Archive for the ‘China’ Tag
When a nation hosts the Olympics, they often spend millions on building brand new world-class stadiums as well as upgrading the countries facilities and infrastructure.
During the Beijing Olympics in 2008, The Beijing National Aquatic Center (or ‘The Water Cube’ as it was known) was used to host all swimming and diving events. It was a venue where numerous Olympic world records were smashed and its unique bubble design was applauded around the world.
Since its heyday, however, its cost around $10M in yearly maintenance, a fee which the city has struggled to justify paying. That’s when a design firm called Forrec Ltd from Toronto stepped in to save the day. They’ve truly reinvigorated the venue, transforming it into a vibrant waterpark – loved by locals and visiting tourists.
Even though nobody is breaking any swimming records there anymore, it’s still one of the most popular places to visit in summer.
Just remember to bring a towel.
Via http://sobadsogood.com/
Source Xinhua
THE modern technology of craniotomy, an operation performed on the brain through an incision in the skull, may have been in use in China nearly 3,000 years ago.
Scientists made the conclusion after a detailed study of 13 perforated skulls that have been unearthed in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.
The skulls were found in a cluster of more than 2,000 ancient tombs in the desert outside Turpan, 200 kilometers east of the regional capital of Urumqi, said Lu Enguo, a researcher with the Xinjiang Institute of Archeology.
He said the skulls had between one to five holes each, although one had seven. “The holes were either round or square, and the healing tissues near the holes suggested they must have been made while the people were still alive – probably for medical purposes.”
Through laboratory tests, Lu found that nearly all the perforated skulls had signs of brain injuries.
“They might have fallen off their horses, for example, so the shaman priests, who also worked as doctors in those times, probably performed a primitive version of life-saving craniotomy,” he said.
Shamans enjoyed a lofty status in ancient society because people believed they could communicate with the gods and conjure up the dead. Shamanism used to be common in many parts of northern China.
Lu and his colleagues also found 600 mummies in the tombs, a dozen of which are believed to have been shamans because sacks of marijuana leaves were found next to the corpses.
“The marijuana must have been buried with the dead shamans who dreamed of continuing the profession in another world.”
The best preserved mummy is a Caucasian male about 1.2 meters long. Experts said the man must have been between 40 and 50 when he died.
The mummy was dressed in a leather coat, a knitted cloak, hat and boots. He wore earrings and a necklace, and held a copper-laced staff in one hand and a bronze axe in the other.
Three harp-like instruments were found, which archeologists believe were used by the shamans to communicate with the gods. “We assume the shamans played them during religious rituals to inform the gods of human deaths,” Lu said.
Archeologists say the tombs, which date from the Bronze Age to the Tang Dynasty, belonged to several large nomadic tribes.
The terracotta army is maybe the most extraordinary discovery of the 20th century. While digging for a well, a group of Chinese farmers found a few ancient bronze weapons and pieces of broken terracotta. This was the beginning of a great discovery, which would reveal an entire underground city, guarded by terracotta soldiers and horses.
Photo Source: famous-places.com
The terracotta army, also known as “The Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses”, consists of a collection of sculptures representing the armies of the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. He is also the one who started building the Great Wall of China.
This army was buried with him and was supposed to protect the emperor in his afterlife.
The figures are set in battle formation and include infantry, cavalry and charioteers.
Photo Source: wikimedia commons
Photo Source: newyork.cbslocal.com
Photo Source: blog.chinatraveldepot.com
This army was meant to guard emperor Qin Shi Huang’s underground world from attack. Because the warriors are life-sized, legends soon began to emerge. One legend says that they were once real people, who were killed and buried by Qin Shi Huang in order to defend him in the afterlife.
Photo Source: wikipedia.org
The tomb guarded by the terracotta army is an entire necropolis, featuring several offices, stables, halls, and other structures. It can even be considered a microcosm of Qin Shi Huang’s imperial palace. The underground city is also believed to have another hidden area with a mercury river and a ceiling covered with diamonds that look like stars.
