Ancient Chinese culture changed a lot over history.

Through the years, different dynasties ruled, including the Qin dynasty. During the Qin dynasty, the first emperor of China, Emperor Qin Shihuangdi, ruled. The tomb that he built for himself was the one that held the Terra Cotta Army. The army was huge, estimated to be 7,500 strong, and buried underground for 2,200 years, watching out silently for their emperor the whole time. The culture that this great army came from, the Ancient Chinese, was an interesting one. The people that made up this culture varied in age, intelligence, religious beliefs, and wealth, but worked together to create a great civilization. The Ancient Chinese were polytheists, and felt there were gods all around them. There were three main religions: Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Confucianism was more of a philosophy, less of a religion. Confucius was a highly respected scholar, born in 551 BC. He developed a code for living, which was that people should respect one another. He believed in the importance of family, and he stressed the importance of strong government. Taoism directly conflicted with Confucianism. Founded by Lao-Tzu, Taoism was against having too many rules of conduct. Taoists didnt think government should play too big a role in peoples lives, and wanted people to live their lives as one with nature. It urged people to accept themselves as who they were naturally, while striving to get ahead in business was seen as harmful. [CITE] Buddhism started in India and then spread to China. Buddhists followed the teachings of Buddha, who was born around 563 BC. He thought that material things like beautiful homes and expensive houses didnt matter. Instead, he sought knowledge and happiness. Buddhists believed in reincarnation, or the rebirth of a soul in a new body. Living life as a kind person was important, because it made the persons next life better. They believed that this was cause of all suffering. When a person finally lived as they should, they reached a state called nirvana. Buddha said that nirvana was what stopped the cycle of being reborn. The social classes in Ancient China varied in different ways, just like there were different religions people practiced. In Ancient China, scholars were the most respected group of people. They were highly educated. Since they could read and write, they studied the teachings of Chinas great thinkers. Some of them were Chinas great thinkers themselves, like Confucius. Many scholars served as important government officials. These scholars often lived in large wooden homes, with tile roofs, but it depended on available resources.

The ends of the roofs curved up at the ends, which was said to keep evil spirits from landing on the house. [Landau, Page __] However, some people think that it was purely for design purposes. In these large houses, the scholars ate good food. Everyone ate lots of rice, often with vegetables. Soybean cakes and fish were important sources of protein. They also ate bean sprouts, and on special occasions, like important holidays or weddings, they feasted on things such as roasted duck, pheasant, wild boar, and occasionally even bear paws. [Landau, Page __]Even for the rich, meat was too expensive to have often. Next came the nobles and lords. They also lived well, in a way very similar to scholars, but the people didnt respect them as much. They ate similar things and had similar houses. They lived on government given plots of land, often in groups of houses. People who were related, with inner and outer walls and courtyards. The inner courtyards were for the familys use, the outer courtyards were where visitors and merchant-type people stopped by. No ones house was allowed to be taller than the emperors Imperial Palace. Rich women cared a lot about their appearance. They wore make-up and put their hair up fancily, using glass, silver, or even gold hairpieces to keep it up. They had more of an education then farmers, artisans, or merchants, but nothing as extensive or formal as scholars. Nobles and lords fought rulers enemies if it was needed. Farmers are the next step down in the social class ladder. The country depends on them for their food. They live out in the countryside, far from the humdrum and hurry of the growing cities. Their houses were one-room mud brick homes. Like everyone, they had rice all the time, vegetables, in the north, the Chinese ate noodles and pancakes made of wheat, and they feasted too, but couldnt afford as much or as often. Farmers wore long loose fitting tops and plants made of a material called hemp. Hemp is a durable, coarse material made of plant fibers. Later, they were made of cotton. They didnt have too much knowledge in things like politics and such, but they knew everyday things, and they knew how to plant and where to plant that would be the best. Artisans were next. They were important because they made tools for everyday life, like pots and other containers for food. They also made weapons for war. They lived in homes

