After the Qin Dynasty unified the six countries, its strength was unprecedentedly strong, and Qin Shi Huang, as the founding emperor, also made many breathtaking measures, not only introduced policies conducive to the unified management of the country, but also carried out many projects that shocked the world.
There are thousands of miles of the Great Wall that has endured thousands of years of wind and frost, there are the terracotta warriors and horses of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang with large scale and fine craftsmanship, there is the Qin Chi Road that extends in all directions and can transport thousands of troops and horses, and there is also the Afang Palace that covers 300 miles and isolates the sun.
These were collectively referred to as the four major projects of Qin Shi Huang by later generations, and as an emperor through the ages, Qin Shi Huang also cast some incredible items in addition to these, such as the "Twelve Golden Figures".
The origin of the twelve golden people
The Twelve Golden Figures are the twelve large bronze statues cast by the soldiers of the world after Qin Shi Huang unified the six countries, according to the records of the First Emperor of Qin:
"In the twenty-sixth year of Qin Shi Huang, he collected the soldiers of the world, gathered Xianyang, and sold them as Zhong Gong Jin 12, weighing thousands of stones, and placed them in the palace. ”
It can be seen from here that the Twelve Golden Men were not made of gold, their materials were all copper.
The reason why it is called the Twelve Golden Men is because gold represents dignity, and the appearance of these bronze people is yellow, shining golden under the sun, so they are called the Twelve Golden Figures.
In addition to the Jin people, there are many names for the bronze people in the historical materials, such as Zhong Tie, Jin Ren, Zhong, Weng Zhong, Bronze Man, etc.
The casting of the bronze man must be worthy of the identity of Qin Shi Huang, so it is necessary to use a lot of materials to build a larger and huge bronze figure, so the craftsman set the bronze figure as a hollow.
But even if it is hollow, these bronze figures are very heavy, and it is very difficult to transport, which makes people very puzzled, although the projects built by Qin Shi Huang are somewhat laborious and costly, but almost all have their practical effects.
Only these big and stupid bronze figures, not only spend a lot of money, but also have no practical effect, what are they built for?
There are two theories in history why Qin Shi Huang made these bronze figures, but they are probably one reason, that is, to ensure that his country will last for thousands of generations.
In fact, after Qin Shi Huang unified the six countries, the Qin Dynasty was not stable and worry-free, and as a newly established regime that had been in turmoil for a long time, the Qin Dynasty still had a long way to go.
At this time, there were Xiongnu outside the Qin Dynasty, and there were nobles from the six countries "non-violent and non-cooperative", these things made Qin Shi Huang worried.
For the Xiongnu, Qin Shi Huang ordered the construction of Qin Chi Road and the Great Wall, so that the general Meng Tian led his troops to deter, but for the rebel Six Kingdoms, Qin Shi Huang never had a good way to solve it.
These people were operating in secret, and none of them wanted to become vassals of the Qin Dynasty, but they did not form a large scale, but even so, Qin Shi Huang always felt uncomfortable.
He believes that these people are just temporarily dormant, once they have the opportunity, maybe they will stab them in the back, the so-called open guns are easy to dodge, hidden arrows are difficult to prevent, and they can deter Xiaoxiao when they are in power, but after their children and grandchildren ascend the throne, the situation may be uncertain.
So he thought of a way to let the nobles of the Six Kingdoms move their families to Xianyang, and also destroyed all the walls of the original Six Kingdoms, and used hostages to restrain the rebel party while attacking the armed forces of the rebel party.
Later, Qin Shi Huang considered the problem of weapons, the toothless tiger will not be so difficult to tame, if the people of the world do not resist, just need to collect the weapons, and take the supreme force in their own hands, even if there is a rebellion, it will not hurt.
In the era of cold weapons, the rebels did not have a blade, so they would not do much harm, and they could be quickly quelled by sending soldiers.
But if you want to collect the weapons that have been scattered among the people, you must have a good reason for the people to hand them over willingly, rather than by force.
Just when Qin Shi Huang was worried, the opportunity came, somehow, there was a news among the people of Lintao, some farmers said that they had seen 12 giants in the local area, with a solemn demeanor, and their bodies were shining under the sun.
