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Ancient China. Terra Cotta Army. Qin shi huangdi. The first emperor of China Took the throne when he was 13 years old Ruled until he died at 49 years old Qin brought a standardized system of measurement, weights, writing, money system, and legal system to China.
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Ancient China Terra Cotta Army
Qin shihuangdi • The first emperor of China • Took the throne when he was 13 years old • Ruled until he died at 49 years old • Qin brought a standardized system of measurement, weights, writing, money system, and legal system to China. • He built the first version of the Great Wall.
Before unification • Before Qin Shi Huangdi united China it was made up of seven different states. • These states engaged in bloody warfare with their neighbors. • Qin was able to unify China by use of a large army. • He used his great army to overthrow the warring states and carry out his new standardized systems. • Qin also ordered thousands of books burned to keep ancient knowledge suppressed. He once ordered 460 scholars buried alive for possessing some of these books.
The 8th wonder of the world • Near the unexcavated tomb of Qin Shi Huangdi—who had proclaimed himself first emperor of China in 221 B.C.—lay an extraordinary underground treasure: an entire army of life-size terra cotta soldiers and horses, interred for more than 2,000 years.
Who were these figures? • The figures vary in height according to their roles, with the tallest being the generals. The figures include warriors, chariots, and horses. Current estimates are that in the three pits containing the Terracotta Army there were over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits. Other terracotta non-military figures were also found in other pits and they include officials, acrobats, strongmen and musicians.
How were they made? • Clay figures were made in an assembly line fashion. • Workers built bodies, then customized them with heads, hats, shoes, mustaches, ears and so on, made in small molds. Some of the figures appear so strikingly individual they seem modeled on real people, though that is unlikely. "These probably weren't portraits in the Western sense," says Hiromi Kinoshita, who helped curate the exhibition at the British Museum. Instead, they may have been aggregate portraits: the ceramicists, says Kinoshita, "could have been told that you need to represent all the different types of people who come from different regions of China." • Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/On-the-March-Terra-Cotta-Soldiers.html#ixzz1fcx8RTnn
Process continued • Each human was made of seven parts: platform, feet, legs, torso, arms, hands and head/neck made separately. • Pieces were allowed to dry and then sealed and strengthened with clay coils. • A thin layer of of clay was then applied all over and details were stamped and carved into them. • Pieces were likely left out in the sun for long periods of time to dry them out before being fired in large kilns built into the mountainside. • It is estimated that it took 150 days to create just one of the 8,000 sculptures.
Our task… • Using red clay, we are going to create our own Hester army of soldiers. • Since figures were sculpted in the likeness of it’s people, we will be making our sculptures to look like ourselves. • We will look at examples of the dress and uniform of the Chinese army to make our soldiers realistic. • We must first sketch drawings after studying images.
