Mark Edward Lewis

A couple of notes on sources before I hop in here.

Practically everything written on these excavations is in Chinese, but there is an excellent overview by Kyeongmi Ju and Donghoon Shin in Springer Nature's Handbook of Mummy Studies entitled Mummies in China, Mawangdui and Other Related Mummies, as well as Mark Lewis's excellent book, The Early Chinese Empires, Qin and Han.

So let's start by placing Xin Xue in time and space before we discuss the Mawangdui site, the tombs, and the mummy itself.

Xin Xue was buried in her own tomb, but two other tombs were located nearby.

With no wars to fight, well, you still had to keep the peasants busy and call for mandatory labor and military service.

Let me quote Stanford professor Mark Edward Lewis again from his book, The Early Chinese Empires, Qin and Han, quote, To occupy these conscripts, the Qin state engaged in an orgy of expansion and building that had little logic except employing warring states' institutions that had been rendered obsolete by their own success.

Armies were launched on massive, pointless expeditions to the south, north, and northeast.

Colossal projects to construct roads, a new capital, and the first emperor's tomb were initiated.