Art 173
Oct. 10, 2007

The Terracotta Army of the First Emperor of Qin

King Cheng (later First Emperor of Qin, 259-210 BCE)
Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE)
Mt. Li
Legalism

Are the sculptures surrounding the First Emperor of Qin’s tomb portraits of individual soldiers?
 “…no two faces are alike.  Each head is a personal portrait … Unlike the stereotyped funerary statues of other ancient rulers, these soldiers are modelled on living men.”
            From Cotterell, The First Emperor of China, p. 28.

 “... close scrutiny reveals that physiognomic details and facial expressions are to a large extent stereotyped.  While certain figures exhibit a remarkable degree of individuation, most faces can be best described as aggregates of prefabricated expressive and representational units.”
“… the terra-cotta figures do not represent actual soldiers”
From Ladislav Kesner, “Likeness of No One: (Re)presenting the First Emperor’s Army,” Art Bulletin (1995),  p. 120 and 127.

Textual material about the First Emperor and his Tomb

“The Emperor in his sagacity, benevolence and justice
Has made all laws and principles manifest...
Great are the Emperor’s achievements,
Men attend diligently to basic tasks,
Farming is encouraged, secondary pursuits discouraged,
All the common people prosper;
All men under the sky
Toil with a single purpose;
Tools and measures are made uniform,
The written script is standardized;
Wherever the sun and moon shine,
Wherever one can go by boat or carriage,
Men carry out their orders...
For our Emperor in accordance with the time
Has regulated local customs,
Made waterways and divided up the land.
Caring for the common people,
He works day and night without rest;
He defines the laws, leaving nothing in doubt,
Making known what is forbidden.
The local officials have their duties.
Administration is smoothly carried out,
All is done correctly...
etc.”
            from Sima Qian, Shiji (Records of the Historian)

“As soon as the First Emperor ascended the throne, the work [on his mausoleum] at Mount Li began. ... more than 700,000 conscripts from all parts of the country labored there.  They dug through three subterranean streams, which they sealed off with bronze in order to make the burial chamber.  Inside they carried [models of?] palaces, pavilions, and the hundred officials, as well as precious utensils and valuable rarities... With mercury myriad waterways of the empire, the Yangzi and Yellow Rivers, and the great ocean itself were created and made to flow and circulate mechanically.  The heavenly constellations were depicted above, while the geography of the earth was laid out below.”
            from Sima Qian, Shiji (Records of the historian) 100 BCE.

“Lord Shang had warned: ‘If study becomes popular, people will abandon agriculture and occupy themselves with debates... There will be crowds of disloyal subjects.”

“In the state of an enlightened ruler there are no books written...; law supplies the only instruction.  There are no sermons on the former kings; the officials serve as the only teachers.”