By Jessica Lau
Do you believe in immortality? Would you go to extreme lengths to live forever? Emperor Qin Shi Huang of the Qin Dynasty surely wanted to live forever. Thus, the rise of the Terracotta Warriors was created to protect him even in the afterlife.
Near the city of Xi’an in China’s Shaanxi province lies the mighty of the Terracotta Warriors, in March 1974, some farmers of the local Xi Yang Village began digging a well to find a water resource on some wasteland. They accidentally dug up a life-sized terracotta warrior, they then reported to the location protection department of cultural relics.
One of the eight wonders of the world, the Terracotta Army is part of a massive burial tomb build for Emperor Qin Shi Hunag, the first emperor of China. Emperor Qin wanted to live forever, he was obsessed with immortality so he spent much of his life and resources searching for the cure of immortality. When he was still a young emperor, he already spent a huge amount of resources to build himself the largest single tomb, he felt his army could protect him and help him keep his immense power in the afterlife. Unfortunately, he died before the tomb was finished, he died in 210 BC. Emperor Qin Shi Huang is credited with unifying the provinces under one centralized government and for establishing the capital at Xian Yang. But he was not a kind ruler, he was known for his brutishness. He would kill scholars whose ideas he opposed and would show little regard to workers. After he ascended to the throne, he ordered 700,000 laborers to build the Terracotta Army, they spent 40 years working day and night.
The Terracotta got their names because they are warrior like statues made of terracotta a special kind of clay. The figures were placed in military formation according to rank. The soldiers are life-size statues and no two soldiers are exactly alike. The warriors stand at an average of 5 feet, 11 inches tall. Some are as tall as 6 feet and 7 inches. Each one of them looks different, and are dressed differently to represent their position. Not only soldiers are buried, there are also 15 musicians and 13 bronze water birds to keep the emperor entertained. The emperor’s wife and spouse are also forced to buried alongside him.
In the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, there are 4 pits in total while the other pits are still in the process of evacuation. The first pit is the largest with the length of 250 yards equalizing the size of two football fields. There are 6,000 figures and 50 chariots. The second pit covers half of the size of the area of the first pit. This pit mostly contains army units, there are army units with chariots; infantry, cavalry and bowmen. The third pit is the headquarters of the formation. There are 68 figures containing 4 horses, one chariot and 34 weapons. Archaeologists realized ancient China was very advanced, it was way ahead of our time because even though the weapons are century old when they uncovered them it was still in excellent condition. The bronze weapons, axes and spears were covered in chrome plating making them remain in excellent condition.
The Terracotta warriors are very grand, but that is just a small part of Emperor Qin’s Mausoleum. The biggest treasure is the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang himself, throughout the years,many tomb raiders have raided thousands of tombs but no one dared touch Emperor Qin Shang’s. Why you may ask? It’s because Emperor Qin Shi Huang tomb is lined with mercury, even the Chinese government deemed its not safe to open it. Scientists have used remote sensing and discover that the tomb complex is about 38 square miles. They suspect is it to mirror the city of Xi’an, in addition to the clay soldiers, thousands of real people were also buried with the emperor.
Sima Qian, the Chinese Historian describes the designers of the tomb used mercury to create simulations of rivers and seas in the tomb. The tomb was filled with models of palaces and archaeologists have detected high levels of mercury. The grand historian warned it could be a trap and archaeologists are kept away, the tomb may be a mystery for years to come, but hopefully as technology improves we can finally create a safe way to open this tomb of this infamous emperor. In the meantime, feel free to travel to Xi’an and visit the amazing sight of the Terracotta Warriors it is really a sight to behold. Now they also have VR to give you the immense experience of the warriors.
JessieClexaFlash 