Terracotta Army

 

# Terracotta Army

 

 

Like the Egyptians, the ancient Chinese believed the items they took with them to the grave would accompany them into the afterlife. In 246 BCE, work commenced on what would eventually become the mausoleum of Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang. The emperor would require an army to protect him in the afterlife. But instead of burying actual people with him in underground, he commissioned clay reproductions of warriors, thousands of them.

Qin Shi Huang was born on February 18, 259 BCE, and lived until September 10, 210 BC. At the age of 38, Qin who was then known as Zheng, King of Qin conquered the other warring states and became the first emperor of unified China, as well as the founder of Qin dynasty. Under his rule, feudalism was abolished and drastic administrative reforms were made in an effort to avoid lapsing back into the chaos of the never ending wars between states. He developed an extensive network of roads, standardized weights and measures, and switched their power to a single currency. Most significantly, Chinese script was also standardized giving the entire country, for the first time ever, a single communication system.

In 215 BCE, the emperor ordered General Meng Tian to begin construction of his tomb. The project situated underneath a 76 meter tall tomb mound shaped like a truncated pyramid, would take 38 years to complete.

Being a successful emperor means being able to defeat your enemies and Emperor Qin was a frighteningly successful emperor. Not only he defeat armies in six different states of China, he massacred them. However, for the ancient Chinese, beating your enemies in the living world was only a temporary victory. And there was a decent chance a guy like Qin might have to face his enemies again in the afterlife. It was this fear, that the militaries from the states defeated would pursue him into the afterlife, that motivated him to build his Terracotta Army. In fact, one of the reasons the Terracotta Army faces east is because that is the direction an enemy would likely come from. To attack the underground mausoleum.

The emperor ordered the Terracotta Army to be built almost immediately after he took the Qin state throne in 246 BCE. According to an ancient source written by the Chinese historian Sima Qian, who lived from 145 to 90 BCE, over 7000,000 labourers spent 40 years working day and night to finish the soldiers and the tomb. It’s worth nothing, however, that some modern historian have regarded these numbers as highly unlikely. No city in the world had a population of 700,000 at the time. And its estimated the structure could have easily been built in just a few years by around 15,000 men. Regardless of how many there were, these workers also molded the legs, arms, torsos and heads for the terracotta figures, which were then assembled together. Modern electron microscopes even reveal grinding and polishing marks that are believed to be the earliest-known evidence for the industrial use of a lathe. Needless to say, it took a while. And when the work was finally completed in 206 BC, Qin already been dead for four years. Many labourers and artisans died during the construction. Some were possibly even executed to keep the location of the tomb and its treasures a secret.

One of the most incredible aspects of the Terracotta Army is that while labourers only used about eight different molds for the soldiers, every single one of the 8,000 statues is different and unique in it’s own way. Each warrior supports his own facial features which were added in clay. And those who have seen them closely report that one can notice all of the subtle differences the craftsman included to differentiate each soldier. Aside from being separated into different ranks, infantry, archers, generals, or cavalry each individual soldier features unique facial expressions, clothing and hairstyles. They also have varying heights, with the tallest ones, of course, representing the generals.

Most of the statues are 5 feet 11 inches tall, but some actually stand as high as 6 foot inches. One of the most surprising aspects of the Terracotta Army, at least to historians of ancient China, was that the horses in the army are depicted as wearing saddles. This was a surprise when first discovered because it means that the saddle was invented by the time of that Qin dynasty, which is much earlier than was originally believed. In ancient armies, the cavalry and war chariots were extremely important. And the Terracotta steeds, accurate in size to living horses, are depicted as well-fed with erect ears, wide eyes and open mouths. Some believe the horses resemble the Hochu horses, who live today in Gansu, while others opposed it and said these horses are based off Huthian horses from Xinjiang. Whatever the case, the animals are good at climbing hills and racing and are very strong. In addition to the 8,000 soldiers, archaeologists also uncovered 130 chariots pulled by 520 horses, along with 150 cavalry horses, most of which were buried in pits near the emperor’s mausoleum. But surprisingly, these pits also contained a non-military statues. Apparently the emperor feared boredom in the afterlife as much as he feared the armies of his enemies because he elected to be buried with statues of entertainers, such as acrobats, strongmen, and musicians. Bronze ducks, waterfowl and cranes also appeared among the human statues, a sign most archaeologists have understood to mean that the emperor hoped to be surrounded by similar animal in the afterlife.

As far as anyone can tell, the Terracotta Army remained untouched underground for over 2,200 years. In fact despite occasional reports of pieces of terracotta figures and roofing tiles being discovered in the area, nobody really knew about them until 1974. But in march of that year, a group of farmer, five brothers and their neighbour, discovered them by accident while digging a well in Xi’an, about a mile east of the emperor’s tomb.  Naturally the Chinese government investigated the area. And it quickly turned into one of the country’s greatest archaeological finds. 

Today we know that mercury is one of the worlds most toxic chemical but the ancient Chinese, they considered it to be the elixir of life. In fact emperor Qin, in his quest to live forever, ingested mercury pills regularly. Not only did this not help him to live forever, it very likely contributed to his death at the age of 50. The emperor’s belief in mercury may also mean his unexplored tomb is surrounded by rivers of the metal. Chinese historian Sima Qian claimed that 100 flowing rivers were created in the tomb and filled with mercury. While his account makes no mention of the Terracotta soldiers, there’s a good reason to believe him on this one. Analysis of the soil in the vicinity of the tomb has shown extremely high levels of mercury. Even though the Terracotta Army was discovered over 40 years ago, only about 1% of the emperor’s tomb has been excavated. At first archaeologists worried an excavation would damage the emperor’s corpse and artifacts but the biggest concern today is safety. The rumoured river of mercury have left archaeologists struggling to find the safest way to excavate the tomb, if they can at all.

Yet answers about the tomb are not likely to emerge anytime soon. "I have a dream that one day science can develop so that we can tell what is here without disturbing the emperor, who has slept here for 2,000 years," says Wu Yongqi, director of the Museum of the Terracotta Army. "I don't think we have good scientific techniques to protect what we find in the underground palace. Especially if we find paper, silk or textiles from plants or animals; it would be very bad if they have been kept in a balanced condition for 2,000 years, but suddenly they would vanish in a very short time." He cites another consideration: "For all Chinese people, he is our ancestor, and for what he did for China, we cannot unearth his tomb just because archaeologists or people doing tourism want to know what is buried there."

[Ref: Weired_History]