http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/bakonative/39333 So I went to China. Here is my first post, beginning with the Terra Cotta Army, since I see MSN.com has a video on it. This is just my interpretation, and I hope I have the facts somewhat accurate. But go ahead, and correct my errors, so I&nbsp;can do the same! There is so much history, it's hard to get it straight. Also see my photos of the soldiers! &nbsp; Terra-Cotta Army, Xi&rsquo;an, China &nbsp; Not quite the story of the farmer in the dell, but in 1974, a local farmer was drilling a series of wells in search of water on his property. Rather than water, he discovered fragmented pottery and weapons, and notified authorities, who responded to the site and took possession of the farmer&rsquo;s land (eminent domain to us) to begin excavation, leaving the farmer without a home or source of income. The site of the farmer&rsquo;s land is now known as the Terra-Cotta Army Museum, in Xi&rsquo;an, China. The farmer, left without a source of income for more than 20 years, is now at the museum most days for a small stipend from the government, and supplementing his income by signing books for the tourists. What does the Terra-Cotta Army represent? &nbsp;The Terra-Cotta Army warriors are believed to be the soldiers from the Qin Dynasty (221BC-206BC) belonging to the First Emperor of China, YingZheng. He became the King of Qin at age 13 after his father&rsquo;s death. Consisting of high ranking officers, officers, armored and unarmored soldiers, charioteer, cavalrymen, kneeling and standing archers, the Terra Cotta Army warriors were made of local clay and basically are hollow except for the legs which are solid. The heads of the humans were made in two piece molds, joined together. Ears, noses and hair were made separately then added on to each head. Facial features, such as the mouth, moustache, beards, and hairstyles were sculpted. No warrior has the same feature or expression, leading to the belief that each soldier faced one another and sculpted each other until the final clay warrior was completed.&nbsp;Horses were also constructed in the same manner. Their legs are solid, the head, body and tails are molded or modeled separately then attached to the legs. The facial details are sculpted the same as the human figures. In addition to the warriors, tens of thousands of weapons were unearthed from the pits, but many were reduced to dust as they were constructed of wood and did not hold up over time. &nbsp;Looking at the warriors, you can see their hands at one time held a wooden weapon but it disintegrated over time, leaving their hand void of their original weapon. Bronze swords survived and are displayed in the museum. Pits containing rare birds, animals, pottery, and more were discovered and are displayed throughout the museum. Qin spent his life looking for immorality, and was obsessed with a fear of death. He ignored the fact he was a very sick man and died at the age of 50. During his obsession of immortality, it is thought that was his reason for his replicating his &ldquo;army&rdquo;. &nbsp;Emperor Qin believed that life under the ground after death was a continuation of life on earth. &nbsp;Upon his death, thousands were killed - the tomb builders, officials, &nbsp;craftsmen were either killed or buried alive &ndash; all in order to keep the tomb secret. &nbsp;Those that escaped death became angry and intent to destroy the mausoleum &ndash; thus, surviving craftsmen and others set about destroying the army of clay warriors by knocking them over and reducing them to broken bits of clay &ndash; to be discovered and pieced together some 2200 years later. &nbsp; Excavation and restoration are done at night, leaving the museum open during the day to tourists. The warriors are carefully pieced together and if a piece is missing, it is not replicated, the warrior will stand as is, with parts missing. In the original days, these warriors had paint covering them, in bright colors, which have faded over the years. In the museum and store, you can purchase replicas of the warriors anywhere from inches in height to full size replicas. &nbsp; So I went to China. Here is my first post, beginning with the Terra Cotta Army, since I see MSN.com has a video on it. This is just my interpretation, and I hope I have the facts somewhat accurate. But go ahead, and correct my errors, so I&nbsp;can do the same! There is so much history, it's hard to get it straight. Also see my photos of the soldiers! &nbsp; Terra-Cotta Army, Xi&rsquo;an, China &nbsp; Not quite the story of the farmer in the dell, but in 1974, a local farmer was drilling a series of wells in search of water on his property. Rather than water, he discovered fragmented pottery and weapons, and notified authorities, who responded to the site and took possession of the farmer&rsquo;s land (eminent domain to us) to begin excavation, leaving the farmer without a home or source of income. The site of the farmer&rsquo;s land is now known as the Terra-Cotta Army Museum, in Xi&rsquo;an, China. The farmer, left without a source of income for more than 20 years, is now at the museum most days for a small stipend from the government, and supplementing his income by signing books for the tourists. What does the Terra-Cotta Army represent? &nbsp;The Terra-Cotta Army warriors are believed to be the soldiers from the Qin Dynasty (221BC-206BC) belonging to the First Emperor of China, YingZheng. He became the King of Qin at age 13 after his father&rsquo;s death. Consisting of high ranking officers, officers, armored and unarmored soldiers, charioteer, cavalrymen, kneeling and standing archers, the Terra Cotta Army warriors were made of local clay and basically are hollow except for the legs which are solid. The heads of the humans were made in two piece molds, joined together. Ears, noses and hair were made separately then added on to each head. Facial features, such as the mouth, moustache, beards, and hairstyles were sculpted. No warrior has the same feature or expression, leading to the belief that each soldier faced one another and sculpted each other until the final clay warrior was completed.