The Terra-Cotta Army of Emperor Qin
By Barbara Gotthelf
Photos courtesy of the author
For more than two thousand years, Chinese
children have heard fantastic stories about
China's first great ruler, Emperor Qin
Shihuangdi (chin sure-hwang-dee). The
stories told about a great army made up of
terra-cotta soldiers and of a burial tomb
filled with jewels and magical rivers that
flowed to the sea.
In 1974, the Chinese made an amazing discovery--the stories about Emperor Qin and his
great army are not fantastic at all; they're true. An army of more than eight thousand soldiers
made of terra cotta, a baked reddish clay, is buried fifteen to twenty feet beneath the earth not
far from the tomb pyramid where Emperor Qin is believed to be buried along with riches of
his dynasty.
People learned by accident that the stories about Emperor Qin were true. Farmers digging a
well in a field struck the head of a terra-cotta soldier. News of the discovery quickly spread,
and archeologists swarmed to the site in the central Chinese province of Xian (she-ahn).
After much effort was spent drilling core samples from the earth, archeologists learned that
about eight thousand terra-cotta warriors were buried in chambers beneath the ground.
So far, archeologists have dug up and pieced together about one thousand of the soldiers. The
soldiers were damaged by raiding rebel armies shortly after their creation and also by the
collapse of heavy roof timbers over time. Also uncovered were about one hundred wooden
war chariots, about six hundred life-size terra-cotta horses, and thousands of weapons. The
soldiers stand about six feet tall, and each appears to have his own individual personality.
"They're all different, every single one of them," says Dr. Donald Wood, the curator of Asian
Art at the Birmingham Museum of Art in
Alabama. "Each soldier has his own
characteristics. Some are almost smiling; some
look very stern. Some look like they are middle
aged, and some are very young. Each has his own
little mustache and little changes to his hairstyle."
Dr. Wood says that the workers who made the
soldiers may have modeled them after the real
soldiers of Emperor Qin's army. The terra-cotta
horses buried alongside the soldiers also have their
own facial expressions. The weapons the soldiers
carry don't just look real--they are real. The arrows, swords, and crossbows are made up of
special combinations of metals. They are as sharp today as they were twenty-two centuries
ago.
Emperor Qin's terra-cotta army had at least two purposes. The army was designed to protect
Qin after he died. Dr. Victor Mair, a professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the
University of Pennsylvania, explains that the ancient Chinese had a very strong belief in the
afterlife. "When you die, that's not the end of you," says Dr. Mair. "The army was meant to
protect [Emperor Qin] in death, down in the underworld. That's why there were such
incredible efforts to be realistic." The more lifelike the soldiers looked, Mair says, the more
effective they would be in guarding the Emperor against his enemies in the afterlife.
The army was also created to demonstrate Emperor Qin's power while he was still alive. Qin,
who was born in 259 B.C., began construction of the army and tomb when he became ruler at
the age of thirteen. Archeologists estimate that it took as many as seven hundred thousand
people more than thirty years to complete the project. "Any emperor worth his salt needs a
bunch of soldiers to guard him. It shows how great you are," says Dr. Mair. "If you can
mobilize seven hundred thousand people, that's some kind of indication of your power in
life."
Emperor Qin was powerful, indeed. In 221 B.C. Qin declared himself emperor. He ended
hundreds of years of fighting among the different states in China, and he unified the country.
Under Qin's rule, people in China used the same form of money, the same system of
measurement, and the same written language. Qin even had all of the axle widths in China
made the same size so that all wheels would fit in the same ruts in the roads.
While Qin made many positive changes in the country, he was also a ruthless leader who
ordered people to work on his huge projects. Historians believe that during Qin's rule, one
out of every ten Chinese was put to work creating not only Qin's terra-cotta army but also
270 magnificent palaces. They also worked at connecting one of the greatest wonders of the
world--the two-thousand-mile-long Great Wall of China.
Despite his strength, Qin was ruled by his own fear of death. Later in life, he slept in a
different palace every night because he feared that people might try to kill him. Qin also
spent most of his life looking for the secret of eternal life. It was his own attempts to avoid
death that may have killed him. Some people believe that at the age of forty-nine Qin drank a
magic potion that was supposed to keep him alive forever. Instead, the potion contained
poisonous mercury.
Archeologists are convinced that Qin is buried in a spectacular tomb located inside a tomb
pyramid in the center of the field where the terra-cotta army was found. In ancient Chinese
history books, the tomb is called Mount Li, and is said to contain fabulous jewels, miniature
cities, and rivers of mercury that flow to a man-made sea.
There is reason to believe that the story of Emperor Qin's tomb is true. Tests done on the soil
near Mount Li have shown unusually high levels of mercury. But archeologists have no plans
to excavate Mount Li. Dr. Wood says that before any serious digging begins, scientists would
have to set up at the site special chemical laboratories and climate-controlled storage
facilities to preserve what they find. Otherwise, he says, the treasure of Mount Li might
crumble before their eyes.
In the meantime, digging continues in the area near Mount Li. More and more soldiers,
chariots, horses, and weapons are being found. Visitors to China can see the terra-cotta army
in three special museums built above the site. And they can look to the tree-covered Mount
Li nearby and reflect on all the spectacular discoveries that are yet to be uncovered.