In 221 B.C., Emperor Qin Shi
Huang of the Qin dynasty established the first centralized feudal
dynasty in China. (Centralization wasparticularly important in
the Yellow and Yangtze regions because flooding periodically wiped
out years of work and coordinated planning was required to build
canals and avoid political as well as geographical fragmentation.)
After his death, he was buried at the northern foot of Lishan
Hill in the east of Lintong county. The tomb has been reduced
to half its size after 2,000 years of water and soil erosion,
but still impressive--76 meters high and a fundamental space of
120,000 square meters. One unusual detail about the construction
of the tomb is that the emperor had the building begin shortly
after becoming king of Qin at the age of 13. |
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This action contradicted
Confucian wisdom that a son should demonstrate respect for his
father by building as impressive a memorial as possible and
that a man should never plan his own funeral rites. Presumably,
the king of Qin did not consider himself a mere man! In fact,
he ordered the burning of books of history and philosophy as
well as the death of 460 Confucian scholars who had had the
temerity to continue teaching principles drawn from the past.
The tomb took 39 years and 700,000 workers to reach completion.
It had pearls embedded in the ceiling to represent the stars,
and rivers and lakes were modeled with liquid mercury. The tomb
itself has not been opened yet.
In 1974, when digging wells
about a mile west of the mausoleum, some peasants made the sensational
discovery of the Terra-Cotta Warriors and Horses; these figures
were distributed over three large underground platforms and
formed part of the emperor's burial objects. Likely numbering
more than 7,000 warriors if the site were completely excavated,
the figures are cultural assets of considerable quality. In
order to avoid the risks of weather damage, a giant hall has
been constructed over the first excavation site to provide protection.
Although the faces of the individual warriors all have different
expressions (lifelike and colorfully painted), it is known that
some were mass produced in large workshops.
In 1978, a fourth pit was
discovered; it is shaped as the Chinese character zhong (middle).
In 1980, two bronze chariots with four horses were discovered.
There
are four main categories of figures: chariot warriors, infantrymen,
cavalrymen, and horses. There are generals, middle ranking officers,
lower ranking officers, ordinary soldiers, and armored warriors.
The latter can be further divided according to their headgear
into warriors with a square scarf, a cylindrical bun, or a flat
bun. There are kneeling warriors as well.
For all its grandeur, the
Battle Formation of the Terra-Cotta Warriors and Horses is acclaimed
by many as the Eighth Wonder of the World.
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