Art and the State: China

The Tomb of Shi Huang Ti

by Dr. Deborah Vess

 Professor of History and Interdisciplinary Studies

Shi Huang Ti was, in many ways, a megalomaniac who sought immortality. He brought diviners, astrologists, and apothecaries to court, who concocted special potions for him. It is believed that some of these potions contained mercury and so contributed to his death in 207 B.C.E. At one point, he was told by his advisors that his declining health might be due to the fact that the evil spirits could see him. Shi Huang Ti then built a palace surrounded by walls, so that he could walk through it without being seen. When this failed, his advisors then told him that perhaps the Divine Immortals on the Coast could help him attain immortality; he ordered 3,000 men to go in search of these immortal beings. The 3,000 men never returned, and according to legend, these men then traveled to the islands of Japan and founded Japanese culture. This is surely not historic, as we know that there were indigenous Japanese in Japan, the Ainu, and also other inhabitants migrated from Korea, not from China. Japan borrowed a great deal of cultural ideals from China, but almost certainly that borrowing did not begin in this way.

The fourteenth-century walls of Xi'an, the ancient capital of China. The tomb of Shi Huang Ti lies on the outskirts of Xi'an. Photograph by Dr. Vess.

Nevertheless, Shi Huang Ti believed that he would live forever, and reign for 10,000 generations. He built an enormous tomb to celebrate his power on the outskirts of Xi'an, the ancient capital of China. In 1974, some farmers were digging for a well when they discovered he remains of some terra cotta soldiers.

Photograph by Dr. Vess. This is a picture of the farmer who first discovered the tomb complex of Shi Huang Ti; he still signs autographs at the tomb complex today!

The actual tumulus of the emperor has never been excavated. Partly this is due to the size of the complex uncovered and the difficulty of the excavation project, but it is also due to the accounts of the later Han dynasty, whose historians were renowned in the ancient world for their record-keeping. The Han accounts state that the tomb was booby-trapped with poison-tipped arrows, which has at least suggested that modern archaeologists should approach this site with care. It is due to be opened in 2003. The Han historians also state that the tomb had moving rivers of mercury, a map of the heavens on the ceiling, and a map of China on the floor, clearly putting the first emperor not only in the center of China, but in the center of the universe.

Surrounding the tumulus are several massive pits filled with terra cotta soldiers. To date, over 7,000 figures have been excavated; they are life size, and were once painted. Click here for another view, and here for a third view of the soldiers. They are lined up exactly as they would have been in an actual battle, with the archers poised and ready to fire. Although we have long since lost the weapons they once held to the ravages of time, they are still poignant reminders of the power of Shi Huang Ti. Click here to view another archer from the site.

Each figure is unique in its facial features, and these reflect the different ethnicities of China during the reign of Shi Huang Ti. The figures also have different hairstyles, which reflect their different ranks on the army.

Several horses were also found in the pits surrounding the tumulus. The horses are not fully life-size, bit anticipate the interest in the horse as an art form in the Han Dynasty. During the Han Dynasty, the Chinese pushed westward in order to find better horses to combat the Huns, who were expert horsemen.

The excavation project has been difficult, as the site was ransacked by peasants who revolted from Shi Huang Ti's brutal rule, and the site was burned to the ground. Some of the figures still show burn marks. Click here for a better view of an excavation pit.

For centuries, the location of the site was forgotten, and there are remnants of peasant villages built over the pits, as can be seen from the photo above. Much of the site is still in a state of disarray or even rubble. Nevertheless, the mystique of this emperor who had an entire army buried by his side moved even the U.S. President Bill Clinton, when he visited Xi'an in the summer of 1998.

The Great Wall of China and the tomb of its first emperor, Ch'in Shi Huang Ti, are clear examples of architecture used to symbolize the power of the emperor. The painting of the burning of the books illustrates an important event of the reign of Shi Huang Ti, but also conveys later interpretations of him as a brutal despot. The art and architecture, coinage, and 5 styles of Chinese calligraphy are powerful symbols of the power of a man who thought he would reign forever, but held power for only fourteen years.

Continue to the next page in this unit on Art and the State: China (The Temple of Heaven)

*photographs copyright Dr. Deborah Vess, 1998.

copyright © Dr. Deborah Vess 1998-2001, Georgia College & State University and the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. All rights reserved. Rights to chapters authored by contributing faculty members reserved to Georgia College & State University, to the Interdisciplinary Studies Program at GC&SU, and to the individual faculty authors.