Introduction: As the eighth wonder of the world, the Terracotta Warriors of Qin Shi Huang has plagued archaeologists and historians from the day they were discovered. One of the biggest mysteries is how the terracotta warriors were made?
According to modern archaeological findings, there are a total of four terracotta warrior burial pits in the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, of which the first, second and third pits have been excavated, and the fourth pit is suspected of being damaged by the rebel army and has not been completed, so no terracotta warriors have been found. In the three terracotta pits, there are about 8,000 terracotta warriors that have been excavated.
From the appearance, these warriors are similar in shape, and the height is basically about 1.8 meters, so the archaeological team initially thought that they were poured in batches with molds and then fired. However, after careful study, experts found that the facial expression of each soldier is different, even the hair style and gestures are different, and thousands of soldiers are not the same.
After further research, experts found that different warriors wore different armor, representing different identities, including soldiers and officers, infantry and cavalry, as if it were a well-equipped and complete army. Since thousands of warriors are not fired in batches, who do the craftsmen refer to to? Is it true that, as recorded in some history books, Qin Shi Huang used living troops to burn terracotta warriors to guard his tomb?
This kind of thing is not impossible, as the first unified emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang did everything to the extreme in order to show his civil rule martial arts. Moreover, human martyrdom has existed since ancient times, and many imperial tombs in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties have a large number of living people being buried. Qin Shi Huang, who had pursued immortality all his life, in order to continue to be emperor underground, was likely to let an entire army go to martyrdom.
While archaeologists and historians are arguing about this, an inadvertent discovery at the Xi'an Terracotta Warriors archaeological site unveils the mystery left over from more than 2,000 years ago. At that time, when the archaeological team was cleaning a terracotta pit, it accidentally found that a terracotta warrior was pressed out of the crack, and before repairing it, the experts jointly took pictures and scanned the interior of the terracotta army, and found that the interior of the terracotta army was hollow.
As soon as the news came out, it immediately attracted people's attention, since it was not fired from real people, how did the craftsmen make such a realistic terracotta army? In this regard, archaeologists have studied hundreds of excavated terracotta warriors and horses, and gradually uncovered the secrets of the firing of terracotta warriors.
Judging from the research results, most of the terracotta warriors are made of ceramic mold splicing and firing, that is to say, the craftsman first makes a pottery mold, then covers the outside with soil for carving and painting, and then puts it into the kiln after forming. The most delicately worked head is processed separately.
The craftsman first made a simple model of the head and fired the ceramic tires in the shape of a skull in batches. Next, the faces are carefully carved according to the prototype by specialized craftsmen, so that each warrior is different and has its own facial features. The prototype that the craftsmen refer to is likely to be a complete army.
It can also be seen from this that although Qin Shi Huang was cruel and murderous, he had not yet fainted to the point of using a living army to bury himself, and it should be known that he was able to unify the six kingdoms and establish the Great Qin Dynasty, relying on the Qin army that could recruit good warriors. Nowadays, the Terracotta Warriors and Horses have long become synonymous with the glorious civilization of China and are well-known in the world, and as of now, more than 200 foreign heads of state and government have visited the Terracotta Warriors, which is extremely rare in the world.
Reference: "On the Origin of the Craftsmanship and Technology of the Terracotta Warriors of Qin Shi Huang"