Where are the Terracotta Warriors and Horses located?

It is located at the western foot of Lion Mountain in the eastern suburbs of Xuzhou City.

December 1984. By chance, a group of Han Dynasty terracotta warriors and horses were discovered at the western foot of Lion Mountain in the eastern suburbs of Xuzhou City. Archaeologists subsequently conducted comprehensive excavations and unveiled the mystery of this Chu-Han army that had been sleeping underground for more than two thousand years. The Lion Rock Terracotta Warriors are not only numerous in number, but also diverse in variety, showing rich content: there are official figurines with sleeves and long robes, guard figurines with crowns and caps holding weapons, braided figurines holding long weapons, foot-mounted combat boots and crossbows. There are more than ten kinds of warriors with bows and warriors. The Lion Mountain Terracotta Warriors and Horses are not only art treasures of the Han Dynasty, but also historical witnesses of Xuzhou’s role as a military center. They are of high value not only for the study of the sculpture art of the Han Dynasty, but also for the study of the social life, funeral system, and military formations of the Han Dynasty.

The Han Terracotta Warriors and Horses were originally the burial objects of Liu Wu, the third generation King of Chu of the Chu Kingdom in the Western Han Dynasty more than 2,150 years ago, just like the Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses were buried in the "Lishan" Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin. The society of the Han Dynasty was a society that regarded death as life. People believed that after death, people just moved to another place to continue living. Therefore, all the material and spiritual benefits they could enjoy during their lifetime had to be brought to another world by every means after death. Go back and visit the tombs of King Chu in Xuzhou. They have powder warehouses, kitchens, treasuries, music and dance halls, and reception rooms. Even the toilets are meticulously made and fully equipped. In such a context, some princes, kings and high-ranking generals with heavy troops naturally hope to continue to command thousands of troops after death, so the terracotta warriors and horses came into being. However, according to the burial system of the Han Dynasty, only those who have made extraordinary achievements can enjoy the burial with terracotta warriors and horses, and they must obtain the emperor's permission. Currently, there are only three large-scale terracotta warriors and horses discovered in China, the Qin Shihuang Terracotta Warriors and the Han Terracotta Warriors and Horses in Yangjiawan, Xianyang. Apart from this, there is only this one discovered in Xuzhou. The emergence of such a large-scale terracotta warriors and horses in Xuzhou fully illustrates the special political and military status of Xuzhou in the Han Dynasty. Xuzhou is a famous cultural city with a long history. The culture of the Han Dynasty was particularly developed because it was the hometown of Liu Bang, the founding emperor of the Han Dynasty. After Liu Bang had just stabilized his political power, he appointed his younger brother Liu Jiao as the King of Chu to manage this area. At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, Liu Jiao had the highest status among the kings with the same surname. In addition, most of the civil servants and generals under Emperor Gaozu were from Xuzhou. This special background caused Xuzhou to become the political and cultural center second only to the capital Chang'an in the Han Dynasty. The Terracotta Warriors and Horses of the Han Dynasty are from Xuzhou. A strong evidence of the developed Han culture, it tells guests and friends from all over the world with its irreplaceable historical connotation, "Look at Xuzhou for the culture of the two Han Dynasties." Dotted with Han tombs, ingenious Han portrait stones, and Han terracotta warriors and horses with unique artistic charm and cultural connotation, they are like dazzling pearls shining on the land of ancient Pengcheng, reflecting the brilliant achievements created by the people of Pengcheng in the Han Dynasty. material civilization. ◎Introduction to the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang Edit this paragraph The Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang is located about 5 kilometers east of Lintong District, Xi'an City, about 37 kilometers away from the urban area of ​​Xi'an City, leaning against Lishan Mountain in the south and Weishui River in the north. Why is the location chosen here? Some people believe that this is inseparable from the ancients’ superstitious geomantic omen. In recent years, geologists have seen based on satellite pictures that the route from Jiaoshan to Huashan looks like a dragon, and the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang is located exactly at the eye of the dragon's head. As we all know, there has been the saying of "putting the finishing touch" since ancient times. It was not clear for a while whether the ancients had the ability to "forsight" or whether today's people are too attached to others.

The Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang is approximately square, with a flat top and a slightly stepped waist. It is 76 meters high, 345 meters long from east to west, and 350 meters wide from north to south. It covers an area of ​​120,750 square meters. According to preliminary inspection, the cemetery is divided into two parts: the inner city and the outer city. The inner city is square in shape with a circumference of about 3,000 meters. There are two gates on the north wall and one gate on each of the east, west and south walls. The outer city is rectangular in shape, with a circumference of more than 6,200 meters, and a gate at each corner. Between the inner and outer cities, there are pits for horses, rare birds and animals, and pottery barrels; outside the mausoleum, there are more than 400 stable pits, human sacrifice pits, prison pits, and tombs for people who repaired the mausoleum, covering a wide area of ​​25-56 square kilometers. . The center of the mausoleum is where the coffin of Qin Shi Huang is placed.

