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During the Shang and Zhou dynasties (16th to 3rd centuries B.C.), slaves were buried alive with the slave-owners and aristocrats when they died. The number of such slaves immolated depended on the status of the deceased. More than 60 slaves were sacrificed when Duke Wu, the ruler of the State of Qin, died in 678 B.C. Later, 177 slaves were immolated when Duke Mu of the State of Qin died in 621 B.C. This practice aroused indignation among the people of Qin. Duke Xian banned this practice when he ascended the throne of the State of Qin in 384 B.C. While still regarding slaves as chattels, the slave-owners had to replace burying slaves alive with using figurines as funerary objects.
[Click on the thumbnails at the left for a larger scale picture]
China's First Emperor Xian built a huge mausoleum at Lintong that would recreate his palace and court below ground. His tomb was provided with every necessity for the next life, including an army of more than seven thousand life-sized terracotta soldiers, which stood in formation east of his burial mound.
This is one of 160 kneeling archers, positioned in readiness for battle. His hands would have held a crossbow, the right hand on the trigger and the left holding the crossbow arm. Remnants of actual weapons were found scattered around the figures. The archer wears protective leggings and a double-layered tunic. His armor would have been made of lacquered leather and joined by various rivets and clasps. His hair is braided and worn in a chignon.
Despite the huge size of the terracotta army, individual figures were treated with surprising attention to detail. Mass production did not overshadow a concern for individuality. The figures were made using molds in a number of standard types, with heads, hands, and torsos in different combinations. Details of armor fittings, even the soles of shoes, were painstakingly recreated in ceramic form. Each figure was brightly painted. This archer still bears traces of red pigment on his armor. Characters found on some of the soldiers may be the signature marks of master potters.
Creation of this terracotta army was a massive undertaking, the largest ceramic project ever undertaken anywhere. It signaled a departure from human sacrifices in burials. Here, the concern was to create, in full detail, a three-dimensional model of the real world. Such a model required resources that only an emperor could have mobilized.
This was one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of this century. It occurred in March 1974, near the city of Xi'an in the north-central province of Shaanxi. Farmers digging for water unearthed a fragment of a warrior figure, part of the terracotta army of Qin Shi Huangdi, who ruled between 246 and 210 B.C. Construction of his elaborate tomb probably began as soon as he assumed the throne. More than a tomb, it is an entire necropolis, a city of the dead. The later Han historian Sima Qian (c. 145-86 B.C.) described Qin Shi Huangdi's tomb as a microcosm replicating the heavens and the earth.
Almost one hundred pits containing the skeletons of horses and terracotta grooms constituted the emperor's stables. Even hay was provided. Other pits held clay models of birds and plants and must have represented his parks. Some twenty tombs probably hold the remains of his councilors and retainers. At the center of the necropolis is a mound that marks the emperor's own grave; it has not yet been excavated.
The emperor's terracotta army was found in three underground wooden vaults. Pit 1 contained chariots and six thousand soldiers in ranks. Pit 2 held fourteen hundred figures of cavalrymen, infantry, and horses, along with ninety wooden chariots. Pit 3 contained about seventy figures. A fourth, shallower pit was empty. Perhaps this last pit was meant to be the ground of battle.
The three pits were looted and all the figures broken, apparently by the conquering troops of the Han, soon after completion. Excavating them has been a massive undertaking. To date, more than a thousand warriors have been reassembled.
Information From The National Gallery of Art
http://pic.templetons.com/brad/photo/china/xian/
http://www.imperialtours.net/photogallery_terracotta_army.htm
More Information at:
http://www.anniebees.com/China/China_42.htm
