Magic of Terracotta Army

During a recent trip to a big city, I was struck by the number of neighbourhoods my car passed. Each one felt like its own little world. For some people, these neighbourhoods are their own little worlds. A person can work, sleep and do their shopping within the space of a few buildings. Similarly, our idea of history may be very small, too. It often begins with our grandparents’ stories from half a century ago. Anything before that is just book learning. Maybe that is the way it should be. In a peaceful society, we mostly pay attention to our own little worlds.

However, those great people, with their great achievements, introduce us to a larger world. In that world, history spans thousands of years. There is an old saying: “Man fears time, but time fears the pyramids.” Usually, time destroys everything, but the pharaohs created the pyramids to last longer than anything else. Even today, they speak to us about the ingenuity of those ancient times.

This saying came to mind as I visited the Terracotta Army in Xi’an. Time had forgotten the Terracotta Army until a few farmers discovered it in March 1974. How could such an amazing achievement be forgotten for so long? Hundreds of lifelike sculptures of soldiers had stood ready for action underground for centuries. These men were meticulously sculpted. Although they were mass-produced, their features varied from one to the next. As I looked at the several dozen that were on display, I was amazed at the amount of human labour that had gone into them. Like the Great Pyramids, the Terracotta Army reminds us of how powerful rulers were able to shape their world.

It also highlights the creativity and skill of ancient people. How finely they modeled the faces of these soldiers! You can't see the original colour of the soldiers now because the pigments disappeared after contact with the air. But we can see photographs of the soldiers when they were first unearthed. They were brilliantly painted. There is much to be said for appreciating these wonders of the ancient world.