Upon the death of his father, Yiren, in B. The kingdom, celebrated for its horsemen, sat on the margin of civilization, regarded by its easterly rivals as a semi-savage wasteland. Its governing philosophy was as harsh as its terrain. Elsewhere in China, Confucianism held that a well-run state should be administered by the same precepts governing a family: mutual obligation and respect. Qin rulers, however, subscribed to a doctrine known as legalism, which rested on the administration of punitive laws.
In his early 20s, Ying Zheng turned for guidance to a visionary statesman, Li Si, who likely initiated many of his sovereign's accomplishments.
Under Li's tutelage, Ying Zheng introduced a uniform script thereby enabling subjects of vastly different dialects to communicate. Standardization, a hallmark of the Qin state, was applied to weaponry as well: should an arrow shaft snap, or the trigger on a repeating crossbow malfunction, the component could be easily replaced.
The young ruler also presided over creation of an advanced agricultural infrastructure that incorporated irrigation canals and storage granaries. With methodical zeal, Ying Zheng set about conquering the warring states that surrounded him in the late third century B. As his armies advanced, principalities fell. No one could thwart consolidation of an empire that eventually stretched from parts of present-day Sichuan in the west to coastal regions along the East China Sea.
Having unified the entire civilized world as he knew it, Ying Zheng in B. He then invested in infrastructure and built massive fortifications. His road network likely exceeded 4, miles, including foot-wide speedways with a central lane reserved for the imperial family.
On the northern frontier, the emperor dispatched his most trusted general to reinforce and connect existing border barriers, creating a bulwark against nomadic marauders. Made of rammed earth and rubble, these fortifications became the basis for the Great Wall, most of which would be rebuilt in stone and brick during the 15th century A.
As the grandeur of his tomb complex suggests, Qin Shi Huangdi kept an eye on posterity. But he also longed to extend his life on earth—perhaps indefinitely. Alchemists informed the emperor that magical herbs were to be found on what they claimed were three Islands of the Immortals in the East China Sea.
The emissaries most likely to gain entry to this mystical realm, they asserted, were uncorrupted children; in B. They never returned. Four years later, the emperor sent three alchemists to retrieve the herbs. One of them made it back, recounting a tale of a giant fish guarding the islands. Legend has it that the first emperor resolved to lead the next search party himself; on the expedition, the story goes, he used a repeating crossbow to kill a huge fish.
But instead of discovering life-preserving elixirs, the emperor contracted a fatal illness. As he lay dying in B. The choice undercut the ambitions of a powerful royal counselor, Zhao Gao, who believed he could govern the country behind the scenes if a more malleable successor were installed.
To conceal Qin Shi Huangdi's death—and disguise the stench of a decomposing corpse—until the travelers returned to the capital, Zhao Gao took on a cargo of salted fish.
Once painted in vivid colors, the figures represent numerous military occupations and ranks and display a variety of different facial features and costumes. The vast resources and manual labor required to manufacture them 2, years ago has made them a global icon of the military and artistic achievement of the Qin dynasty.
See the warriors in color. The future emperor was born Zhao Zheng in B. At age 13 he became king of the province of Qin. By B. His short reign was marked by major advances in centralizing power as well as acts of tyranny.
He standardized writing, weights and measures, and monetary and legal systems. During his reign, building the Great Wall began. The first emperor also won notoriety for burning books and persecuting intellectuals. Did the Great Wall of China work?
He also altered the landscape for his funerary complex: Courses of rivers had to be altered. Digging the pits for the figures would have required an army of laborers to carry away the displaced soil. The production of the figurines is a marvel of both logistics and artistry: Many warriors stand as tall as six feet and weigh about pounds. Their beauty becomes more impressive up close, revealing the details of their hairstyles, their facial features, the realistic folds of their clothing, and the remnants of the pigments once used in their coloring.
Scholars have long debated as to the methods behind their creation and have done hands-on experiments to try to reverse engineer the process. Even assuming that he had ordered its construction before unifying China and proclaiming himself emperor in B. During his reign, China was a mosaic of cultures, ethnicities, and religions. The idea of a centralized and authoritarian political power giving orders from a remote capital through civil servants was still alien and highly difficult to communicate and implement.
Trading Chinese silk for Persian horses helped create the Silk Road. The first emperor regarded himself as the ruler of an immense territory and a monarch who unified the world of the spirits. The written sources explain that Qin Shi Huangdi sought potions to extend his life and dispatched envoys to look for such elixirs.
His great tomb is a testament to the quest of immortality, in that this great monument would remind future generations of his greatness. To create it, workers excavated to a depth of feet, then constructed a sepulchre before covering it with a pyramid-shaped mound standing more than feet high.
Much speculation surrounds what might be inside. Its construction was intended to reinforce his power while alive, an extraordinary display of the supremacy of a new sovereign, capable of mobilizing all the materials, workers, and knowledge needed to create something on an unparalleled scale and splendor. News about this ostentatious project probably resonated all the way to the outer limits of Qin China.
It contributed to the mystic aura of an emperor so rich and powerful he could create a life-size model army, drawn up and ready for all eternity, facing east toward the territories that he had so spectacularly conquered.
How was it possible to bring together the raw materials, the technical know-how, and the labor to build thousands of life-size soldiers in the third century B.
Producing the terra-cotta army required a standardized mass-production system, along with highly efficient project management. Reverse engineering studies carried out by a team of archaeologists including the author of this article have attempted to recreate how these artifacts were made, based on their scientific analysis. They have proposed that the labor force was organized in relatively small teams, working in parallel to produce separate pieces.
After a year period of provincial conflict called the Warring States Period, Qin Shi Huang is credited with unifying the provinces under one centralized government and establishing the capital at Xianyang. The stability of his rule enabled China to experience great advances in politics, economy and culture, including the introduction of a standard written script, a system of canals and roads, advances in metallurgy, standardized weights and measures and large-scale public works projects like the early Great Wall.
However, Qin was also known for his brutishness: He ordered the killings of scholars whose ideas he opposed, and showed little regard for the life of the conscripts who built those public works projects, including his burial complex.
Though most of their hands are identical, and only eight molds were used to shape their heads, distinctive surface features were added with clay after assembly.
As a result, each terra cotta soldier appears to be unique in its facial features, revealing a high level of craftsmanship and artistry. During excavation of the pits containing the Terra Cotta Warriors, archaeologists have found some 40, bronze weapons, including battle axes, crossbows, arrowheads and spears. Even after more than 2, years, these weapons remained extremely well preserved thanks to protective chrome plating, a seemingly modern technique first used in Germany in and the United States in that reveals the sophistication of ancient Chinese metallurgy.
Initial fears of damaging the corpse and the artifacts within the tomb later gave way to concerns about the potential safety hazards involved with excavation.
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