History of china

Terracotta army

• what is it about?

- life size terracotta figures of warriors and horses arranged in battle formations
-life size terracotta figures each utterly unique, with individual clothings, hair and facial features
- it has been hypothesized that they were based on real soldiers who served in the emperor’s army.
-They are over 7000 statues found near the tomb of Emperor Qin.

• what it means to us 

-it is a great monument and it is one of the attractions in china. 
- it also teaches us the history and culture of chinese at that point of time where they use statues to accompany the dead.

• what it means to china

-historical significance and uniqueness.
- It is significant because the hundreds of detailed lifesize models represent the army that triumphed over all other Chinese armies and who were the decisive factor in forming a united China.

• why build it ?

-as a show of his glory,
-to remember the army that triumphed over the other Warring States to unite China, and
- believed that objects like statues can be animated in the afterlife, and because Qin Shihuang required an after-death army. Also read the culture of death in China.

• purpose of it 

- standing on show, defying time, a majestic reminder of Emperor Qin’s military success and the wars of long ago

• history of china

-In ancient China, living sacrifice was quite ordinary. Especially when kings or members of royal family died, their favorite concubines, servants, steeds and other animals should go with their masters as an expression of loyalty. That is to kill themselves or be killed on the funeral ceremony and buried alongside the coffin. Later, Chinese rulers started to realise the superiority was brought accompanied by the harmfulness to their regime, thus figures was used to replace living beings. However, it was just a new trend appeared at that time, the old funeral custom was still prevalent prior to the Qin Dynasty.

-Qin Shihuang, as the first Chinese emperor, unified the whole territory of the country and made great contributions in military, economic, cultural fields. He is also known to be very ambitious and despotic. During the construction of his mausoleum (afterlife palace), he spared no expense and levied labors all over the country. But he didn't follow the custom to use living sacrifice for himself, a group of delicate soldier figures were made instead, which reflects more than personal superiority but national strength

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-The Terracotta Warriors are involved with a lot of ancient Chinese advanced technologies, however, that may not be the most important for this topic. The large scale application of figures buried in tombs brought about ideological changes, profoundly affected the next several dynasties

-a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. It is a form of funerary art buried with the emperor in 210–209 BC and whose purpose was to protect the emperor in his afterlife.

• beliefs system 

- believed that inanimate objects such as statues of people would come alive in the afterlife.
- emperor qin shi huang build it in belief that he will be as powerful in the spirit world as he is in the real world

• lessons learnt from it 

- the people in the past are very meticulous as they have the ability and patience to crave out every detail of the terracotta warriors. Moreover, every detail of each warriors are different
-people at that period of time are very superstitious. They belief that such things will be alive in the afterlife so the Qin Emperor build the terracotta army, believing that in his afterlife, he would have such a huge army by his side
- If without the terracotta army, till the Qin dynasty, many people such as concubines, servants and soilders would have to innocently sacrifice their lives in order die together with the emperors etc, in the form of respect. with the terracotta army at that time, many innocent lives have been spared.