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Terracotta Army: Legacy of the First Emperor of China
at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts 




The two best loved visitors to the United States from China are the Pandas and the Terracotta Army.   While the pandas lie around their zoo enclosures chewing what looks like a very long toothpick of bamboo all day,  inspiring smiles and giggles, the clay warriors stand quietly in museum exhibits,  conquering all who view them. 

Most recently ten of those  warriors out of the estimate 8,000 found in the necropolis built for the Emperor Qin Shihuang in the Chinese province of Xi’an Shaanxi, (along with over 130 related works of art) arrived at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

Qin Shihuang appears to have been practical, paranoid and pleasure loving in this world, but he could never have imagined  in his quest for immortality, that he would be so popular 2,000 years later.   Or that the warriors  who were  intended to accompany him in facing the deities in the afterlife, would take on their own after life all over the world. 

The statistics behind Qin Shiuang’s vision  are staggering, even for those who think in terms of China’s incredible size and  population today.  Ruling from in the third century BC, he  had 300 extravagant palaces and 400 lodges, so that he could stay a different place each night.  

What started as his vision on how to meet the deities in his after life, required an estimated 700,000 workmen created this dwelling place for his eternal rest.   His regime, known for relentless cruelty (at least as historians of the dynasty that followed recorded) resulted in over a million deaths for failing to follow his laws.  

Interesting how some of the great archeological discoveries (the Lascaux caves, the Dead Sea Scrolls)  are made by ordinary people.  Farmers plowing a field for instance,  find a pot which then leads to work for generations of archeologists and historians etc. to  put it all together of what might have happened.  In the end, it is museums that create displays for the ordinary person to see just what that object was likely used for.

The backstory of the Terracotta Army is similar.  Prior to its discovery by farmers digging a well in 1974, all that was known about the First Emperor was written history.  

 It  began with the developing  Qin state, under Ying Zheng (259-210 BC), who unified China and declared himself Qin Shihuang, or the First Emperor of Qin.  An empire was formed and his journey to immortality soon began soon after he became the king of Qin in 246 BC.  The warriors were created as protectors of  the tomb of China’s First Emperor at his death.

What the archeologists are discovering is not so much what supports the written life history but what it tells us about his life style and that of
his court.  The art works in his reign  are  splendid for the  details such as intricately designs on the armor.  

While it is clear that the bodies of the figures were mass produced in some assembly line fashion, each face appears to be unique.  But truly amazing to art historians is not only how the works differ from preceding  and more primitive Chinese artifacts but the evolution of the sculpture in what is a relatively short period of time.  

Consider this:   This rapid development from passive  to active poses  in sculpture has no counterpart in Greek or Roman statues, where such innovations took centuries to develop.  

The army is formidable even if it is made of clay.  There is no mistaking Qin’s  importance as a ruler on earth.   Whether that had that effect on the divine ones, it certainly inspires awe and wonder to mere modern mortals who come to see them. 

The exhibit takes about an hour or so to go through  to look at selections that took artists and workmen 36 years to build.  To uncover the whole story to understand this unique find might take centuries. 

Sidenote: The Emperor who wanted an afterlife  is known not only for this amazing archeological discovery but lives on— where else but in  the Metropolitan opera (“The First Emperor” with Placido Domingo as the Emperor).  

The  beloved pandas of course have their counterpart in stuffed panda bears as toys.

As for the Terracotta Army, check out video games section. 

WANT TO GO:  
Terracotta Army: Legacy of the First Emperor of China
Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond Va (to March 11, 2018)
(until March 11,  2018)








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