A brief discussion on the "three great natural mysteries of the world" - the Big Bang

"The Three Greatest Natural Mysteries in the World" - The Big Bang

Zhang JinMember of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Working Committee of China Arts and Crafts Association

A disaster comparable to an atomic bomb explosion - the Apocalypse Explosion

On the sixth day of the fifth month of the sixth year of the reign of Emperor Tianqi of the Ming Dynasty, which was around 9 a.m. on May 30, 1626, the weather in Beijing was clear and cloudless. In this city of nearly 1 million people, everyone from high-ranking officials to peddlers and hawkers started their day's work. But no one could have imagined that a great disaster was about to happen.

After 9 o'clock, a roar similar to that of a mythical beast was heard in the sky above Beijing. The roar gradually spread from the northeast to the southwest of the city, and a huge fireball rolled in. At the same time, countless wispy and tidal clouds appeared in the cloudless sky, and then a large and black mushroom-shaped cloud column suddenly stood up in the southwest of the city. In the next moment, the whole city of Beijing seemed to be collapsing, with dust and flames flying, and tens of thousands of houses sank directly into the ground.

Because the explosion occurred during the reign of Emperor Qi of the Ming Dynasty, it is called the "Tianqi Explosion". The most detailed and vivid description of the scene of the explosion is a report published by a private newspaper office, "Tianbian Dichao". The author of this report is no longer verifiable, but it was written by the author through visiting the explosion site and interviewing survivors. It records the entire process of the Tianqi Explosion in great detail. It is the first-hand material for studying the explosion today, and can also be called a classic report in the "History of Chinese News".

According to the "Tianbian Dichao", "Instantly there was a loud tremor, the sky collapsed, the earth fell, it was as dark as night, and all the houses sank." "From Shunchengmen Street in the east to Xingbu Street in the north, it was three or four miles long, and thirteen miles around, all turned into dust." According to this statement, the scope of the explosion was centered on Wanggongchang in the southwest corner of the capital, and then expanded to the area south of Xinwenhua Street in Xicheng District, Beijing, north of Xuanwumen West Street, west of Tonglinke Road, and east of Nannaoshikou. The diameter is about 750 meters and the affected area is about 2.25 square kilometers. Not only these areas were affected, but according to the official historical records of the Ming Dynasty afterwards, even Tongzhou, Miyun, Changping and other areas outside Beijing felt obvious tremors, and even Jizhou in Tianjin and Fengrun in Tangshan were affected, with hundreds of houses damaged. According to official records of the Ming Dynasty, the economic losses caused by the Tianqi explosion were countless, and the number of casualties reached more than 20,000.

The horror of the Tianqi explosion lies mainly in the fact that houses were reduced to dust in an instant, and the limbs of people and animals were also shattered in an instant. "In the area of ​​Chang'an Street, human heads fell from the sky, some with noses, and some with foreheads." The body parts were blown to a long distance before falling from the sky, so many victims were killed by the body parts falling from the sky. For a while, the capital city was like a purgatory on earth.

The most puzzling thing is that the dead and injured were all naked, and even those who survived unscathed had their clothes disappear in an instant. Moreover, everyone's experience in this explosion was different. "Tianbian Dichao" has many very detailed records:

At that time, a young lady from a wealthy family was riding in a sedan chair. When the disaster struck, the top of the sedan chair was blown away without a trace, and the clothes of the sedan bearers and the girl sitting in the sedan chair all disappeared in an instant. The group of people were stunned on the street, but they were all safe and sound.

But on another street, another woman riding in a sedan chair and her bearers were not so lucky. The sedan chair was overturned on the ground, and all the people disappeared without a trace.

A scholar named Zhou Jiyu was from Zhejiang. He went to Beijing to study. On this day, he went to the street to buy a hat. He happened to meet six classmates on the street, so the seven of them stopped to greet each other. As a result, the explosion occurred before they finished greeting each other. When the explosion occurred, Zhou Jiyu's head suddenly separated from his body and was swept into the air, while the six classmates who greeted him were unharmed.

There was also a man whose clothes disappeared in the instant of the disaster and his thigh was hit by the collapsed house, causing him to fall to the ground and unable to move.

In a children's school, there were 32 people including teachers and students, and all of them disappeared after the explosion...

The disaster left people at a loss. The elephants kept in the palace were frightened and broke out of their cages after the explosion. In addition, people were fleeing outside the city, and the elephants also ran into the streets. As a result, a serious stampede occurred, and many people fell to the ground and were trampled to death by the panicked elephants or the people who were fleeing in a hurry.

