Page 384 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

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Terra-cotta figure of a charioteer
Height 193 (76)
Qin Dynasty, third century BCE (c. 210)
From Pit i at Xiyangcun, Lintong, Shaanxi Province
Qin Terra-cotta Museum, Lintong, Shaanxi Province

1
This figure of a charioteer was found positioned
behind one of the chariots in Pit i, accompanied
by one soldier at his left and another at his right.
Other groupings suggest variations in how such
vehicles were manned — in some cases a driver, an
officer, and a soldier; in others only a driver and a
soldier. The charioteer is clad in full armor. The
figure's square-shaped bonnet, tied beneath the
chin, suggests a high rank within the army.
The verisimilitude of most Qin sculptures has
prompted a number of commentators to identify
2
their style as "realistic" or "naturalistic," a claim
that ignores the marionette-like artificiality of the
figures. This characteristic inheres in the subject
matter itself: the warriors had to be represented in
specific postures and gestures defined by their
function. The conceptual aspect of their style occa-
sionally makes these figures appear rigid — some-
times even frozen in exaggerated postures. In so
doing, however, it captures the stances that embody
and define — and thus differentiate — the specific
function of a specific warrior within the army as a
whole. The descriptive style of representation then
literally transcribes each warrior's attributes — his
headgear, armor, outfit, boots, weapons — and also
differentiates his function and rank within the
army. Both stylistic approaches, organically inter-
twined, delineate aspects of the model of the figure,
and establish its status as a functional component
of the army.
The chariots found in the First Emperor's
necropolis are uniformly two-wheeled vehicles with
a rectangular carriage linked by a single shaft to
a team of four horses. Chinese archaeologists have
distinguished variations among the chariots; 3 those
in Pit 2 are primarily lightweight models that pre-
sumably would have been used by an army on the
offensive. Chariots were the preeminent symbol of

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