Since 1974, three pits of terracotta warriors and horses have been discovered 1.5 kilometers east of the cemetery. The finished products are arranged in a zigzag shape, covering an area of ​​more than 20,000 square meters. 8,000 pottery barrels and hundreds of chariots have been unearthed. and tens of thousands of physical weapons and other cultural relics. Among them, Pit No. 1 contains about 6,000 pottery horses and pottery horses that are as big as real horses; Pit No. 2 contains more than 1,300 pottery buckets and horses, and 89 chariots; Pit No. 3 contains 68 warrior barrels and war chariots. 1 cart and 4 pottery horses.

In 1980, a large bronze chariot and two horses were unearthed on the west side of the cemetery. This group of painted bronze chariots and horses, high chariots and an chariots, is the largest, most gorgeously decorated, most realistic and most complete ancient bronze chariots and horses found in China so far, and is known as the "Crown of Bronze". In addition to the burial pits, the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang also found the remains of a stone processing plant. The architectural relics include door anvils, column bases, tiles, ridges, tiles, stone waterways, pottery waterways, etc. The scale of Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum is obvious, but is there a blueprint for the design of Qin Shi Huang’s Mausoleum?

According to historical records, “Mr. Shui Xiangsi ordered 720,000 prisoners from all over the world to build the mausoleum, and chiseled out the regulations. "It can be seen that the construction of Qin Shihuang's Mausoleum was by no means arbitrary and must have been planned according to the design drawings. Looking at the history of the construction of imperial mausoleums in the past dynasties, it is not difficult to imagine the connection. The specific design blueprint is still under further study.

Who presided over the construction of the Qin Shihuang Mausoleum? It is speculated that the Shaofu is in charge of the construction, and the national mausoleum should be managed by him. Of course, the highest management superior is still the truth, but the truth is that the truth is handled by the young man. However, there is another problem here, that is, the Shaofu official was named after the unification of the Qin Dynasty. Whether there was such an official position before the unification cannot be verified, but whether there was or not, there must be an organization that was responsible for the civil construction projects of the palace. As for the name of this organization, further research is needed.

How deep is the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang? "Historical Records: The Chronicles of Qin Shihuang" says that it "penetrates three springs". The description of Qin Shihuang's Mausoleum in "Old Books of the Han Dynasty" includes the words "It's extremely deep" and "It's extremely deep and inhumane". Some people believe that the Qinling Underground Palace is neither shallow nor deep, and the "three springs" mentioned in the book are nothing more than the "under the nine springs" that people often mention. According to the "Lu Shi Chun Qiu" record: "If it is shallow, the fox will spread it, and if it is deep, it will reach the spring water." That is, the deepest water will reach the spring water. In ancient times, due to technical limitations, it was not easy to construct under spring water. Moreover, if the underground palace was located below the groundwater table, long-term seepage of groundwater would definitely cause the underground palace to suffer "leaking" damage. The designers of Qin Shihuang and his mausoleum could not help but Take this into account. Of course, these are just speculations, and the specific situation is unknown.

The underground palace is the place where coffins and funerary objects are placed. It is the core of the Qin Emperor's mausoleum building. There have always been different opinions regarding the location of the underground palace of the Qin Mausoleum. There is an introduction to the depth of the underground palace of Qin Shihuang's mausoleum in the historical material "Han Jiu Yi": In 210 BC, Prime Minister Li Si reported to Qin Shihuang that he had brought 720,000 people to build the Lishan Mausoleum, and it had been dug very deep, as if It's like being underground. After hearing this, Qin Shihuang ordered "to move another three hundred feet aside". The saying "three hundred feet away" makes the location of Qinling's underground palace even more confusing. Folk legend once said that the underground palace of the Qin Mausoleum is in Lishan Mountain. There is an underground passage between Lishan Mountain and the Qinling Tomb. Whenever it is cloudy and rainy, "yin soldiers" pass by in the underground passage, and it is very lively. It is reported that archaeologists have conducted many investigations based on this legend, but they have never been able to find this legendary underground passage.

“We used remote sensing and geophysical prospecting methods to conduct detection. In fact, the underground palace is under the sealing mound.” Duan Qingbo introduced that the large-scale underground palace is located below the top of the sealing mound and its surroundings, 35 meters from the ground level. meters deep, 170 meters long from east to west, and 145 meters wide from north to south. The main body and tomb chamber are both rectangular in shape. The tomb chamber is located in the center of the underground palace, 15 meters high and the size of a standard football field.

Zhou Xiaohu, an engineer at the Environmental Institute of the Remote Sensing Application Research Institute of the China Coal Aeronautical Surveying and Remote Sensing Bureau, told reporters an interesting phenomenon: In early January this year, the temperature in the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang dropped to minus 12 degrees Celsius, and the pomegranate trees on the mounds of soil were sealed. The pomegranate trees bloom and bear fruit normally, but the pomegranate trees outside the south wall of the sealed mound are severely damaged by frost and cannot bloom and bear fruit normally. The difference is particularly obvious.

