| The Terracotta
Warriors: forbidding sentinels of a death defying
Emperor |
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The Terracotta Warriors
represent only a small portion of the eight thousand
strong underground army buried in front of the Emperor
Qinshihuang's tomb (r. 221-207 BC) to defend him
in the afterlife. The craftsmanship attested by
each of the statues is as stupendous as the scale
of the project. So who was the Emperor Qinshihuang
to merit such magnificence?
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One of the most important
rulers in Chinese history, this Emperor leaves a
legacy as morally complicated as that of Peter the
Great. For, like the Russian Tsar, he is as well-known
for his contributions to the modern state as he
is for sacrificing the lives of thousands of labourers
to his visionary projects. Made King of the state
of Qin at the age of thirteen, by the time he was
thirty-eight he conquered the six neighbouring states
to unify China for the first time.
Although reviled for his tyranny, Qinshihuangdi
is also admired for many radical and insightful
policies which subsequent dynasties employed. To
synthesise seven separate states into one nation,
he standardised a common script and established
uniform measurement and monetary systems. For effective
government, he codified a legal system and replaced
hereditary rulers with a centrally appointed administrative
system. To improve industrial productivity he encouraged
agricultural reforms and constructed many roads.
And in an effort to limit the inroads of barbarian
tribes, he supervised the construction of a defence
fortification along the northern frontier, the first
Great Wall. Although China benefited from these
policies, thousands of Chinese workers died in completing
this far-reaching public works program.
700,000 forced labourers were sacrificed to construct
his tomb which was begun as soon as he ascended
the throne. All workers and childless concubines
were interred with him to safeguard its secrets.
According to Sima Qian's "The Historical Records"
written a century later, heaven and earth are represented
in the tomb's central chamber. The ceiling, inlaid
with pearls, represents the starry heavens. The
floor, made of stone, forms a map of the Chinese
kingdom; a hundred rivers of mercury flow across
it. And all manner of treasure is protected by deadly
booby-traps.
The main tomb has still to be excavated - partly
because archaeologists are still uncertain of its
exact location. Often Emperors amassed huge burial
mounds simply to divert robbers' attention from
the true site of their tomb. So the artificial mound
that today marks the Emperor's tomb does not necessarily
indicate the location of its wondrous central chamber.
However, because high mercury levels have recently
been reported nearby, archaeologists think they
may, at last, have discovered it. The Terracotta
warriors, that you will see today, form just one
of the many barriers the ruthless Emperor employed
to protect his tomb for eternity.
The limestone and marble Kouroi and Kourai of the
Greek Late Archaic Period (535-480 BCE) refute the
claim that the Terracotta Warriors were the first
free-standing statues in the history of world art.
This, though, does little to undermine the ingenuity
of the Terracotta Warriors' design and manufacturing
process. For whereas the Ancient Greeks meticulously
carved individual statues out of stone, the Qin
dynasty project held all the problems of production
on a mass scale. Tens of thousands of individual
human and animal statues were manufactured within
a series of processes that began with the moulding
of solid legs.
It was by constructing each of the hollow statues
upon solid legs that the Ancient Chinese craftsmen
solved the perplexing problem of how to make a statue
free-standing. Hollow heads, arms and legs, made
of coiled earth, were joined together with strips
of clay and set upon the solid legs. After this
rough model was assembled, a fine clay slip was
added, and details such as eyes, mouth, nose and
details of dress were carved into the clay while
it was still pliable. Additional pieces such as
ears, beard and armour were modelled separately and
attached, after which the whole figure was fired
at a high temperature.
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