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Jade Clothes Sewn with Gold Thread
Liu's clothes were made of a total of 2,498 pieces of jade, sewn together with lengths of thread that is 96 percent gold, 4 to 5 cm in length and 0.35-0.5 mm in diameter. There were also soft and sturdy gold thread 0.08-0.13 mm in diameter. It took about 1,100 grams of gold. Judging from the technology of today, it takes an entire decade for an artisan to finishing making such piece of jade clothes.
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According to an ancient Chinese belief, when a man had put on clothes made of jade pieces sewn together with gold thread when he died, his remains would never go rotten.
In1968, Chinese archaeologists working in Mancheng, Hebei Province, found such clothed in a tomb buried with the remains of Liu Sheng, a prince of the Western Han Dynasty, and those of his wife, DouPass. Only a few teeth and a pile of bones were left of the remains, the jade clothes remained intact.