Horizons: Armies of the Night: Qin Shi Huang’s Mausoleum

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China’s first emperor was an enlightened man. Born into the feudal chaos of the Warring States period (475–221 B.C.), Qin Shi Huang (259–210 B.C.) unified China in the Qin Dynasty, the first of a series of dynasties that ruled the country until the 20th century A.D. (“Qin,” pronounced “Chin,” is the root of “China.”) He standardized Chinese script, currency, weights and measures; developed a uniform law code; built a vast network of roads radiating out from the capital at Xianyang (18 miles northwest of modern Xian); and connected up walls built by earlier states in the north, thus completing the 1,850-mile-long Great Wall of China.

But Qin Shi Huang was also a cruel man, with dark passions, who levied crippling taxes on his people, conscripted hundreds of thousands of men for his diverse building projects and tolerated no dissent. He tried to eliminate forever the influence of the philosopher Confucius (551–479 B.C.)—who appealed to reason and moderation—by banning all nontechnical books. Haunted by his mortality, Qin Shi Huang consulted magicians to find the secret of eternal life, and he died while traveling in search of such an elixir.

Obsessed with death, Qin Shi Huang built a huge underground mausoleum, which has not yet been excavated. According to the first-century B.C. 054historian Sima Qian, this mausoleum represented the newly created empire in microcosm, with a pyramid-shaped burial chamber, palaces, towers and administrative buildings. China’s two great rivers, the Yangzi and Yellow rivers, were represented by channels flowing with mercury; and the ceiling was painted with images of the heavens.

The tumulus covering Qin Shi Huang’s death chamber is roughly a square of 1,140 feet on a side, and it originally rose to a height of 377 feet (the roof is now collapsed). The complex is enclosed by two rectangular walls—an outer wall 1.35 miles long and .6 mile wide, and an inner wall .8 mile long and .36 mile wide. Outside the enclosure, archaeologists have found various burials, including horse skeletons, bronze chariots and the remains of convicts.

The armies that protected Qin Shi Huang in the afterlife, however, have been found in three enormous pits three quarters of a mile to the east. The first and largest pit, discovered by accident in 1974, is 700 feet long by 200 feet wide and houses over 6,000 life-size terracotta soldiers and horses and 100 wooden chariots—all arrayed for battle. The three pits were paved with bricks and covered with a timber roof, which was destroyed by fire. In all, Qin Shi Huang’s netherworld army consists of 8,000 terracotta soldiers.

There are marching infantry, cavalry (some 055mounted and some leading their steeds into battle), charging chariots, archers standing and kneeling—soldiers positioned at front, rear and flanks to ward off attacks, and commanders posed to direct ranks upon ranks of troops.

Although the bodies of the soldiers are all molded in exactly the same manner, the heads depict individuals of various ages and ethnic groups, with 25 different kinds of beards and a wide range of facial expressions. The names of 85 different sculptors have been found engraved under the soldiers’ armpits or on their coats. The statues were originally painted, though only a few retain any traces of paint.

Four years after Qin Shi Huang’s death in 210 B.C., a commoner named Liu Ban, who had led peasant uprisings against the Qin emperors, established the Han Dynasty, which ruled China for 400 years. These insurgents stormed the great terracotta battalions, setting ablaze the pitchy cypress and pine roof.

China’s first emperor was an enlightened man. Born into the feudal chaos of the Warring States period (475–221 B.C.), Qin Shi Huang (259–210 B.C.) unified China in the Qin Dynasty, the first of a series of dynasties that ruled the country until the 20th century A.D. (“Qin,” pronounced “Chin,” is the root of “China.”) He standardized Chinese script, currency, weights and measures; developed a uniform law code; built a vast network of roads radiating out from the capital at Xianyang (18 miles northwest of modern Xian); and connected up walls built by earlier states in the north, thus completing […]