Warriors That Were Lost to Time

Today was another late start, I have been enjoying the lie-ins that our time in Xi’an has included so far; who knew travelling was so tiring hey?

However, my excitement for a lie in is quickly trumped by my excitement for our plans for today. We are heading to the ancient mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. Qin Shi Huang is known for many things; he was the first ruler to unite the entirety of China under one banner, he ordered the start of the building of the Great Wall and, what we are seeing today, the Terracotta Warriors. After a quick train journey we find ourselves in a queue for the still active archaeological dig site. Technically we aren’t visiting the mausoleum itself but the four biggest pits that surround the burial site that house these ancient warriors. The burial site is surrounded by beautiful and lush hills and greenery, which used to be covered in farm lands. As we walk to the dig pits Sophia tells us that the tombs were lost to history for thousands of years, after the Emperor demanded the site be a secret to avoid grave diggers and potential destruction from enemies after his death.

The site was re-discovered in 1974 by five brother digging a well for their farm, the land above the site having been farmed and cultivated for years. The farmers originally finding just heads, hands and other parts of the broken statues, thought they where some kind of demonic warning and fled their farm. It was only after discussing with a local historian who was less inclined to superstition did they return. When the historian took these artefacts to national museums and universities they didn’t realise their significance and foolishly dismissed the farmers and historian. Finally when a curious historian decided to carbon date the pieces, it was realised how old they were and their worth realised. Since then many local farmers have been paid by the government to move, as the archaeological dig site keeps expanding and the true size of the tombs are realised. The full extent of the site is still being discovered but it takes up kilometres and kilometres of land, the burial site itself is said to be surrounded by roughly 100 different pits filled with various artefacts. The four biggest of which are the ones with the warriors that I visited today.

Mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huang

As I have mentioned the site is still an active archeological dig site and the displays are set up to reflect this as you walk around the site, with a collection of statues fully rebuilt, some being put under what is called surgery (being put back together), others in pieces still in the trenches they were found, and some rows still covered by their man made caves. Many of the features of this site have been lost to time having been made out of materials such as wood; for example spears, bows and support columns for the caves. However, other features such as belt buckles, arrow heads and swords have partially survived hinting at the embellishment that once adorned the warriors. When they are first uncovered many of the statues have traces of the original paintwork, but thousands of years of nature has degraded the paints and unfortunately exposure to air only expedites the degrading, meaning virtually all of the statues that are seen today are the base terracotta colour.

The burial site is a clear insight into an ancient belief of an after life with the Emperor’s tomb being surrounded by wealth. Not only was his tomb itself home to many priceless artefacts of gold and jade, but a pit close by was filled with statues of the entertainment world, such as performers and musicians. However, the pits I am visiting today are home to an estimated 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 130 cavalry units, all carefully carved out of terracotta. There are four pits at this sight, the first of which we visit is the home of the main army. It is hard to describe the sheer size and volume of the area you walk into. A massive building covering rows and rows of dug out caves that were home to these infantry soldiers. The craziest part is, as you walk around looking at the statues that have been painstakingly put back together after years of natural degradation is that each one is different. Not only in size and clothes but in facial features. The mausoleum is thought to have taken roughly 700,000 workers to complete and the individual style of different statue makers is evident. The current theory is that the soldiers that have been immortalised here were based on the actual army of the day with each soldier having different features. There is a clear distinction between generals and infantry in hair style, height and armour. The facial features of the army also show the success of the emperor in uniting the whole of China, with a range of features belonging to different regions seen throughout.

It is an amazing place. The man made caves even have built in drainage to avoid flooding; one of the reason for how well preserved the army is to this day. The second pit we see, or more accurately, walk over, is still completely covered; archaeologists having done radar scans, found it empty. There are two competing theories as to what this empty pit means. Some believe it is a sign that, although it is estimated that work on this project started when the emperor first took power at the age of 13, it was still not finished by the time he died. Others believe this pit was always meant to be left empty; its placement being the perfect place to store tools and other equipment that would required protecting during the course of this massive project.

The third pit, although smaller than the first pit, is still an impressive size filled with archers, war chariots and cavalry, and a small number of infantry. Smaller sets of units that were often held back or on the flanks by ancient armies to help execute quick manoeuvres, to react to changing conditions during a battle and, if successfully utilised, could make the difference between success or defeat. The final pit is the smallest but could be argued to be the most important. It is filled with a small number of generals and high ranking officers and a singular war chariot. Unlike the other pits where the armies all face the same way with the exception of a few on the flank, all the statues in this pit face each other. This combined with their high ranking status has earned this pit the name Command Centre; thought to be the war room, the area where the decisions would be made by those high enough in rank to make them. In this pit the statues, although still of different individuals, have much more similarity than those in the general army. All high ranking officials unsurprisingly tend to take on the tall, thinner and skinnier facial features that where associated with the emperor’s original area of South China; showing that although a united country, there remained regional bias and inequality maybe.

Having fed our minds with history the group's bellies are somewhat empty, Tom and I are especially hungry, having not eaten all day. The reason for this – what we have planned for dinner, a dumpling feast! Around the corner from our hostel is a time-honoured and historically significant restaurant that specialises in a variety of different dumplings. We are treated to eleven different styles of steamed dumpling design, one fried and finally, what we are told is an unlimited number of boiled dumplings. I have to say I love dumplings but I was rather disappointed with this meal. The steamed dumplings designs are lost during the steaming process, the designs and colouring looking a lot better in the pictures and displays of not-yet steamed dumplings. On top of that the ‘unlimited’ number of dumplings ends up being two plates worth between the three of us. We struggle to order a second plate and then give up on ordering a third when the waitresses spend half an hour avoiding our table like the plague.

Above: Before steaming. Below: After steaming

After the slightly disappointing meal we head out to the giant pagoda by ourselves for the highly recommended light show. We arrive just having missed the first showing but are determined to stick around for the second, so to kill the hour and a half we have to wait, we follow the crowds circulating around the massive park containing the fountains and pagoda where the light show is held. We go in search of a a desert. We quickly discover that the park, like a lot of places in China, has an arbitrary one way system with control zones and lines. This means we end up having to do two laps of the park after we fail to find a dessert the first time. Luckily though it gets us to the front of the fountains with plenty of time for the show, although the smell here is not pleasant, one of raw sewage – but we wait.

And we wait…

And we wait…

Eventually once we are fifteen minutes past the time the show was meant to start we can’t take the smell anymore and realise that the second light show isn’t happening tonight. We head back to the hostel for an early night as we are up early tomorrow for the train; a little disappointed that a day that started so amazing ended with a disappointing meal and a non-existent light show.