However, everyone is equal in the face of disasters. No matter how noble your status is, you will be the same in the face of disasters. The victims of the Tianqi explosion were not only civilians, but also many dignitaries, including the then Tianqi Emperor Zhu Youxiao.

The sedan chair of the Minister of Works Xue Fengxiang was overturned in the middle of the street while he was on his way to court. The clothes on Xue Fengxiang and his sedan bearers disappeared in an instant. The Minister of Works Dong Kewei was even worse. Not only was his sedan chair overturned and his clothes disappeared, but also his two arms.

The entire family of He Tingshu and Pan Yunyi, who lived in the southwest of the capital, was swallowed up by the sinkhole. At that time, He Tingshu's subordinates rushed to his house to rescue him. They shouted on the rubble if there was anyone there. Later, a woman answered. It turned out to be He Tingshu's concubine. She was "naked, covering her private parts with her hands, and was ashamed and at a loss." A kind-hearted subordinate took off his clothes and put them on her, and she was able to leave in a hurry. Of the He and Pan families, only the concubine survived.

Survivor Carpenter - Emperor of Apocalypse

The third and only surviving son of the Emperor Tianqi, Zhu Cijing, who was less than one year old at the time, died of shock during the disaster. However, the Emperor Tianqi himself was unscathed, thanks to his idyllic carpentry hobby.

When the explosion occurred, Emperor Tianqi was having breakfast in the Qianqing Palace, and the palace was shaking constantly. Emperor Tianqi was a famous carpenter emperor in history. He did not like being an emperor and liked to do carpentry work. With his familiarity and understanding of carpentry technology, Emperor Tianqi quickly judged that the palace might collapse at any time. So he threw away his bowl and ran out of the palace without telling anyone.

According to the records of "Records of Emperor Xizong of Ming Dynasty", Emperor Tianqi was running very fast at that time. The eunuchs and guards around him were all stunned and didn't know what was going on with the emperor. When they reacted, Emperor Tianqi had already run out of the Qianqing Palace. Fortunately, there was another guard who was more alert and caught up with Emperor Tianqi, and then came forward to help him run to Jianji Hall (now the Baohe Hall of the Forbidden City). When they ran to Jianji Hall, the wood and tiles on the top of the hall began to fall down. When Emperor Tianqi saw this situation, he quickly threw away the guards who supported him and continued to speed up to escape. But before the guard could figure out why the emperor suddenly accelerated, his head was smashed by the falling wood and tiles. Finally, Emperor Tianqi ran to Jiaotai Hall alone. He found the large rectangular wooden table he built himself, pushed the table to a corner that was not easy to collapse, and then hid under the table to escape the disaster.

The Qianqing Palace where Emperor Tianqi had his meals was in a terrible state. All the tables and chairs were overturned on the ground, and many of the eunuchs and guards who served Emperor Tianqi were crushed to death because they did not escape in time. In addition, Emperor Tianqi had recruited many craftsmen to repair and maintain the Forbidden City. When the explosion occurred, many craftsmen working in the Forbidden City fell from heights and died. The number of casualties among craftsmen alone reached more than 2,000.

In this explosion, not only did people's clothes or people disappear instantly, but even the heavy stone lions were displaced. A stone lion weighing more than 5,000 kilograms was displaced more than 500 meters in an instant, and many large trees were uprooted. Later, people in Miyun, Changping, Tongzhou, Fengrun, Jizhou and other places around Beijing City successively found these uprooted trees, as well as the disappeared clothes and human and animal corpses. This also added to the weirdness of the Apocalypse explosion.

After the explosion subsided, the Ming government began to investigate the disaster. Since the then Emperor Tianqi favored the eunuch Wei Zhongxian, the people believed that the eunuch party had led the country astray and aroused the wrath of heaven. The disaster was a warning from heaven to the court. However, Emperor Tianqi was very dependent on Wei Zhongxian and valued him, so it was impossible for him to be pushed out to take the blame.

The investigation team formed by the Ming Dynasty government believed that the disaster was caused by the explosion of black gunpowder in Wanggongchang, a Ming Dynasty munitions and weapons manufacturing factory located at the center of the explosion. Wanggongchang was a gunpowder manufacturing factory of the Ming Dynasty, which was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry. Therefore, Emperor Tianqi pushed the poor Minister of Industry Dong Kewei, who lost both arms in the disaster, to take the blame. Emperor Tianqi believed that it was Dong Kewei's mismanagement that caused the Wanggongchang gunpowder explosion, so he dismissed Dong Kewei from his post and replaced him with Assistant Minister Xue Fengxiang. In this way, poor Minister of Industry Dong Kewei not only lost his arm, but also lost his job, becoming the scapegoat for the explosion.

