The Terracotta Army, full name Qin Shi Huang Terracotta Army, as a national key cultural relic protection object, has a prominent international reputation, has been praised by many leaders of the G family, and is also a famous tourist attraction.
In 1974, farmers in Xiyang Village found several ceramic fragments while digging wells, and in the same year, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage sent experts to the site to verify and confirm the excavation work, and after 11 months of hard work, the terracotta warriors and horses that had been buried underground for thousands of years were revealed.
And in 1999, in the second pit of Qin Shi Huang, archaeologists found a special terracotta warrior with a rare green face, which is incompatible with other Qin figurines with flesh-red or pink-white faces around, so it is also called "green-faced figurine".
The unearthing of the green-faced figurine has added a bit of mystery to the terracotta army, and the "face" that is different and cannot be explained scientifically has naturally caused many conjectures.
The establishment of the Qin Dynasty
As the first unified feudal dynasty on the mainland, the Qin Dynasty has always held a lofty position in ancient history, growing from a small border country in a remote valley to a powerful dynasty in the Central Plains, and then died in the second dynasty, like a brilliant meteor quickly across the sky, leaving behind a hot spot that illuminates the future of history.
The State of Qin made great efforts to govern since Qin Xiaogong and Shang Martin, and the Qin army defeated the world-famous Wei Wuxian and officially embarked on the road of self-improvement, while Qin Xiaogong himself unfortunately died young.
In order to appease the old nobles of the Qin state who had been infringed by the Shang Martingale Law, King Qin Huiwen had to crack the Shang Martingale, but at the same time clearly and forcefully retained the Shang Martingale Law, worshiping Zhang Yi as the face. The diplomacy of the Qin state began to change, no longer only advocating force, but more using the means of diplomatic relations, and the strategy of "uniting the masses and joining forces" emerged.
Then came the third monarch of the Qin Dynasty, King Wu of Qin, but unfortunately died, and before his death, King Wu ordered his younger brother Huanji, who was a hostage in the Yan state, to be brought back to the Qin state as king, and later became the famous King of Qin Zhaoxiang.
The ascension of King Qin Zhaoxiang laid a solid foundation for the unification of the Qin state, and as the longest-reigning king of the Qin state, King Qin Zhaoxiang had a strong sense of historical existence and was a frequent visitor in Chinese textbooks.
King Zhaoxiang reigned for 56 years, and it was during this period that the god of war Bai Qi and the prime minister Fan Yu were reused. The famous battle of Qin and Zhao, "The Battle of Changping", lasted three years, and both Qin and Zhao were exhausted, and after the surrender of the Zhao state, how to deal with the surrender became a difficult problem.
Fan Yan proposed the strategy of "attacking people", which was adopted by King Zhaoxiang, and Baiqikeng killed 400,000 Zhao troops. After this battle, Zhao Guo's vitality was greatly damaged, and he swept away a fierce enemy for the road of Qin State to the east, and Bai Qi also became famous in a battle, known as "human slaughter".
After King Zhaoxiang, there were two monarchs, King Xiaowen of Qin and King Xiang of Qin Zhuang, but their reigns were relatively short, three days and three years respectively, and although these two people did not make the same great achievements as their ancestors, they also stabilized the Qin state without major changes.
Then, we are most familiar with the story of "King Qin swept Liuhe and unified the world". The first emperor ascended the throne at the age of 13, pro-government at the age of 22, expelled Lü Buwei, quelled the rebellion of Qiuwei, destroyed the six kingdoms, unified the world, wrote the same text, and the car was on the same track, formulated the Qin government, established the Qin Dynasty, and became the first emperor in the history of the mainland. Then quickly died twice.
The Qin Dynasty was like a template, laying a foundation for the subsequent generations and dynastic succession. Since then, the idea of unification has taken root and sprouted on the land of China.
The present life of "Sleeping Tiger Land Qin Jian" makes us can't help but sigh at the advanced nature of Qin Law, even after thousands of years, it still has value, and to this extent, the Qin Dynasty can be regarded as thousands of generations.
So what kind of army does such a legendary dynasty have? The Terracotta Army gave the answer.
The eighth wonder of the world
It is recorded in the "History" that the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor was planned and designed by Prime Minister Li Si and supervised by the general Zhang Handan for 39 years, and the Qin Terracotta Army was buried in the mausoleum.
Why the terracotta army is the funeral goods of the first emperor, this starts with the ancient martyrdom system.
At the end of primitive society, there was a barbaric and absurd funeral ritual, that is, the use of living people to accompany the burial, called "human martyrdom". In slave societies, human martyrdom became prevalent, and the number of burials was determined according to the status of the deceased.
The funeral attendants are usually 10 or 20 people tied together, rushed into the cemetery, and then cut off their heads one by one, or killed the funeral outside before burying them in the grave.
The heyday of human martyrdom was the Yin Shang period, and after the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty, in order to stabilize the people's hearts and not repeat the mistakes of the Shang Dynasty's demise, the ruler ordered the implementation of "Mingde to protect the people", and the inhuman human martyrdom system was greatly curbed.
During the Warring States period, the heroes chased the deer, strongly advocated the Central Plains, and the etiquette collapsed and the war was raging. Manpower became an important resource, and as a result, the princes and nations abolished the system of human martyrdom. In the first year of Qin Xian, a piece of paper marked the official abolition of the Qin state of martyrdom.
At the same time, the abolition of human martyrdom also meant the beginning of the system of substituting people with figurines. Although its original intention is still human martyrdom, it has become more humane, no longer allowing the living to be buried, but using clay, stone tools and other tools, and asking skilled workers to make terracotta figurines comparable to human beings to replace the living for martyrdom. The Terracotta Army is a typical representative of this.
