" If you have not seen the pyramids, it is like one has never been to Egypt.The same as, if you have not seen the Qin Terra Cottas, you have not been to China." (Former French Premier- President Shirac, in 1978)

Today I saw for myself the 8th wonder of the world. Well almost, anyway. TCL Acroarts Sdn Bhd organized an exhibition of the 8th wonder of the world- The Qin Terra Cotta Warriors. One must research and digest the history behind these magnificent creations in order to fully appreciate the intricate designs of the terra cotta warriors. It is a story of the strongest dynasty in Chinese history.
Right, a few brief facts before I provide a commentary on my visit to the exhibition which is currently held at the prescint of Chung Hua Middle School No. 1, Kuching.
Achievements of Qin Shi Huang
1. The Great Wall of China
2. Terra-Cotta Armies and Horses
3. Palace in China
4. Mausoleum (Burial ground of the Emperor)
5. Road System
6. Standardised Writing
7. Standardised Currency
8. Standardised Weight and Measurement
9. Standardised Horse Carriage
10.Standardised Law
11.Centralised Government



When and how the Qin Terra Cotta Warriors were discovered
The Qin Terra Cotta Warriors were discovered by a farmer by the name of Yang Zhi Fa on 29th March 1974 in Shaanxi Province, Xi'an City, PRC. The farmers were undergoing a difficult period of draught and Yang, among the farmers decided to dig a well to facilitate irrigation of their crops. What was initiated as a life-saving measure turned out to be an unexpected discovery of one of the world's greatest wonders.
The Qin Terra Cotta Warriors and the tomb of Qin Shi Huang has been described as the biggest archeological finding in 20th century. It is the largest and grandiest burial from all Chinese Dynasties. There are three pits in total which have been excavated to date. The excavations have resulted in the discovery of nearly 8000 warriors, 200 chariots and 466 saddle horses. The main excavations were carried out in March 1974, April 1976 and May 1976 respectively.
The first pit is the largest of all three pits, boasting a size of 2 football fields. The second pit is L-shaped. The third pit is "U"-shaped, which is also described as the command centre or the "Markas" of the pits.
Archaeologists are of the opinion that it was perhaps never Qin Shi Huang's intention for these terra cotta warriors, chariots and saddle horses etc to see the light of day from the day they were buried. The reason simply being, these treasures were hidden under wooden logs which were then covered by 5 feet of " wu hua" soil (I apologise, I do not know the proper term for this particular soil) and on the top layer is one feet of soil suitable for agriculture cultivation. In fact, there has been no historical records of the existence of these terra cotta statutes, which explained the long delay between the date of burial of these treasures and the date of discovery. Even at present, archaeologists are still in the process of excavating the area. There is still much left to the imagination. Although one thing for sure, we can be proud of our ancestral roots.
Qin Shi Huang started his major project of the terra cotta warriors when he was in his third year of reign. He was only 49 years old when he passed away. Had he lived a longer life, we could have seen more miracles and wonders of the world I reckon.
Of course there is a group which chooses to think that Qin Shi Huang was evil in his quest for immortality and never ending desire for power. It is not denied that many of his subjects were forced into slavery and tortured to death during the course of his reign. However it was during his reign that the Great Wall of China was built. It was also during his reign that the Chinese characters were unified. We need to acknowledge his achievements which changed the history of China. He was an ambitious man and he achieved his goals.
The organisers of the exhibition put a lot of effort into the commentaries and the historical background of the terra cotta artifacts. Therefore I took the time to read each and every commentary on the walls, from the history of Qin Dynasty to the discovery of the artifacts. It was indeed an educational and enlightening experience.
I was particularly interested in the description of the tomb of Qin Shi Huang. For your information, China currently does not have the technology to excavate the tomb of Qin Shi Huang. Therefore the description which was provided to the visitors were largely based on the book written by a famous Chinese history researcher, Si Ma Qian. In his book, he gave a lenghty description of the tomb of Qin Shi Huang. Bearing in mind that everything is underground, use your imagination to picture the sights of the tomb. I will post a drawing of it later when I get the picture taken. Right.. for your info, my digicam died on me because I forgot to take extra batteries with me. Duh! Never mind. I will definitely go to the exhibition again...
Here goes. On the ceiling of the tomb, you can see sculptures of stars and the sun. This represents the world where the emperor will be living in in his afterlife. His tomb faces an easterly position because this is his best direction. On the north is an arch which is intricately decorated to represent the palace. The body of the emperor is covered in golden scales woven together. This would look like the mummies in Egypt. The body is protected by two layers of stone walls made to look like a coffin. On the right of the body the topography is made to resemble the vast area of China acquired by the emperor during his reign. There is also a river formed within the topography with hydrargyrum (Hg) or mercury, in the place of water. Now you may be sceptical of the description of Si Ma Qian, but a recent report showed that the soil in the area where the tomb of Qin Shi Huang is supposed to be has been found to contain high levels of Hg. Interesting? I suppose, if what is described in Si Ma Qian's book is correct, the Chinese would presumably want to preserve the conditions of the tomb as it is and great care and planning would have to be made should the area be excavated. Remember earlier when I mentioned that the artifacts were first discovered in 1974? It wasn't until 1981 when the archeologists finally restored the artifacts in their original form. What you see now in the internet and the television are works of thousands of archeologists, making sense of the rubble and the different body parts of the terra cotta warriors, chariots and horses, because when they were first excavated, they were not in their full original form. Great care had to be taken to "reassemble" the different parts.
Which makes me appreciate them a lot more.
Into the main exhibition hall I come. You can see the pictures I have taken of the exhibited artifacts. For your information, during the reign of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, each family was assigned a task to build one warrior. Failure to exercise a high skill of workmanship would cost the sculptor both his life and the lives of his families. Therefore great efforts were made to ensure that the faces of the warriors were life-like and different. No two warriors have the same facial features. There are eight basic facial expressions of the warriors, with different face shapes. Even the hairstyle is given the most intricate detail. There are different types of "buns" and braids which the hair is shaped into. If you pay close enough attention, every warrior is unique in its own way. The poses of the warriors are categorized according to rank. There are senior officials, recruits and others which I cannot list down in detail. Some carry weapons in their hands and some kneel down on one knee. It is really interesting.
On overall, I found the exhibition to be a truly enriching experience. I am truly grateful that my family decided to go for the exhibition despite the big crowd. Although I think... cat city people could do the exhibition more justice by brushing up on their history knowledge in order to gain a higher level of appreciation of these magnificent treasures. One lady just took one look at the artifacts and said " They all look the same! Are you sure its the real thing?" Oh for goodness sake. You are only paying RM15 to look at something which would cost you a few thousand bucks to fly to Shaanxi, get accommodation and trek all the way to the excavation pit. Which would not be enough if you only have two hours to spare. I did not really mind even if the exhibited items were replicas. It would only seem more logical. To transport such priceless items to another country and risk them being stolen.. I don't think the organisers would be so daft to put themselves under such risks. The replicas were identical to the real ones (although we were briefed by the tour guide that there were genuine ones hidden among the replicas). Its the educational experience we want. Great efforts have been made to prepare the bilingual commentaries (so yours truly does not have to scratch my head translating the commentaries, hehe), depicting the history and what not. You can see the artifacts on television and on the internet. Without the commentaries, they are just another work of art. When you have commentaries, it gives them life.
That ends my short description of my visit to the Qin Terra Cotta Warrior exhibition. Hopefully it was not too boring for you! The 8th Wonder of the World... right here in Kuching, for the next 30 days. Definitely going to go there again. Its so worth my 15 bucks.