&nbsp;Horses were also constructed in the same manner. Their legs are solid, the head, body and tails are molded or modeled separately then attached to the legs. The facial details are sculpted the same as the human figures. In addition to the warriors, tens of thousands of weapons were unearthed from the pits, but many were reduced to dust as they were constructed of wood and did not hold up over time. &nbsp;Looking at the warriors, you can see their hands at one time held a wooden weapon but it disintegrated over time, leaving their hand void of their original weapon. Bronze swords survived and are displayed in the museum. Pits containing rare birds, animals, pottery, and more were discovered and are displayed throughout the museum. Qin spent his life looking for immorality, and was obsessed with a fear of death. He ignored the fact he was a very sick man and died at the age of 50. During his obsession of immortality, it is thought that was his reason for his replicating his &ldquo;army&rdquo;. &nbsp;Emperor Qin believed that life under the ground after death was a continuation of life on earth. &nbsp;Upon his death, thousands were killed - the tomb builders, officials, &nbsp;craftsmen were either killed or buried alive &ndash; all in order to keep the tomb secret. &nbsp;Those that escaped death became angry and intent to destroy the mausoleum &ndash; thus, surviving craftsmen and others set about destroying the army of clay warriors by knocking them over and reducing them to broken bits of clay &ndash; to be discovered and pieced together some 2200 years later. &nbsp; Excavation and restoration are done at night, leaving the museum open during the day to tourists. The warriors are carefully pieced together and if a piece is missing, it is not replicated, the warrior will stand as is, with parts missing. In the original days, these warriors had paint covering them, in bright colors, which have faded over the years. In the museum and store, you can purchase replicas of the warriors anywhere from inches in height to full size replicas. &nbsp; en-us Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:30:02 PST <p>Thanks for the post!! I was wondering if you were ever going to post anything about your China trip. Love the pictures and can't wait to see more! Great to see you back on the blogs! :)</p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/bakonative/39333/#c_356268 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/bakonative/39333/#c_356268 <p>Thanks for the post!! I was wondering if you were ever going to post anything about your China trip. Love the pictures and can't wait to see more! Great to see you back on the blogs! :)</p> <p>Interesting post.&nbsp; I got a kick out of an unintended error in the first sentence of the last paragraph:&nbsp; &quot;Qin spent his life looking for immorality....&quot;&nbsp; Yeah, those emperors were all alike.</p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/bakonative/39333/#c_356352 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/bakonative/39333/#c_356352 <p>Interesting post.&nbsp; I got a kick out of an unintended error in the first sentence of the last paragraph:&nbsp; &quot;Qin spent his life looking for immorality....&quot;&nbsp; Yeah, those emperors were all alike.</p> <p>Hee, got me on that one Ojo! Took me a minute to figure out the error - should have said immortality not immorality! Yep, those sex obsessed emperors were all the same - wait til I tell the story about the Eunuchs!</p> <p>Robin, thanks, I have been busy trying to work on my own photo albums, I&nbsp;had over 1,500 photos to review, fix, decide what to print, etc. So it has been quite a task. Add to the fact that I got back from China just before Thanksgiving, then had Christmas knocking at the door... well, ya know, I kinda got delayed.</p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/bakonative/39333/#c_356369 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/bakonative/39333/#c_356369 <p>Hee, got me on that one Ojo! Took me a minute to figure out the error - should have said immortality not immorality! Yep, those sex obsessed emperors were all the same - wait til I tell the story about the Eunuchs!</p> <p>Robin, thanks, I have been busy trying to work on my own photo albums, I&nbsp;had over 1,500 photos to review, fix, decide what to print, etc. So it has been quite a task. Add to the fact that I got back from China just before Thanksgiving, then had Christmas knocking at the door... well, ya know, I kinda got delayed.</p> <p><em>He ignored the fact he was a very sick man and died at the age of 50.</em></p> <p>Well, I suspect that ended his &quot;ignoring&quot; phase... :)</p> <p>Fascinating site...The tomb nearby is supposed to include an&nbsp;scale model of the empire&nbsp;rendered in miniature in an underground chamber, complete with flowing rivers of mercury:</p> <p><a href="http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/e-h/firstemperor4a.html">http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/e-h/firstemperor4a.html</a></p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/bakonative/39333/#c_356372 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/bakonative/39333/#c_356372 <p><em>He ignored the fact he was a very sick man and died at the age of 50.</em></p> <p>Well, I suspect that ended his &quot;ignoring&quot; phase... :)</p> <p>Fascinating site...The tomb nearby is supposed to include an&nbsp;scale model of the empire&nbsp;rendered in miniature in an underground chamber, complete with flowing rivers of mercury:</p> <p><a href="http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/e-h/firstemperor4a.html">http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/e-h/firstemperor4a.html</a></p> <p>Your photos are great.&nbsp; Thank you for sharing. &nbsp;I&nbsp;remember reading about these soldiers in the National Geographic Magazine. Here is their link &nbsp;<a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/features/world/asia/china/treasures-text"><span class="l"><font color="#ce0018">Rising to Life: Treasures of Ancient <b>China</b> - National Geographic <b>...</b></font></span></a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2001/11/ancient-china/mazzatenta-photography">2001 Archive Gallery &raquo;</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/bakonative/39333/#c_356380 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/bakonative/39333/#c_356380 <p>Your photos are great.&nbsp; Thank you for sharing. &nbsp;I&nbsp;remember reading about these soldiers in the National Geographic Magazine. Here is their link &nbsp;<a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/features/world/asia/china/treasures-text"><span class="l"><font color="#ce0018">Rising to Life: Treasures of Ancient <b>China</b> - National Geographic <b>...</b></font></span></a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2001/11/ancient-china/mazzatenta-photography">2001 Archive Gallery &raquo;</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>