Page 550 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

The Han and Tang Dynasties

X U P I N G F A N G | The Han and Tang cultures, which produced some of the most glorious works in the history of
Chinese art, developed out of the Qin dynasty. The unification of China by the First Emperor
of Qin fundamentally changed the course of Chinese history; having put an end to a patchwork
of feuding states governed by lords, he established a centralized governing bureaucracy admin-
istered by local prefectures and divided into counties, standardized the written language (a
particularly important determinant of national identity), as well as currency and weights and
measures, and constructed roadways to link the disparate regions of his empire to one another.
These measures were largely sustained by the rulers and dynasties that succeeded him.
The First Emperor's mausoleum in Lintong, Shaanxi province has been excavated and sur-
veyed in recent years. It is constructed in the form of a large rectangle with double enclosures.

The outer enclosure, entered through a gate on each of the four sides, measures 2,165 meters
from north to south, and 940 meters from east to west; the inner enclosure (with single gates at
the east, west, and south, and two gates at the north) measures 1,355 meters from north to
south, 580 from east to west. Covering an area of approximately 250,000 square meters at the
southern end of the enclosure, a flat-topped burial mound constructed of pounded earth rises
to a height of 76 meters. The mound itself covers a burial palace (digong) measuring 460 by 392
meters, constructed of unfired bricks, with walls 4 meters high and 4 meters thick. The north-
ern half of the inner enclosure is divided into two parts; to the east is a free-standing walled
"city" measuring 330 meters from east to west; the western part comprises a residential hall
north of the burial mound, and a side-hall north of the residential hall. To the northwest, be-
tween the inner and outer enclosures is the residence of the clerics. The area surrounding the
mound contains several burial pits, including the celebrated horse-and-chariot pit inside the
western gate of the inner enclosure, and a pit containing rare birds and animals outside the
western gate. Auxiliary burials and horse pits were constructed outside the eastern gate of the
outer enclosure and to the south; slightly to the north, 1.5 kilometers from the eastern gate,
four pits of terra-cotta soldiers and horses were found in the 19705. ]
The construction of the mausoleum began with the First Emperor's accession to the
throne in 246 BCE; by the time of his death thirty-seven years later in 210 BCE it was still not

complete. Its construction required enormous expenditures, both human and material, and
accounts tell us that a vast number of burial objects were entombed to supply the needs of the
deceased in the afterlife. The mound remains unexcavated, but historical texts recount that
the mausoleum was robbed and burned after the demise of the Qin dynasty. The excavation of
the horse-and-soldier pits, however, offers some glimpses into the scale of the burial.
The rectangular Pit i, measuring 230 by 62 meters, contained approximately 2,000 terra-
2
cotta soldiers and horses, 20 wooden war-chariots, and 40,000 assorted bronze weapons. To
its northeast, the L-shaped Pit 2, measured 124 meters wide (east to west) and 98 meters long
Cat. 161 (north to south). 3 Pit 3, much smaller than the others, was dug in the shape of a Chinese char-

549