At last I get to see the Terracotta Army, on my bucket list since 1974, and here I am looking one of them eye to eye. Well I would be if he wasn’t 6′ 2″ tall and me a mere 5′ 2″. Wow, I never realised how tall they are, or how individual they are, or how many of them there are or that they’ve been there for 2,200 years. It’s mind-blowing. Like most people I’d seen photos and articles and knew of them but didn’t really appreciate what an awe inspiring, epic spectacle was going to unfold when I entered Pit No 1.
The army is the main feature of the mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor in Chinese History. The period he was born into and grew up in was the most bloodiest times ever. He inherited a small, insignificant country, one of 7 squabbling, fighting clans. During his reign he unified all 7 countries to become one state. China.
And he did it with his massive, well armed, well trained army. He relied heavily on his army but he was also politically astute. He gave himself the title of “The Beginning Emperor,” he wanted to create a dynasty that would last long after his demise.
It was he who ordered that the defensive walls which had been built by various countries at different times to be rebuilt, it took ten years’ hard work to complete the 10,000 mile long wall which is famous the world over.
He became more and more determined to keep what he had won and introduced cruel and ruthless laws to keep people in place. He became worried that Confucian scholars were trying to destroy him and his reputation by writing seditious stories about him, so he persecuted and murdered them. It’s been recorded that over 1,000 Confucian scholars were buried alive and all of their books burned. The people hated him for this.
Like the Pharaohs, Emperor Qin wanted to take that which had been most important to him in life, with him into the next life. So he had built a mausoleum 35km from Xi’an city. It took 38 years and 720,000 conscripts to build. The burial pit which contains the Army is 1.5km further east of Emperor Qin’s tomb.
On his death his son, Hu Hai, became the second Emperor, a year later a peasant revolt overthrew him. It was during the revolution that the mausoleum was ransacked and devastated. A huge fire was started which burnt the wooden scaffolding which housed the soldiers, causing many to be crushed and broken.
This picture (below) of warriors just having been unearthed is quite poignant; they look almost human. Their faces and hands have been painted skin colour, their hair and hair pieces are realistic and the uniforms have bright red painted leather strips. Unfortunately the paint pigments fade when exposed to the air, so the archaeologists have left as many as 4-6,000 still encased in the earth, until such time there is the technology to stop the colour fading.
Pit No 1 houses the Army, marching constantly towards the enemy. The pit is 230m long and 62m wide, that’s equivalent to 2 full size football pitches side by side. It contains nearly 6,000 full size, individual soldiers and 40 horse-drawn chariots. Some soldiers were armed with spears others with halberds or crossbows. The weapons were made of wood so they have rotted over the years.
Look at how different the hair, eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth and mustache are. Also the different uniforms.
As usual in China you have to run the gauntlet of people selling you ‘souvenirs’ as you walk from the car park through the huge site which has far too many restaurants and shops (they do get 40,000 visitors a day). We fell for the hype and went to the ‘official’ shop where we met Shi-Hua Yang, the farmer who whilst digging for a well found the Warriors. 42 years later his job is to shake hands with tourists (including American Presidents). When he found the warriors he was an uneducated peasant who couldn’t write his name. Now he can.