After a long time, there is a nursery rhyme circulating in the local area:
The canal goes to one, it is shown in gold, a hundred evils, and a hundred Ruisheng.
Qin Shi Huang listened to the dragon's face and was happy, so he ordered the collection of the world's weapons, built a statue for the golden people, and declared that he would obey the will of heaven and pray for the blessing of the world.
This is one of the theories, and the other is that Qin Shi Huang dreamed when he was sleeping, and he dreamed that the sky was dark and there were many demons in the world, and he was very frightened and scared when he woke up.
Just when Qin Shi Huang was calling left and right, a white-haired old man suddenly appeared, the old man was immortal, waving the floating dust in his hand, and said to Qin Shi Huang: Only by making twelve golden people can you sit firmly in the world.
Qin Shi Huang was overjoyed, and immediately ordered his ministers to collect the world's weapons and make twelve bronze men non-stop.
Specifications of the bronze man
In order to match the royal majesty, the specifications of the bronze people are very high, according to historical records, each bronze man weighs about a thousand stones, but this is only a vague statement, the twelve bronze people are not the same size, and the weight naturally varies.
During the Qin Dynasty, one stone was 120 catties, and one catty was equal to 256.26 grams, that is to say, one thousand stones was about 30,000 kilograms, that is, 30 tons, and the small bronze man weighed 30 tons, and the dozen was about 80 tons.
There are also several sayings about the height record of the bronze man, there are "three zhang high", "three zhang high", "five zhang long", that is to say, the height of the bronze man is also divided into two kinds, one is 8.12 meters, the other is 13.7 meters, it is really a behemoth.
As for the shape of the bronze man, most of the records in history are sitting, wearing Di clothes, with a base below, Wang Mang dreamed of the bronze man standing up in the Western Han Dynasty, which can also indicate that the bronze man is sitting.
According to the Sanfu Huangtu, there are inscriptions behind the Jin people, which record the exploits of Qin Shi Huang, and it is rumored that these inscriptions are small seals designed by Li Si, and the writing was written by the general Meng Tian himself.
Li Si and Meng Tian, one writer and one martial arts, can be called the two pillars of the Qin Dynasty, the identity of these two people should be under one person, above ten thousand people, written by the two themselves, it can be seen that Qin Shi Huang attached great importance to the twelve golden people.
How to cast the bronze man and where to go
These twelve bronze figures not only demonstrate the prestige of Qin Shi Huang, but also find a good place for the weapons of the whole country, but more than 2,000 years ago, the smelting technology was not developed, and it was not easy for the craftsmen of the Qin Dynasty to build such tall bronze figures.
Some studies believe that Qin Shi Huang used the pit modeling method, that is, digging several large pits underground, and then making a model and pouring the smelted molten iron into it to condense and form.
In order to make it easy to practice copper water, the craftsmen of the Qin Dynasty built a large fixed dry pot to let the copper liquid flow in by itself after dissolving, and the craftsmen only need to control the temperature and put the copper block.
It took so much energy to create twelve bronze figures, and Qin Shi Huang meant to ensure that the country lasted for thousands of generations, but unfortunately Qin II died.
After that, the bronze people have been passed down to many dynasties, and they have also suffered many destructions, and the most widely circulated theory in history is that the copper people were all destroyed by Dong Zhuo.
"Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms, Wei Shu VI, Dong Er, Yuan Liu Biography VI" records:
"(Dong Zhuo) learned that the spine broke the bronze man, Zhong Yu, and the bad five-baht coin. It is also cast as a small money, a big five points, no article, no meat and no wheels, and no grinding. ”
In other words, Dong Zhuo smelted all the twelve bronze figures in order to mint copper coins, and this rare treasure was destroyed in one fell swoop.
epilogue
The reason why the Twelve Bronze Figures are not as famous as other Qin Shi Huang projects is because they no longer exist in the historical evolution, although they were destroyed by Dong Zhuo, but they are not fully believed, and it is also possible that the First Emperor brought these bronze figures into his underground palace.
However, even if the project is good, it also wastes a lot of financial and material resources.