing and as engraving techniques gradually improved, so did the aesthetics of stone carving, Li said.

“In around 150AD, during the Eastern Han dynasty, the one-pass chiselling technique was phased out and replaced by the double-pass chiselling technique due to the development of the new aesthetics,” he added.

This new method allows for precise carving that also controls the degree of unwanted chipping.

“It was a better method for engraving stones, using two-pass chiselling to create V-shaped marks that made the characters clearer and pop out. This technique was employed in the stele inscriptions of the Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties,” Li said.

Li also said that before paper was invented by the Eastern Han eunuch Cai Lun, stone carving was done for reading directly from the stone. There was no intention to create rubbings, which would leave the recessed characters white on the paper.

“Before the mid-Eastern Han, since the single-pass carving technique left uncontrolled chipping in the stone, the carved words were likely filled with cinnabar or lime to make the characters stand out clearly against chipped areas,” he said, adding that colouring was no longer necessary after the double-pass carving technique was adopted.

When asked if the evidence suggested that the Kunlun carving was created by a group sent by the emperor in search of the elixir of life, Li said: “When ancient artefacts are passed down, it is impossible to definitively prove their authenticity without proper records.

“What we can show is that they align with what we know about that era. The text, the historical context and the technique correspond with what we know.

“It also reveals things we do not know about the past, such as the location of Mount Kunlun in their understanding. On the other hand, there is currently no solid evidence to suggest that it is not from the Qin dynasty other than various theories.”

Explorer Zhou Xingkang, who has spent nine years investigating 180 rock art sites on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, analysed the stone based on its weathering characteristics.

He told Guangming Daily that these features showed that the carvings were created more than 2,000 years ago.

Zhou said the carvings were made on a large, flat rock formation that was exposed above the surface in a permafrost zone, with most of it buried underground. The rock shows layered joints and several noticeable cracks, which givea perspective for observing the relationship between the carvings and the rock’s cracks.

“The state and details at the junction of the carvings and rock fissures indicate they are ancient, showing consistent weathering features over time. Images from the site also reveal that after the inscriptions were made, the cracking of the rock caused by the gradual release of internal stress is still developing slowly,” he said.

Commenting on speculation that the stone inscription was forged, he sadi: “How can one imitate the many subtle changes in physical properties of each stroke caused by long-term weathering in a fresh carving? How can one create the tightly adhered materials resulting from long-term weathering within the engraved lines?

“There are probably not many people in the country who have a wealth of experience in observing the traces of stone carvings in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and are proficient in these weathering characteristics – let alone invent the right technology to fake the weathering traces perfectly.”

In a social media post on June 12, Liu Zhao, a professor of ancient texts at Fudan University, argued that the script was flawless in terms of the writing style and grammar, said it was nearly impossible for a modern expert to forge.

“The script exhibits period-typical features with remarkable stylistic coherence, showing no evidence of inconsistency,” he said.

“Assuming it were a forgery, without an identical template to copy from, the counterfeiter would have had to painstakingly piece together these characters from various Qin-era textual sources – all while ensuring consistent calligraphic structure and stylistic unity.”

Analysing the text, Lui noted the “concise phrasing and grammatical precision ... align seamlessly with surviving Qin-Han documents. Such authentic classical Chinese expression clearly surpasses the capabilities of most modern forgers.”

He also addressed the argument that it was impossible to travel under extreme weather.

“This severely underestimates both the forcing authority of the emperor’s decree, as well as the determination and capability of those tasked, akin to the legendary pilgrimage of Xuanzang’s journey to the West,” Liu said.

However, soon after the news report was published in June, Xin Deyong, a professor of history at Peking University, took to social media to dismiss the inscription as forgery.

He followed up by questioning the feasibility of travelling to Zhaling Lake from Xian overland, saying that it would be practically impossible due to extreme terrain, harsh weather, high altitude and severe logistical challenges such as the lack of fuel resupply.

Liu Zongdi, a professor at the Chinese language and literature school at Beijing Language and Culture University, also raised questions about the timeline of the expedition, saying that travelling during the harsh winter was akin to courting death.

Later, he said a contact from the Qinghai Kunlun cultural investigation group told him that experts from the National Cultural Heritage Administration had examined the stone and determined that it was carved in 221BC, which was also the 26th year of Qin Shi Huang’s reign.

In the comment section following his post, he said did not know of equipment that had such accuracy.