"The soil outside the wall has not been disturbed, but the structure and moisture content of the soil in the sealed soil pile have changed. And because there is an underground palace underground inside the wall, the relative temperature of the soil is higher, resulting in differences in plant growth." Zhou Xiaohu explained.

During this exploration, researchers discovered that there was a thick circle of fine rammed earth walls around the tomb chamber under the sealing mound, the so-called palace wall. It has been verified that the palace wall is about 168 meters long from east to west, 141 meters long from north to south, 16 meters wide on the south wall, and 22 meters wide on the north wall. "During the construction of the palace wall, in order to test whether the palace wall tamped with soil is hard, the construction workers will stand in the distance and shoot the wall with bows and arrows. If the arrow can penetrate the wall, the repaired palace wall must be torn down and rebuilt." Duan Qingbo It is said that the palace walls are made of multiple layers of fine soil, each layer is about 5-6 centimeters thick, which is quite delicate and strong. "What exceeded our expectations was that the top of the palace wall was even much higher than the ground in the Qin Dynasty at that time, going down to 33 meters below the current sealing soil. The height of the entire wall is about 30 meters, which is very spectacular!" On the inside of the earth wall, researchers Another stone palace wall was discovered. Duan Qingbo said that based on detection, it was found that there was no water entering the tomb, and the entire tomb did not collapse. "The Guanzhong area has suffered major earthquakes of magnitude 8 or above in history, but the tomb of Qin Shihuang remained intact. This is closely related to the strength of the palace wall!"

"This kind of palace wall is an unprecedented discovery ! This new form of burial can be called the 'Qin Mausoleum Style'. It is still difficult to predict how much the Qin Mausoleum style palace walls will promote the study of ancient Chinese tomb systems.

In addition to the palace walls, researchers have discovered that there are huge drainage canals underground around the Qin Mausoleum.

Duan Qingbo said that the drainage channel, which is about a kilometer long, is actually a wall. The bottom is made of 17 meters of highly waterproof mud, and the upper part is made of 84 meters of loess. The scale is unimaginable. "The design of the drainage channel is quite clever. The terrain of Qin Shihuang's Mausoleum is high in the southeast and low in the northwest, with a drop of 85 meters. The drainage channel just blocks the penetration of groundwater from high to low, effectively protecting the tomb from flooding." Duan Qingbo said, "Historical Records" Among the "Through Three Springs" recorded in "Three Springs", "three" is actually an approximate number. In fact, it should mean that water flooding was encountered during construction, so a drainage channel was built. Duan Qingbo said humorously: "The people of Qin are so smart that the National Grand Theater in Beijing, which is being built, only uses this method to solve the flooding problem."

In December 1987, the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang and the The Terracotta Warriors and Horses are included in the World Heritage List.

The center of the mausoleum is where the coffin of Qin Shi Huang is placed. There are more than 400 burial pits and tombs around the mausoleum, covering an area of ​​56.25 square kilometers. The main burial pits include the copper cart pit, the horse pit, the pit of rare birds and animals, the stable pit, and the pit of terracotta warriors and horses. Over the years, more than 50,000 important historical relics have been unearthed. A group of two large painted bronze chariots and horses - Gaocha and Anche - were unearthed in 1980. They are the largest, most gorgeously decorated, most realistic and complete ancient bronze chariots and horses found in China so far. Known as the "Crown of Bronze".

Since 1974, three pits of terracotta warriors and horses have been discovered 1.5 kilometers east of the cemetery. The finished products are arranged in a zigzag shape, covering an area of ​​more than 20,000 square meters. 8,000 pottery figurines and hundreds of chariots have been unearthed. As well as tens of thousands of physical weapons and other cultural relics; Pit No. 1 is the "Right Army", where about 6,000 pottery figurines and horses the same size as real horses are buried; Pit No. 2 is the "Left Army", where there are pottery figurines. There are more than 1,300 pieces of pottery horses and 89 chariots. It is a mixed formation of infantry, cavalry and chariots. It is also the essence of the Qin Terracotta Warriors Pit; Pit No. 3 has 68 warrior figurines. There is one chariot and four pottery horses, which serve as the headquarters for commanding the underground army. This military formation is the epitome of the Qin army's organization. In 1980, a large bronze chariot and two horses were unearthed on the west side of the cemetery. Arousing shock and attention from all over the world, these pottery figurines and horses organized according to the military formations at that time provided vivid physical data for the study of the Qin Dynasty's military organization, combat methods, and cavalry and infantry equipment. The discovery of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses has been hailed as "the eighth wonder of the world" and "one of the great discoveries in the archaeological history of the twentieth century." The realistic techniques of Qin Terracotta Warriors have attracted world attention as an art that connects the past and the future in the history of Chinese sculpture.

The Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum of Qin Shihuang's Mausoleum has been established in pits 1, 2 and 3 and is open to the public.