Not many archeological finds stunned
the world as much as the chance discovery of the Terracotta Army by three farmers who were drilling a water well to the East of Mount Lishan in
Chinese Shaanxi Province in March 1974. Excavations were
immediately begun and soon it became evident that this area would become a prime archeological attraction not only
in China but for the whole world.
Immediately after his ascent at Qin’s
throne at the age of 13 years in the year 245 BC the later first Chinese
Emperor Qin Shihuangdi ordered to commence the work on his burial place. Qin’s
vision was to structure a mausoleum to be protected eternally by a completely
weaponed army. Geomances choose a favorable site East of ancient Qin’s capital
Xianyang which was close to today’s Xi’an. According to records more than
700,000 workers were involved to erect the physical structure and it took 35
years to complete. A lot of prisoners and forced labourers participated to
realize Qin’s gigantic vision.
Emperor Qin who also ordered the
construction of the nearly infinite Wall of China likely ordered the burning of
all the books before him. As Jorge Luis Borges writes burning books and
building fortications is common task to emperors, the only thing singular about
Shihuangdi is the scale which he operated. Borges text “The Wall and the Books”
was published 1961 when there was no knowledge about the First Emperor’s
colossal mausoleum. Qin proclaimed the “Empire of Thousand Generations” which
should last only 16 years and broke up five years after his death but it was
the beginning of the unification of the Chinese territory by a centralized
state by an absolute monarch.
It was in Zagreb in former Yugoslavia in
the 1980s when I saw some of the terracotta warriors for the first time when
they were main attractions of a touring exhibition through Europe. At that time
it was not easy for foreigners to visit China and the knowledge of Chinese
history and culture was not very frequent.
On my first trip to Xi’an in 2001 I was to
visit the army and was overwhelmed by the huge number of warriors and visitors
as well.
In the last 25 years China has undergone
massive change and nowadays there is an inflational number of documentary
reports about China.
I came back in September 2008 when I took
part in the conference of the International Ceramic Academy after participating
a show at the Shanghai Arts & Crafts Museum and spending one week in the
pleasant town of ZhuJiaJiao.
Travelling in China in September can be
rather hard because of humidity and temperature and so it was also in Xi’an.
The city had changed a lot in seven years and with a population of 8 millions
the number of residents doubled. It was obvious that tourism played a prominent
role in economics in this area.
The world famous Museum of the Terracotta
Soldiers and Horses is one of the main attractions the Chinese call the eighth
world wonder although the Shaangxi Povince has a lot more to offer. Most
remarkable the Shaanxi History Museum where next to numerous ancient potteries
also a lot of terracotta warriors are exhibited. The exemplary fine display
makes it much easier to study all the details than at the warriors in the
original location.
The museum site is a main scenic spot of
Shaanxi Province near the small town of Lintong in one hour’s driving distance
to Xi’an. It is situated one and a half kilometer East to the burial mound and
was opened in 1979. Nowadays it is visited by more than three millions mostly
Chinese visitors every year. It stands on a very large property surrounded by
pine groves and gardens kept immaculate by a number of janitors and
groundskeepers.
Today a quarter of the whole area is
opened, the main attraction has still to be discovered – the tomb itself
remains unopened. Given the rate of change in China it will be interesting to
see if this policy is sustained. The idea that there is maybe the world’s most
significant archeological site may prove harder to resist in future.
After passing numerous hawkers which is as
bugging as always in China one arrives at the museum area with the information center where one of the
farmer who unearthened the warriors is still signing books. Next is an audio
visual center which shows a 360° video about the Emperor’s period and how the
terracotta army was discovered.
There are four main buildings to visit:
three halls to protect the discovered pits from the elements which were
constructed on their original sites and the museum building.
Pit one is a huge hall with more than
6,000 soldiers and horses of which only a part is unearthened while pit two
hosts about 1,400 figures and pit three consists of about seventy figures.
Entering the hangar-like hall with pit
one I was surprised about its dimensions, more than 230 meters in length, and
62 meters wide. Of course you cannot expect to be alone but I was annoyed of
having such a crowd of visitors inside. Unfortunately visitors are only allowed
to use pathways around the pit in some higher level which was diappointing to
me because of the viewer’s distance to the terracotta figures. The halls are
air conditioned and have discreet lighting so it is not easy to take pictures.
In this hall only a smaller part of the army is unearthed, standing on brick
floors they are arranged in corridors with pillars and beams that once
supported a roof. This roofs consisted of layers of fiber and was then covered
by earth to conceal the army’s location. Emperor Qin obviously wished to have a
complete army to protect him afterlife in his tomb. Although because of the
distance and diffuse light viewing is more complicate it is very impressive to
view the variety of clothing, facial features and expressions, they differ also
in size and volume and each face is individually molded. There are grimaces of
concentration, looks of arrogance, and perhaps some smile.
There also differences in their
military rank, there are archers, charioteers, infantry, even the rear guard
standing at full attention to be called upon. Originally they wore real
weapons. A lot of warriors miss their heads which were mounted afterwards to
the body. Later I read that the names of the craftsmen creating each figure
were inscribed on the soldier’s robe, leg or armor.
I can well imagine the high skills of the
craftmen 2200 years ago molding these figures and firing the soldiers and
especially the life-size horses in their large kilns. Vast amount of wood had
to be acquired to fire the kilns to the temperature of around 1000°.
There are remnants of colour which can be
regarded as well. There is evidence that all the warriors were laquer painted
in red blue and green and I read about when the figures were unearthened the
colour very soon disappeared. Not until 2004 German research lead to successful
techniques in preserving the colours.
Some soldiers are badly damaged but most
of them are remarkable well preserved. This is the more astonishing as five
years after the death of Emperor Qin after the looting of the tomb the wooden
structures were set on fire and a blaze started lasting over three months.
Despite this fire much of the remains of the army still survive in various
stages of preservation, surrounded by remnants of the burned wooden structions.
The halls of pit two and pit three are of
much smaller size and apparently contain the high command and charioteers and
also some kneeing archers. They are mostly in more damaged condition and a lot
of work is waiting to restore them to their original form.
I read about the problems that the
warriors were suffering from “nine kinds of mold” caused by raised temperatures
and humidity and the breath of visitors. Figures have become oxidised grey from
being exposed to air, which may cause destroyed details and falling arms, and
there are some pollution problems evident as well introduced from coal burning
plants responsible for the decaying of the clay statues. So there might be a
tribute due to the huge number of people visting the site that the details of
the extremely well crafted figures are vaguely perceptible except some examples
exhibited in the exhibition spaces next pit two in the second hall.
Today all around the area and in Xi’an
city there are numerous manufactures producing and shops selling replicas of
the warriors in all sizes and it seems that today’s craftsmen want to
demonstrate that they still have the same skills as in Emperor Qin’s time more
than 2200 years ago.
Roland Summer
Velden, November 2008