Terracotta Army / Warriors

Cr: China Tour Guide Website

The Terracotta Army or the "Terracotta Warriors and Horses", is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. It is a form of funerary art buried with the emperor in 210–209 BC and whose purpose was to protect the emperor in his afterlife.

The figures, dating from around the late third century BC, were discovered in 1974 by local farmers in Lintong District, Xi'an, Shaanxi province. The figures vary in height according to their roles, with the tallest being the generals. The figures include warriors, chariots and horses. Current estimates are that in the three pits containing the Terracotta Army there were over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits near by Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum. Other terracotta non-military figures were also found in other pits and they include officials, acrobats, strongmen and musicians.

To me, since i do not know what it is like in the afterlife, neither can i say that the chinese thinking is wrong, nor can i say that their thinking is correct. However, i think that in afterlife, things may change a little and would not be the same. Your status in the afterlife may be higher or lower than the status you are having right now. Therefore, i think that we should not be so strong on some opinions that cannot really be verified, but instead, ask questions, and some time sooner or later, you will find out the true side to your questions.

To Chinese people, the social structure in the afterlife is exactly like that in the real world, especially in Qin Dynasty, the people regarded the death same as the life. Without question, The First Qin Emperor would like to build a similar empire for his afterlife at any cost. According to historical materials, there exist sun, moon, stars, rivers, mountains in his mausoleum. To protect the empire of his afterworld, an army could be a must. The Terracotta Army was concluded one of the parts of the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor. 

On 29th March 1974, the heavy drought ravaged Shaanxi province, 6 young farmers in Xiyang Village were sinking a well for irrigating fields. No water found even they dug into 4 meters beneath the ground. Suddenly, a human-shaped terra-cotta without head was found, then a awful head unearthed, then more and more broken terra-cotta figures, crossbows, bronze arrowhead were dug up. The confounded farmers opined that they might find an old abandoned temple and just threw away those broken figures into the wild and sold the bronze arrowhead to the salvage station. Until 3 days later, Mr. Fang Shumin who was an irrigationist of the town inspected the aborted well and noted that it must be an ancient relic, and then he reported it to the local Cultural Center Office. The officials in the center sought all the discarded figures back and repurchased those bronze arrowheads, then kept them into the Cultural Center. After 2 month, Mr. Lin Anwen, a reporter from Xinhua New Agency, found those stored figures in the Culture Center and he realized that they must be the warriors from Qin Dynasty. On 24th June 1974, he backed Beijing and reported it to the Central Government. Then a team of archaeologists was organized to Shaanxi, and the Terra-cotta Army finally came into the real world after 2000 years.

Their clothing, hairstyles, and even moustaches can show us the differences which existed in the army. Individual differences could indicate social status or simply personal preference. Also, individual soldiers can be used to identify the area they came from through clothing design. What does this army tell us about how much political and military control the emperor had in his kingdom?

Seow Jia Xuan (15)

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