The Warriors of Xi'an

 In 221BC Rome was a republic, not yet an empire.  Across the Mediterranean to the Southwest, Carthage appointed a young fellow named Hannibal as general of its armies.  Across the Mediterranean to the Southeast, Ptolemy IV had just taken over as pharaoh of Egypt.  In Greece, Phillip V had just taken over as king of all Greece and Macedonia.  In the forests of Gaul and Northern Europe, the future French and Germans and British were happily going about their lives in barbarian tribes.

On the other side of the world, across the Himalayas and the Gobi Desert, a fellow named Ying Zheng unified China for the first time in 221 BC.  China existed as a collection of kingdoms and allied dynasties before him.  He brought it all together at the point of a sword.  He took the name Emperor Qin Shi Huang.  He was the first ruler of the Qin dynasty.

He made Xi'an his capital city.

By all accounts, Emperor Qin was not a pleasant dude.  He was visionary.  The China of today, the one unified nation of the mainland, is a concept largely of his creation.  He centralized the government, unified the coinage, standardized the language, and built the first version of the Great Wall of China.   But he unified the nation as a tyrant and ruled as a tyrant.  He destroyed the history books of all that came before him.  And he used his subjects like beasts of burden.  By accounts, between 500,000 and 1,000,000 died during the building of the Great Wall.

At the same time, he forced another 700,000 people into labor to build his tomb.  He had them build an earthen pyramid that towered above the burial chambers.  The interior was said to be filled with indescribable treasures and lavishly decorated with representations of heaven and earth, including some 100 rivers flowing with liquid mercury.  It was like something out of an Indiana Jones movie.

Emperor Qin move into the tomb in 210 BC.  He died while looking for the fountain of youth and his body had to be rushed back to Xi'an for burial.  Almost immediately after his death, the people began to rebel.  In 206BC, the rebellions concluded successfully with the founding of the Han dynasty.  The Mandate of Heaven had passed away from the Qins.  The old Emperor had no progeny remaining to maintain his memory or his tomb.  He was forgotten.  In time, the only evidence for his dynasty was in the written history and the occasional artifact found here or there.

 In 1974, some Chinese farmers were digging a well just outside of Xi'an, near a non-descript earthen mound.  In the process, they dug up some shards of pottery bearing the images of human faces.  Someone told someone who told someone else.  Before long, some university types came to investigate and they started excavations.  With time, they realized they'd found the long-lost necropolis of Emperor Qin.  They'd found the tomb that 700,000 people labored to build.

They found the army of terracotta soldiers.  An army of 8000 to 10,000 fired-clay warriors were crafted to stand guard outside the emperor's tomb.   The army was housed in chambers, covered with timbered roofs and covered again with earth.  Time, and the fires of rebellion, caused the roofs to collapse.  Consequently, much of the terracotta army has been shattered.  What is on display has been pieced together...reconstructed from the shards.

 So, in the preceding photos you can see the excavation pits with the reconstructed warriors.  The photo above shows a typical pit prior to reconstruction.  The warriors are buried in the dirt like shattered porcelain dolls.  They say that the warriors were originally painted in lifelike colors and adorned with paint, cloth, and wooden and metal weapons.  Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, and rust to rust.  All that remains now is the yellow clay.

 The terracotta army of Xi'an has become one of China's top tourist attractions - second only to Beijing with its Forbidden City and its nearby Great Wall.  The Xi'an museum facility is top-notch.  You can walk in the pits amongst the warriors.  You can eat in the restaurants and shop in the gift shops afterwards.  Above is a photo of our tour group...taken in the "Have your picture taken with the warriors in three dimensions" stand.  There were 28 of us expats from Suzhou on the tour.

 Above and below are a couple of the pieces on display in Pit 2.  The piece above is a cavalry soldier with his horse.  The horse is fitted with  bronze halter, bit, and reins.  The soldier walks beside on foot.  Despite their craftsmanship, the Qin workers could not build a terracotta horse with a back strong enough to support a 200 kilo terracotta horseman.  So the horsemen all walked.

Below is the famous kneeling archer....one of the few statues found unbroken.  When originally placed in the tomb, he would have been holding a wooden crossbow.  You can see his right hand still curled around the long-decayed stock of the crossbow.

In the gift shop, you can buy a picture-book memento and have it signed by the farmer who discovered the site while digging the well back in 1974.   His name is Mr. Long and he is about 70 years old.  The story goes that the government, in honor of his historic discovery, is paying him a handsome salary each year...a salary far beyond what a normal farmer could expect to earn.  All he has to do is sign books in the gift shop.   And so he does.  We bought a book for 150 RMB and had it signed by Mr. Long. 

The story of Mr. Long is a good one, but the cynic in me finds it almost too good to be true.  I can't help thinking that every morning, when the workers of the museum gift shop show up for work, the supervisor asks "who wants to be Mr. Long today?"