If you look closely at the terracotta warriors, you can see that these figurines are made according to the height ratio of real people, and almost no two faces are the same. This is because the craftsmen who make the figurines are very skilled and the production process is also perfect, and there is a different division of labor in each process to ensure that the final product meets the requirements.
The shaping of the terracotta warriors is basically based on real life as a reference, each figurine's clothing, clothing, demeanor are different, through these characteristics can generally judge social identity, for the study of the social life of the Qin Dynasty period is of great significance, at the same time, it also reflects the superb technology of ancient terracotta figurines on the mainland.
With its huge scale and extremely realistic craftsmanship, the Qin Terracotta Army has become the pinnacle of martyrdom in the generation of figurines, which has made future generations marvel and is known as the "eighth wonder of the world".
Strange "green-faced figurine"
With hair combed on his head, dressed in Qin clothing, with a majestic expression, and his face is flesh red or pink-white, this should be people's basic impression of the Qin Terracotta Army. On September 10, 1999, a green-faced figurine was unearthed in pit No. 2, and the current life of the green-faced figurine also added a bit of mystery to the terracotta army.
According to the curator, the green-faced figurine has only been displayed a few times since it was unearthed, and at other times, it has been wrapped in cloth. Moreover, according to tradition, the terracotta army will go abroad once a year to promote the exchange of world cultures, but because of the particularity of this terracotta army, it has never been to foreign exhibitions.
Over the years, the mystery surrounding the Green-Faced Figurine has been debated, which has led to many conjectures.
Because the color of the faces of other terracotta warriors is very different, and there is no particularly reasonable element, some people speculate that this may be a prank of the craftsmen. Find little fun in the midst of the tiddle of work to help relieve stress.
Relevant scholars believe that it is not so simple, this green-faced figurine may be a military puppet. The ritual is a witchcraft sacrifice made in the army in ancient times to expel evil, and has become one of the five military rituals since the Zhou Dynasty, and has a strong military nature.
In addition, during the Warring States period, the two countries of Qin and Chu were closely connected and intermarried, and the two cultures blended, and the witchcraft sacrifice itself is a typical feature of Chu culture, which naturally also has an impact on the culture of the Qin State, so it is not very strange that there will be a Qiu ceremony in the Qin State army, and painting the face green may be a special ceremony when the Qiu people perform the Chu Rite at that time.
There is also a speculation that at that time, each figurine had to be engraved with the name of its creator after completion, so that the person in charge was easy to handle, so there were craftsmen who wanted to be original and borrow the green-faced figurine to complete a bold work, which would be easily noticed in later generations and may remain in the name for eternity.
More speculation is about the military side. Some experts speculate that during the Warring States period, science was underdeveloped, and the theory of chaotic power and blame gods arose one after another. Some armies tie horns on their heads to scare each other, so applying green paint to their faces may be a way to scare their enemies.
Or something similar to the current field troops. In ancient times, when marching and fighting, they would definitely pass through jungles and other places, and paint their faces green, so that they could better hide themselves and were not easy to be discovered by the enemy.
But if it is a field force, the number of green-faced figurines should not be too small, and only this one has been found so far, so it is more likely that this is a sentry. This is also more in line with the two characteristics of small numbers and disguising oneself by applying green paint to the face.
In addition to this, there are conjectures that craftsmen are color blind, symbols of ethnic minorities, amulets, etc. Of course, some scholars believe that these are over-interpretations, green is just another way to express skin color at that time, and it has no special meaning...
Conjecture about the green-faced figurine continues, and there is no definitive answer yet. Perhaps in the future, after more in-depth research on the terracotta army, the exact reason for the appearance of the green-faced warriors will be found.
summary
In the variety show "National Treasure", some unknown behind-the-scenes workers also came to the front of the stage, photographer Zhao Zhen is such a representative figure, Zhao Zhen's job is to develop its exclusive ID card for each terracotta warrior in the Qin Terracotta Army, such a heavy and long work is called by him "the best job in the world", he said affectionately: "The Terracotta Army is my temple".
Zhao Zhen is like a microcosm, reflecting the love and existence of those idealists, which is an incomparably advanced emotion that deserves our admiration and learning.
Since there is no light in the pit, in order to take a photo with suitable lighting, he will even wait for a year's time, love, but the years are long.
On the show, he choked up and said: "I saw the beard of the Qin Warrior and the fingerprints on the lower lip, which were left by the craftsman who made it." It was an indescribable feeling, right in the same location, a craftsman had just finished his work, and the next moment, Zhao Zhen discovered it. After a thousand years of reversal, two people of different eras achieved respiratory resonance at this moment and completed a soul exchange.
This undisguised emotion resonates with many. At present, through the "make cultural relics come alive" activity, using the Internet and science and technology, the terracotta army appears on the Internet, and "meets" with more people in some humorous and interesting forms that are in line with the current trend.
This approach makes history more interesting than boring explanation. At the same time, it has also realized a bold attempt to collide and exchange ancient and modern cultures. Let more people be interested in understanding our traditional culture and promote the realization of a cultural power.
When the terracotta warriors stood quietly in the tunnel, the feeling of slaughter came to their faces, which was domineering in a hundred battles. The sunlight shone on these Qin figurines at a certain moment, and they suddenly seemed to have life, one by one, lifelike, ready to go. For a moment, it was as if they were in an ancient battlefield, and the soldiers galloped on the ancient land. The young man who is determined to dominate the world is heroic and heroic, pointing the way.
"A thousand years at a glance, a thousand years apart is like the first sight", and now they are still guarding here, firmly saying "I will not forget". And more secrets about the terracotta warriors are waiting for us to unravel.