More than two thousand years ago, very far away from now, it was once just a weak and helpless country.
The State of Qin
Through strategies such as the martingale transformation method and long-distance and close-range attack, step by step from a weak country to a strong country. And one of the systems played a very important role, that is, the special military knighthood system of the Qin Dynasty.
The content of the military knighthood system is that all soldiers who have made military merits, regardless of their birth rank and class status, can enjoy the merits. Because of this, every soldier will continue to strive to improve his ability in order to be able to climb further up. This was also why the Qin army at that time had such a strong fighting power.
And even today, the powerful combat effectiveness of the Qin army recorded in the history books has still become a topic of discussion. This is also thanks to the Qin Terracotta Warriors, one of the eight wonders of this world, we can see how powerful the Qin army was.
1. Discovery and excavation of terracotta warriors
The first discovery of the Qin Terracotta Warriors was in the 1970s of the last century, and this discovery became an important research object of world archaeology. The reason why this can be so is not only because of its age, but because the scale of the Qin Terracotta Army is jaw-dropping. Among them, it basically includes many of the main types of troops deployed by the Qin army during the ancient Qin Dynasty. The weapons held in the hands of each of the warriors found were very well preserved.
According to the specific archaeological findings, officers do not only have a difference in rank. On the body of each military official, according to the different ranks of the military officials, they will be equipped with the clothing that different levels should wear. The most common distinction today is to divide the military officials into four levels, which are senior, intermediate, inferior, and general. There are also more obvious differences between these four levels of clothing, each with its own characteristics.
2. The rank of the military officials
Among these four ranks, the high-ranking military figurines are identified as general figurines according to archaeological research findings. As a general figurine, as the name suggests, it is a higher status than the other three ranks of military officer figurines. Therefore, it is also rare in the excavated cultural relics of the Qin Terracotta Warriors today.
Mid-level military officers serve as the general's side, responsible for assisting the general or as the leading officer of one of the small units of the army. It is conceivable that although its position in the military may not be as good as that of high-ranking military officials, it also has a lot of prestige.
The subordinate military officers can be seen from the lower row, which may be the most common ordinary soldier at that time.
At the lowest level is the general samurai figurine, which can be seen according to its clothing, which belongs to a very low-status class.
3. Newly discovered classes of soldiers in the Qin Terracotta Warriors
On the outskirts of the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin is a group of large funerary pits, which is known today as the Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses Burial Pit. In order to facilitate management and excavation research, experts numbered these burial pits. After these burial pits, the area in the first burial pit is the largest of them, with tens of thousands of square meters. Naturally, if all the excavations are complete, the number of cultural relics excavated from the No. 1 funeral pit will be the largest.
After continuous in-depth archaeological excavation and research, archaeologists found that there is actually another kind of military warrior figurine between the lower military warriors and the general samurai figurines. This is also the subordinate military warriors that will be mentioned in this article.
According to the cultural records excavated before, in fact, similar military officials have long been discovered. However, at that time, it did not attract the attention of archaeologists, and it was also in the body of this inferior military official that there were different theories.
Because of the armor worn on the bodies of the lower-ranking military officials, there are eleven pieces of armor in the front and back. In the armor of the lower-level military officials, there are only eight pieces of armor in the front and only seven pieces in the back.
The armor worn by this type of military warrior figurine is very similar to the armor worn by ordinary samurai figurines that were discovered earlier. However, according to the position of the army and the analysis of its functions, it is clear that there were still some differences between the two in the Qin Dynasty at that time.
Fourth, the remains of Qin Dun were found for the first time in archaeological excavations
In recent years, in the third excavation of the Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses Funerary Pit, a large number of pottery figurines, pottery horses, architectural remains, and a large number of weapon relics have been unearthed.
Among the crossbows, shields and other weapons and carriages and horses unearthed in them, many pieces of crossbows have been excavated in previous excavations. The Qin Dun was first discovered in the archaeology of the Qin Tombs, which is of great significance for the study of the history of the Qin Dynasty.
Through the nuances of the Qin army officials, it can be seen that the Qin Dynasty army at that time had a very strict hierarchical system. This may be the reason why the Qin Dynasty was able to annex other countries, eventually unify the world, and establish the first feudal state in history!
With the continued excavation of No. 1 Pit, I believe that in the near future, we will have a further understanding and understanding of the history and culture of the Qin Dynasty, the military service system, and the artistic style and characteristics of sculpture.