China's Terracotta Army

Helen the organizer of our activities at Millman Street Pensioners Centre acquired free tickets for the Terracotta Army exhibition at the British Museum. Now I am not a very museum person I feel like this, you see a bit flint and it is labelled ancient axe head, how do we know! But with this exhibition I was rapped I was amazing that all these army figures was buried under the earth for centuries and was only uncovered in 1974.

The first emperor who’s name was Ying Zheng was born 259 BC At the age of 13 years he conquered the other seven provinces of China. He became King of Qin; his success in battle was due to his highly developed weapons and the highly developed stratagem of his officers. His army was mostly made up of the peasant of China and they joined in their millions. Discipline was strict and insubordination carried a harsh punishment When his campaign was over he declared himself the first August Devine Emperor of Qin.

He governed his empire with a firm hand and there were grave consequences for all law breakers and dissidents. He planned to join the walls that surrounded the conquered states to make one gigantic wall. This was the first Great Wall of China, built to protect his empire from marauding foreigners. He also built new roads and canals He standardized weights and measures and introduced a single currency. He built more than 270 palaces and filled them with serifs and women from the captive states. He built these palaces in line with the stars in the Milky Way as he thought himself ruler of the cosmos. The capital of his empire was Xianyhang.

The emperor feared death and wanted to live forever. He tried to prolong his life by taking herbs and potions. He also drank mercury and this was believed to have contributed to his death He was also afraid because he had, had three attempts on his life. He also feared the spirits of the people he had killed, and thought that they would extract their revenge on him in the afterlife.
So he built a great tomb complex. This complex was built by 700,000 workers, 7000 were slaves and convicts. If they were worn out because of their hard labour while working on the tomb, and they ended up being buried alive.

He had his work-force constructed a terracotta army to guard him in the after-life. Which consisted of cavalry, archers, heavy armed foot soldiers and light infantry and terracotta cavalry horses. All these replicas were kitted out in a uniform made 800 pieces of terracotta welded together with copper wire. For leisure in the afterlife terracotta musicians, entertainers were manufactured and for the day to day running of the complex civic officers were created. Also ornamental lakes on which floated terracotta swans and water birds, were also fabricated, all this took 30 years to construct

Although his reign on earth was short, he constructed an afterlife kingdom where he could reign supreme forever. That was hidden from the world for many centuries until the twentieth century. His concubines and all who knew the secrets of the tomb were put to death after he died.

In 1974 a farmer unearthed a terracotta head while farming one of his fields. This lead to the uncovering by 7000 terracotta warriors found in large pits surrounding the emperor tomb. The tomb itself was never excavated as it was deemed too dangerous for men to do so, as the tomb was surrounded by rivers of mercury. This is one of the most important archaeological sites ever discovered.