In addition to severely reprimanding Dong Kewei, Emperor Tianqi also issued an edict of self-criticism to appease the people's grievances, and expressed his intention to personally go to the Imperial Ancestral Temple to respectfully offer condolences and three sacrificial animals. He instructed all "Chinese and foreign officials" to wear simple clothes, and to do their best to "clean their hearts and work" and "reflect deeply" in the hope that the dynasty would "be long-lasting and stable, and all troubles would be resolved." However, the next year, Emperor Tianqi himself died. Eighteen years later, the Ming Dynasty also perished.

Natural disaster or man-made disaster? That is the question

At this point, the Tianqi explosion was officially identified by the Ming Dynasty government as the Wanggongchang gunpowder explosion, also known as the "Wanggongchang explosion". Later in the Qing Dynasty, the government always believed that the Tianqi explosion was a disaster caused by the explosion of black powder in the gunpowder factory. So, was this disaster really caused by the explosion of black powder in Wanggongchang? Of course, this is impossible.

According to official historical records of the Ming Dynasty, Wanggongchang, as a munitions and weapons manufacturing plant, had an average daily output of about 2 tons of black powder, and the annual reserve in the factory was about 1,000 tons. According to the scope and scene of the Tianqi explosion recorded in historical records, modern researchers believe that in order to achieve the power of this explosion, at least 10,000 to 20,000 tons of dynamite (TNT) were needed, and the power of this amount of dynamite is basically equivalent to the power of an atomic bomb explosion. It should be pointed out that the conclusion given by modern researchers is the explosive power of 10,000 to 20,000 tons of dynamite, and the explosive power of dynamite is much greater than that of black powder. Therefore, the explosive power of more than 1,000 tons of black powder in Wanggongchang could not have caused this disaster.

Some researchers believe that it was the earthquake that triggered the black powder explosion that escalated the disaster. However, the earthquake theory does not stand up to scrutiny, because the buildings such as Zhenru Temple and Cheng'en Temple, which were located at the center of the disaster, were not damaged much. If there was an earthquake, these buildings would not have been destroyed, and it is impossible for an earthquake to make people's clothes disappear out of thin air. The most important thing is that during the Ming Dynasty, earthquake monitoring was extremely strict, and the Imperial Observatory was the main institution responsible for monitoring earthquakes. According to historical records, the Imperial Observatory did not detect the arrival of the earthquake at all. Moreover, if it was the Imperial Observatory's mistake, Emperor Tianqi would definitely push the Imperial Observatory out to take the blame, but Emperor Tianqi did not punish the officials of the Imperial Observatory, which also shows that no one thought it was an earthquake at the time.

Some researchers also believe that it was a meteorite fall, based on the description in historical records that there was a "roaring sound" when the Tianqi explosion occurred, which does look like the phenomenon of a meteorite fall. However, a meteorite fall cannot explain the disappearance of clothes and people, and it is even more impossible to cause a stone lion weighing more than 5,000 kilograms to move more than 500 meters. What's more, meteorite falls are also within the monitoring scope of the Imperial Astronomical Observatory. Ancient China has always attached great importance to astronomical monitoring. If a meteorite falls and is not monitored, it will also be listed as a dereliction of duty by the Imperial Astronomical Observatory, and Emperor Tianqi will still let them take the blame.

Some researchers believe it was a tornado or hurricane, but the explanation is still unclear. A tornado or hurricane will sweep up many things wherever it goes, but a tornado or hurricane cannot make a person's clothes disappear out of thin air, and the clothes disappear while the person remains safe and sound, which is also inconsistent with the characteristics of a tornado or hurricane. Moreover, none of the survivors at the time described feeling the force of the wind. Tornadoes and hurricanes can make people feel the force of the wind very intuitively, but these survivors did not feel the force of the wind, which also overturned the theory of a tornado or hurricane.

To this day, no one has been able to give a reasonable explanation for the Tianqi explosion, which was equivalent to the power of an atomic bomb explosion, and the dead and injured were all naked, regardless of whether they were men or women. Because of this, the Tianqi explosion more than 400 years ago is called one of the "three great natural mysteries of the world" along with the ancient Indian dead hill incident more than 3,600 years ago and the Russian Tunguska explosion more than 100 years ago.