Buried mausoleum
Qin Shi Huang was the first King in Chinese history, famous for his cruel rule. However, he also contributed a lot to the country, two of his life’s works are the Great Wall, and… his grave site.
This tomb was kept absolutely secret, so more than 2,000 years later, by accidentally finding the terracotta army, archaeologists guessed that the tomb was located on a nearby hill. Archaeologists still do not dare to excavate this tomb because the technical technology cannot meet the requirements and they do not want to destroy the structure in it.
According to “Historical Records” by Sima Qian, a historian who lived during the Han Dynasty, Qin Shi Huang ordered 700,000 people to build this mausoleum over the course of 30 years. The amount of assets buried here is nearly 1/3 of China’s wealth at that time. This tomb is very large, surrounded by a river of extremely toxic mercury.
“When the big job was done, to hide everything, the workers from the inner, middle or outer areas were all locked up, unable to go out,” according to Sima Qian. This shows that all those involved in construction died in the project they built. He also ordered nearly 3,000 beautiful concubines to be buried alive with him.
The Mysterious Terracotta Army
In 1974, a farmer in Xiyang Village, Lintong District, Shaanxi Province, while plowing his field, unearthed several terracotta figurines of various sizes. These earthen figures had been kept secret for over 2,200 years. The army includes over 8,000 life-sized terracotta statues, buried alongside the tomb of Qin Shi Huang to protect him in the afterlife.
The army was crafted by the finest artisans using the most sophisticated techniques of the time. Some of these skilled craftsmen came from the terracotta workshops of the Qin officials, while others were talented folk artisans. Remarkably, despite the thousands of figures, no two faces are identical. Some researchers believe the statues were modeled after real people.
After sculpting the head, torso, and arms, the craftsmen assembled them and added weapons to their hands, thus completing a new terracotta figure. The shape of the arms and hands suggests that the figures originally held weapons, but after being buried for over 2,000 years, these weapons decayed and disintegrated.
To ensure the quality of their work, each statue bore the name of its craftsman. This way, if any issues arose, the officials could directly find the responsible craftsman. The laws of the Qin era were extremely harsh, and creating substandard funerary objects for the emperor could cost the craftsman their life. To “keep their lives,” these craftsmen poured their hearts into their work, ensuring the utmost quality of the terracotta army.
According to Tencent statistics, the armor of these terracotta figures had nearly ten colors, and the trousers had seven or eight colors, with the most common being green, maroon, purple, and blue. To make the paint on the figures smooth and refined, the craftsmen applied fine clay to the surface to fill in tiny holes. This technique ensured that the paint was smooth and even when applied.
Different colors were used to highlight the three-dimensional and vivid appearance of the armor, beards, and eyebrows of each figure. When first discovered, archaeologists were amazed by how lifelike the figures appeared. Today, traces of these vibrant colors can still be seen on the armor and limbs of the statues.
So far, 8,099 statues have been excavated. The statues depict infantrymen, archers, and generals in various poses holding bows, spears, pikes, and swords—these were the weapons used in China at that time. In addition to the warrior statues, there are also life-sized and intricately detailed horse-drawn chariots. The statues are housed in three separate pits, with a fourth pit being empty. It is believed that the first pit, containing 6,000 statues, represents Qin Shi Huang’s main force.
The Vanishing Colors of a Monumental Work
Today, most of the terracotta figures we see at the site are only earth-brown and gray. However, few people know that when the tomb was first opened, these figures were brightly colored but quickly lost their hues within just 15 seconds. Despite the artisans’ advanced painting techniques, the statues were buried for over 2,000 years, causing them to oxidize almost immediately upon exposure.
He Yanzhen, Deputy Director of the Cultural Relics Protection Bureau and a researcher at the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum Museum, shared in an interview: “In fact, each statue was colorful, but after excavation, they began to change within 15 seconds. Four minutes later, they began to dehydrate, warp, and even flake.”
As a result, most of the terracotta figures we see today are earth-brown and gray. The faces of most terracotta warriors are pink, making those with green faces extremely rare, and China has prohibited the export of such green-faced figures for exhibitions abroad.
However, the good news is that after 20 years of continuous technical improvements, China has found a way to preserve the colors of the terracotta figures. Thus, in the future, we may have the opportunity to see these statues in their full, vibrant colors rather than just a dull gray.