similar to farmers; small and often one room. They ate like farmers, too, though they probably had less than most.. They didnt know too much, but they knew how to make pottery. Last in line were the merchants. They were sometimes very wealthy, but they never sold their own items. They just bought and sold things other people made, and made money off of that. They ate and wore things like the artisans, unless they were very wealthy, in which case they lived more like nobles or lords. Similarly, the poorer merchants lived in houses like farmers, where as the richer ones lived in extravagant houses. Merchants were an important part of the economy, but they were not respected much because the things they did were not necessary for the survival of the country. Most couldnt read or write, but they knew how to heckle their way to a good deal. Women in Ancient China had little to no rights. All the nobles, lords, and scholars were men. Women might have helped in the fields some, but their main job was to watch over the home and the children. Marriages were arranged by the couple-to-bes parents. Once married, a wife went to live with her husbands family. Wives were expected to obey their husbands, and werent allowed to do much. Newlyweds hoped for boys, not girls. Children were expected to obey respect their parents and their elders. Boys were sent to school, girls were not. Chinese households were usually large, partly because grandparents lived with their grandchildren and grown children. The grandfather was often the head of the house. Respect for elders was stressed greatly. Ancestor worship was also encouraged. Many households kept special altars to honor dead ancestors, because they thought that their spirits would guide them to the best way in life. Chinese government was ruled by dynasties from 2205 BC to 618 AD. The first of them was the Xia dynasty, ruling from 2205 to 1570 BC. The Qin dynasty, 221 to 206 BC, ruled after the northern state of Qin finally defeated all of the other states, and Qin Shihuangdi became the first emperor of China. He reestabl;ished strong central government (the previous dynasty, the Zhou, had very weak central government), the famous Great Wall of China was built, and he regulated measuring and money. The Qin dynasty got toppled in 207 BC by the Great Peasant Rebellion.

Emperor Qin Shihuangdi, first emperor of China, was an important man. He was the person who all of the Terra Cotta Warriors were made for. He was born in 259 BC, in the state of Qin. Before he adopted the name Qin Shihuangdi, meaning First Emperor, God in Heaven, and Almighty of the Universe, [5] he was King Zheng of Qin. [6] He became king of the state of Qin at the young age of 13, in 246 BC, and had unified the Warring States by the age of 38, when he became emperor. Qin was extremely afraid of death. He sent men to inspect his country, but he really wanted them to find a magic elixir that granted eternal life. His men always came back empty-handed, and Qin killed them. He ate powdered jade and drank mercury, thinking it would protect him, but it poisoned him, and was a factor in his death. He died at age 49, 11 years after he had become emperor. When he died, his ministers feared a revolt, so they kept the death a secret. All normal activities were continued; meals were brought to his chariot, daily reports on affair of state were still delivered, all to keep up the image that Emperor Qin hadnt died. However, he died during summer, and he began to rot and stink. That aroused suspicions, but the ministers were very clever, and they found a way to fix the issue. They had a cart of smelly fish precede the emperors chariot wherever it went, so the fish smell would overpower the emperors smell. The tomb that Emperor Qin had built for himself was immense. At over 50 square kilometers, or 19 square miles, it it the largest and most important tomb in China. It took an estimated 36 years to build. The tomb site is on the outskirts of present-day Xian. For thousands of years, people knew that there was a tomb mound (square pyramid shape with the top cut off, sort of sqished looking) visible above ground from Chinese written record, but there was no record of the Terra Cotta Army. Emperor Qin knew people would try to steal his tomb goods, so he set up machines that made thundering noises to scare off intruders, mechanical crossbows to shoot them, his Terra Cotta Warriors to protect him in death as real soldiers had in life, and the men who carried him into his tomb were buried with him, so they didnt ever tell the location. As for the stone army itself, it is thought that over 1,000 people worked on it. If there really is 7,500 soldiers, like archaeologists are estimating, then thats an average of 7.5 soldiers per person. Not only were there just Terra Cotta Warriors, there were at least 12 different types of warriors, plus terra cotta horses, bronze and wood chariots, skeletons, bronze birds, and thousands of weapons. The terra cotta horses were Mongolian ponies; not too big, but powerful and muscular. They had flaring nostrils, bared teeth, and bulging

