The Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor is located at the foot of the Lishan Mountain, east of Xi’an in Shannxi Province. Emperor Yingzheng (259 BC-210 BC) established the first multi-national and centralized state in Chinese history. As the first mausoleum for an emperor in China, it was designed and built following the layout of Xianyang, the capital city during his reign. Terracotta warriors were buried along with the emperor in an area located 1,500 meters east of the mausoleum. In 1975, the Chinese Government decided to build a museum on the site of the pits, and in 1979, the museum was opened to the public. The terracotta warriors were listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1987.
The terracotta warriors were discovered in 1974, a year when Shaanxi was suffering from drought. On March 29, when some farmers in Xiyang Village were digging a well to try to locate water, a great number of broken pottery shards were accidentally discovered. Hearing the news, leaders in the village believed that they might have some relationship with the mausoleum of the Qin Dynasty (221 BC-206 BC), and thus decided to report it to the local county cultural center. Immediately, people were sent to collect the fragments of the pottery, and the shards were fitted together to form three big figures -named “warrior figures”. A journalist from the Xinhua News Agency wrote a detailed report about it, which aroused the attention of related departments concerning cultural relics. Specialists were gathered to carry out further investigation, as they began to fully recognize the value of the excavation.
It is said that Emperor Yingzheng, after unifying China, ordered his men to gather a great number of laborers to establish a mausoleum on the northern slopes of the Lishan Mountain for him. In a slave society, slaves were buried alive with their deceased master. During the construction of his mausoleum, Emperor Yingzheng issued an imperial edict ordering the rounding up of several thousand boys and girls to be buried with him after his death. Li Si, the Prime Minister, thought that burying those still alive was cruel, and suggested the making of pottery figures as substitute sacrifices. Emperor Yingzheng accepted his advice and commissioned skilled craftsmen to make pottery figures and horses. Due to his role as leader of the army, he wanted a great army as his guard after his death. The pits of terracotta warriors are considered to be the largest underground military museum in the world. Three pits have been so far excavated, uncovering about 7,000 pottery figures and an overwhelming number of warhorses, war chariots and weapons. These warriors, all uniquely arrayed in varied poses, are widely seen as masterpieces of realistic style. They represent the supreme achievement of sculptural art in the Qin Dynasty, and have an immensely high historical value.
The terracotta warriors are regarded as one of the great treasures of mankind, as precious as the Pyramids in Egypt and the sculpture of ancient Greece. Its excavation was the biggest archaeological success of the 20th century in China.
