The Emperor's Army

The Army: Terracotta

This shows where the Terracotta pit is from the tomb

       The great clay army,Terracotta, guarded the first emperor of China's(Qin Shi Huang) tomb.In 1974, a group of farmers digging wells near Xi'an,China made an amazing discovery,the Terracotta army.According to History(article) ,the clay army consisted of 8,000 soldiers complete with archers, bowmen and foot soldiers all lined up to rank.According to Time for Kids(article), the soldiers were life-sized and were armed with real swords.These clay soldiers were made by Qin Shi Huang (pronounced "chin shuh huang") in 210 B.C.The emperor was strongly concerned about his death and afterlife, so he created an army to accompany him.He also made acrobats,dancers, and singers to entertain him, and also animals like horses.He even made a strong man!Each figure is unique, no two are the same.Each one has its own hairstyle facial expression and painted detail. It took about 36 years and 700,000 builders in lines to build his Terracotta army.

The Terracotta was large and included animals like horses.

 The Ruthless Emperor 

       Even though Emperor Qin made many feats, he was harsh to his people.According to Wikipedia, Qin outlawed and burned many books and buried scholars alive to ensure stability.He massacred the army of  six  states.He punished hundreds of thousands of people into forced labor.he subjected his people to high taxation and showed little tolerance for dissent.
          He survived numerous assassination  attempts and was  quite paranoid about revolution. Maybe this is why the Emperor built his army. The army faces East, coincidentally towards states he conquered.But the army actually supplied the rebellion against the Qin Dynasty. People grabbed the swords from the statue. It is like he was expecting another army to come over the horizon.According to LiveScience(article), Qin was paranoid about intruder attacks so he built a wall which consisted of smaller defense walls known today as the Great Wall of China.Also according to Wikipedia,the Emperor died because of digestion of mercury pills made by his court physician, which ironically was supposed to make him immortal.

Thinking Matters

What do you think you would do when you were alive in China during the Qin's rule? We are lucky to be a democracy and not have a tyrant.Yet Qin still lives in the heart of China. 

          Top 10 Facts:Terracotta

10) 8,000 soldiers accompany Emperor Qin.

9)The sculptures are more than 2,200 years old.

8)Discovered by farmers while digging wells.

7)Each face in the army is unique.

6)The height and uniform varies by rank.

5)Over 650 horses are part of the army.

4)It is believed that the statues held real weapons.

3)Over 700,000 workers were employed for construction.

2)Experts suggest that the emperor's tomb contained simulated rivers of mercury.

1)Yet, the tomb has not been excavated