eyes [5] and they looked like they were about to race off across the battlefield. Their manes were cut short, and their tails were braided to keep them from getting stuck in the harnesses. By the time of Chinas first emperor, cavalrymen were beginning to replace war chariots, because they were much more efficient, and could handle bumpy terrain much better. The saddles were decorated with rows of nail heads and tassels, but they had no stirrups, as they hadnt been invented yet. The wooden chariots rotted away long before the discovery of the Terra Cotta Warriors, because they were wood, but we have two bronze ones, excavated in 1980. They are half life-size, with horses, used for the emperors inspection tours. They have more than 3,000 parts, and had lots of hay for the horses. The charioteers that drove the chariots sometimes rode with a general, who had a bell to ring or a drum to beat in case of retreat. Each charioteer has a team of four horses, and is dressed in full armor. There were pits that had horse skeletons and terra cotta grooms, maybe representing an imperial stable. Although the soldiers werent holding weapons, their hands are shaped as if holding one, and separately found were hundreds of real bronze swords, daggers, battle axes, and thousands of arrowheads. After these weapons were cleaned, a lot of them were still sharp enough to split a hair. When the soldiers were discovered, it was a total surprise. Those who found them werent archaeologists looking for an ancient marvel, they were farmers, digging a well. In March, 1974, some farmers digging well in Linton County, in the Peoples Republic of China, (in the northern countryside, near the city of Xian) hit something hard. It was obviously clay, but it appeared to be baked. The farmers thought this was odd, so they dug it out to get a better look. There was a village story: Many years ago, not too far away from where the farmers found this mysterious clay figure, villagers found a pottery man, but they thought he was bad luck, so they broke him to bits and reburied the pieces. When the farmers found the pottery man, they told local officials, and soon some archaeologists were at the site. During the following months and years, these archaeologists dug out more pottery men, and begin to call them a much more refined name: Terra Cotta Figurines. When the farmers found that first pottery man, they had no idea it would become on of the biggest archaeological finds in China. When the Terra Cotta Soldiers were found, it was fairly obvious what time period they were from, because of their armor and hairstyles. They wear knee length robes, and armor made up of hundreds of little fish-scales, and they have fancy top-knot hairdos that vary

depending on rank. The soldiers were found in three separate pits, and a fourth empty pit was found. The entire army faces east, the direction Emperor Qin Shihuangdi thought enemy attack or uprising was most likely. There are a few small pits around the tomb mound. Some contained human skeletons with severed limbs, perhaps representing people sacrificed in religious rituals. Other pits had rare birds and animals on rows of clay coffins, with clay dishes for food and water, and collars attached to the animals. Pit one is the largest by far, at two football fields long, and an estimated 6,000 soldiers and horses. None were wearing helmets or carrying shields, a sign of Emperor Qins armys bravery, as does the lack of armor on the front line of archers, because they needed to be able to move freely to shoot accurately. Lower-ranking infantrymen also wore no armor.The soldiers in pit one follow real battle formation, called sword formation. Behind the vanguard, the front three columns of soldiers, theres eleven long columns of soldiers and lower-ranked officers (the main body of the army) . The outermost left and right columns face outwards, to be ready for an enemy charge from either side. The last three rows of soldiers face backwards, opposite of the rest, to be prepared for an attack from the rear. These soldiers are called the rear guard. Among the foot soldiers, theres about 50 charioteers. Pit two is significantly smaller than pit one, with only about 900 warriors, of all ranks. Pit two contains almost 500 horses; around 350 chariot horses and over 100 cavalry horses. It serves as a very powerful back-up to pit one. Pit three is even smaller, with under 70 soldiers, and one team of horses. Archaeologists think pit three represents army headquarters, mainly because of its size and the fact that they are not arranged in a battle formation. The Terra Cotta Warriors were an early and huge feat of mass production. A tiny and limited repertoire of body parts was made with molds, coiling and slab building, then put together in many combinations. Its estimated that over 1,000 people were involved in the making of this massive army of stone, many of which probably of overwork, or were buried with the army underground. The soldiers were most likely originally painted brightly, with color pigments mixed with lacquer and applied after firing. There are hand details and paint on each soldier. Each soldier was stamped with the foremans name, for quality control. These names match those on the floor tiles of the mausoleum, suggesting that ceramic tile workers were responsible for the making of the army, which would explain

construction methods such as ankles fixed with pegs or pins. The warriors all had varied costumes, hairstyles, hand position, and facial expression. No warrior is the same as another, which is astounding, considering there are around 7,500. When the soldiers were excavated, exposure to air caused immediate loss of color, so archaeologists have been working with Germans to find ways to preserve colors when excavating, and the colors are surprisingly varied and vivid. The discovery of the Terra Cotta Army has had an impact on China, and the world. It gives us a new level of understanding of ancient Chinese culture. Although there are limited available resources on the impact, we can speculate that the discovery of this vast tomb of the countrys first emperor is very important to the Chinese people. Its an important piece of that time in history that we didnt know too much about before, and it certainly tell us a lot more about Emperor Qin. Today, the excavation and recovery of this accidentally found ancient monument of gigantic proportions still continues, as it has for almost 40 years. To put things in perspective, out of the estimated 6,000 soldiers and horses in pit one, only about 1,000 of them have been excavated and restored. Thats just of the soldiers in one pit. We know more now about this then we did 20 years ago, and we didnt even know about it 40 years ago, but weve still got a long way to go before were done with the Terra Cotta Warriors of Emperor Qin Shihuangdi.