Terracotta Warriors

May 30th, 2013
Chartres, France
Song of the Day: Clint Eastwood by Gorillaz
Mood: Peaceful

Terracotta Warriors

After Guilin, I went north to Xi’an. Xi’an is most famous for the terracotta warriors.

 These warriors were built during the reign of Emperor Qin Shi Huang before his death around 210BC. They were buried with the emperor to protect him in the afterlife. Qin Shi Huang was China’s first emperor and is also famous for building significant sections of the Great Wall.

The first emperor of China

It is amazing that an emperor could organize people (it is estimated that it took 700,000 laborers) to build so many stone soldiers and create great works. Seeing them reminded me of the feeling I had when I was in Egypt. Every 100 feet there was a uniformed or plainclothes police officer that lined the route from a government high official’s house to the airport. It was an impressive show of force and created a sense that the government had tremendous power. Yet, within a year, the Arab Spring occurred and the government was thrown out. Similarly, three years after the emperor died, a revolution brought down his dynasty after a mere 15 years. How quickly life circumstances can change!?!

Excavations
The warriors lay underground for a couple millennia before local farmers were digging a well in 1974 and came upon the archaeological treasure. Excavations have continued over the past few decades as more figurines continue to be uncovered.

The archaeologists did their best to put together pieces to reassemble each warrior.

 Then, they put them together in rows like we see today:

However, not all the pieces were able to be recovered

Unlike Sleepy Hollow, these headless soldiers were not horsemen

It's virtually impossible to make out from the pictures, but there is a darker square
on the back shoulder of many soldiers. This was added in modern times to make
it easier to lower them into the pit. I can't imagine that is best practice for preservation

Excavations are still underway

 

Exquisite detail


What's amazing is how intricate each of the soldiers is.
The artists even spent time on the sandals

Armor

The officers had fancy hair-dos and you could tell someone's
rank by how they wore their hair.

Some sources conjecture there were eight basic molds, but each of the facial features were personalized in a unique way. Bottom left is an officer and bottom right is a general.



 Among the terracotta army, the taller the officer, the more senior he was. Height seems to me like a great way to judge leadership ability.

The troops

In addition to normal soldiers, there were also charioteers and their horses

It is estimated that there nearly 10,000 life-size figurines. I wonder what kind of infrastructure projects or other works could have been created with all that labor. I can understand why the emperor did what he did, but it seems like a total waste to us now except for archaeological curiosity. His ego led him to use all of the power he had accumulated for his own good rather than improve the lives of those he led. I hope to be a better steward of the resources, relationships, and opportunities with which I am blessed.

If you want, you can buy your very own replica



Where's Waldo moment: Can you find the real person?

Beyond the main pit

There is also a great museum on the grounds.

Among the many amazing historical artifacts,
my favorite thing to see was this kid's hair cut

The best artifact is the emperor's carriage. This was the vanguard
for another chariot that would have been used by the emperor for
his inspections in the afterlife.

The emperor survived a few assassination attempts and became consumed with a quest for immortality. In fact, he died during one of his tours of his empire that was part of his search for an elixir of life. His fear of death, powerlessness, and the unknown completely consumed him. As a Christian, I can experience peace through the love of God and belief that I will be with God in the afterlife. This frees me to focus on serving God and others rather than live completely for my own happiness or longevity.


My favorite relief

Horse sculpture

If you could be buried with anything what would you choose?