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Mawangdui (馬王堆) at Changsha (長沙), in Hunan, outside the capital of the old Han kingdom Chu (楚), opened in 1972.
There are three tombs.
Tomb 1: Lord of Dai (軑), Li Cang (利蒼), and his wife
Tomb 2:
Tomb 3: One of their sons (above), who died in 168BC at the age of about 30.
Within the tombs, which date back 2,100 years, were more than 3,000 relics, including lacquerware, musical instruments, silk
paintings, pottery, medicinal herbs, and the extremely well-preserved corpses of Zin Hui, the Lord of Dai's wife.
Besides these findings were also many texts written on silk.
(Details of the find are in 馬王堆漢墓帛書整理小組; excavation reports are in 湖南省博物館 and 中國科學院考古研究所.)
Some of the texts found within were not titled, but were given names by the 馬王堆漢墓帛書整理小組. Some texts within the tomb included:
 Medical Texts
- 五十二病方 Recipes for Fifty-two Illnesses - Treatments: cautery, herbs, animal substances, incantataions, exorcisms
- 足臂十一脈灸經 Cauterisation Canon of the Eleven Foot and Arm Channels - About the Mai, similar to the Jingmai
- 陰陽十一脈灸經 Cauterisation Canon of the Eleven Yin and Yang Channels
- 十問 Ten Questions
- 天下至道談 Discussion of the Highest Way Under Heaven - Sexual Cultivation
- 合陰陽 Harmonising Yin and Yang - Sexual Cultivation
- 陰陽脈死侯 Death Signs of Yin and Yang Vessels
- Philosophy and Divination Texts
- 德道經 Canon of Power and the Way - 2 versions, discovered in 1973, both older than any other until now
- 周易 Zhou Changes - the most ancient version of the Yijing, using different characters and orders for the 卦
- 刑德乙篇 Xingde B - astronomy, calendar, and numerology, and earliest diagram similar to the 九宮圖
- 陰陽五行 or 式法 (unpublished)
Jiangling (江陵) Zhangjiashan (張家山) is another tomb site that yielded several valuable texts.
Details of this tomb are in 張家山漢墓竹簡整理小組. The tomb was probably closed around
186BC to 156BC.
- Tomb 246: Medical Texts
- 引書 Pulling Document - Daoyin (predecessor of modern qigong)
- 脈書 Mai Document - 6 part document including an edition of 陰陽脈死侯 (part 3)
The textual finds of these tombs shed much light on many mysteries of Chinese classical texts, some of which are the fixing of
several simple textual errors that were preserved in classical versions of the texts (such as in the 道德經). Other texts show closer
representations of the texts at their beginnings or of the beginnings of the creation of later traditional thought.
The Mawangdui version of the 周易, for example, gives different orders of the 八卦, which are as follows:
伏羲 Sequence: 坤艮坎巽震離兌乾
馬王堆 Sequence: 乾艮坎震坤兌離巽(乾坤艮兌坎震離巽)
轉掌 Sequence: 乾坎艮震離坤兌巽
(Incorrectly Formatted) Bibliography:
Elisabeth Hsu, ed., Innovation in Chinese Medicine Cambridge University Press, 2001; Vivienne Lo, "Mai and qi in the Western Han, 1 The influence of nurturing life culture on the development of Western Han acumoxa therapy"; p19-50
Chen Songzhang, ed., Mawangdui boshu yishu (Shanghai shudian chubanshe, 1996)
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