![]() ![]() The First Emperor prided himself on the unity and order he brought to what had previously been six feuding regions. He renamed himself Qin Shi Huang Di ( Shi Huang Di meaning “First Emperor”), later shortening it to Qin Shi Huang. The new king soon undertook, systematically and ruthlessly, the conquest of the other five states, thus unifying China in 221 B.C.E. and was just 13 when he succeeded his father as king of Qin, one of six states comprising ancient China. The Chinese have long been familiar with the First Emperor through the annals of their ancient and revered historian Sima Qian. Who was the man who envisaged the breathtakingly immense mausoleum and Terra Cotta Army, and what were his motives? He is the central character in entertainment such as Zhang Yimou’s film Hero (2002) and Tan Dun’s opera The First Emperor (2006). Fascination with the First Emperor is also reflected in popular Chinese culture. The initial find, near present-day Xi’an, led to a prodigious archaeological undertaking and to the site becoming a major tourist attraction and the subject of several international exhibitions. The area is still under excavation, but the gigantic tomb-mound itself promises the most interesting revelations. ![]() In an area ultimately covering more than 55 square kilometers (or 21 square miles), archaeologists uncovered three more pits and various artifacts including war chariots and the remains of real horses model charioteers and stable boys numerous bronze birds and lifelike images of court officials, musicians, a juggler and a wrestler. A thousand clay warriors have been unearthed so far, with an estimated five to seven thousand more still buried in unexcavated sections of the pit. The Terra Cotta Army, chanced upon by farmers excavating a well, lies buried in a vast pit about a kilometer (less than a mile) from a great funerary mound in east-central China. The first supreme ruler of China pursued both immortality and personal deity with an unequaled, single-minded passion, and his Terra Cotta Army speaks to that hubris. The answer lies in nothing less than a struggle for mastery, not only over death but over the world and, indeed, the whole universe for the First Emperor meant to become a god and acted accordingly. But what was the purpose of the awe-inspiring yet puzzling ranks of thousands of larger-than-life-sized model warriors? The emperor’s silent army is now famous, hailed as one of the most important and immense archaeological finds of the 20 th century. Most people would never have heard of China’s first emperor were it not for the 1974 chance discovery of a vast army of terra cotta figures that had lain underground for more than two millennia.
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