All this complex was buried beneath a large earth pyramid. But it went unnoticed for 2000 years, because of its small height. People assumed it was just a hill and didn’t pay much attention to it.
The burial site is very complex, including not only the earth pyramid, but also several pits with groups of soldiers, chariots and acrobats all around it:
Photo Source: huangdi-alivequi.blogspot.ro
Building the terracotta army
The terracotta army figures were built separately in various workshops, and then assembled. The heads, torsos, arms and legs were each manufactured into a specific workshop, fired separately and finally assembled and set in formation. For the faces, 8 different molds are believed to have been used. After molding, specific facial features and hair were added to individualize each soldier.
The most amazing thing about these warriors is that they are life-sized. And they have different armor and real arms. Being arranged in war formation, they give the impression of a freeze frame taken from a historical movie.
Photo Source: flickriver.com
You cannot know over what riches or historical artifacts you are stepping every day. Nor what lies beneath the hill you see from your window, isn’t it? But what would you do if you were one of those farmers who discovered the first parts of the terracotta army?
In the late 1980’s, perfectly preserved 3000-year-old mummies began appearing in a remote Chinese desert. They had long reddish-blond hair, European features and didn’t appear to be the ancestors of modern-day Chinese people. Archaeologists now think they may have been the citizens of an ancient civilization that existed at the crossroads between China and Europe.
Mummies of “Tomb
This mummy of a young woman was found in 1989. Based on her partially dismembered limbs and gouged out eyes, Chinese archaeologists believe she was a sacrificial victim.
This mummified boy, approximately one-year-old, was found in the same grave. He, too, is believed to have been a sacrificial victim who was buried alive.
This mummy of a woman, who was approximately 40-years old, was found in the main chamber of the same tomb. Her tall stature, high nose, and red hair indicate that she was of European descent.
Mummies from the Wupu cemetery
This mummy of an 18 to 20 year old woman is on display at a museum in Hami. Her features, particularly her overbite, indicate Caucasian heritage.
This mummified man was approximately 40 years old at the time of his death.
A Chinese man has taken his desire for a quiet life to the extreme by living as a hermit in a cave for the past 20 years.
Feng Mingshan, 54, has to climb a 50 metre vertical cliff to reach the entrance of his unusual home where he has even fashioned a front door and hung curtains.
Feng moved out of Gaoba Town, in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, in 1993 because he did not want to be around other people.
Hermit: Feng Mingshan has lived in the cave 50metres from the ground for the past 20 years
Home comforts: The 54-year-old has even installed a front door and hung curtains up in his unusual house
Isolated: Feng has chiselled handholds in the rock to help him get in and out of his remote house
Now he lives in virtual isolation and has eschewed almost every modern convenience – even clothes.
Pictures show the hermit climbing nude in and out of cave carrying bundles of sticks.
Feng’s brother Feng Xueming said: ‘My brother has a weird personality. He doesn’t like to communicate with others.’
Over the past 20 years he has worked at enlarging the interior of his cave and has also chiselled handholds on the rock outside to help him climb up the steep rocks.
Local media reported that Feng originally found the cave when he was just a boy.
‘It was a small cave when I found it, and I expanded it to its current size using a hammer’, he was quoted by The Mirror as saying.
Happy home: Feng told reporters he enlarged the cave himself and likes it because it is cool in the summer
Remote: The cave sits 50 metres above the ground and is inaccessible to most people
He added: ‘I also cleared the path through the ravine. Summer is cool here and it’s good.’
Residents in nearby villages said he normally leaves the cave at night but can still make the steep ascent with ease.
But while locals are impressed with his climbing and foraging skills, authorities want to put him into a nursing home.
He was reportedly diagnosed with intermittent psychosis and did receive a brief course of treatment.
Town mayor Xu Min was quoted by The Mirror as saying they are continuing to monitor Feng and will try to persuade him to live in a more conventional home.
via: mailonline
A father has told how he’s turned his handicapped son into a real life caveman – chaining him naked to a rock face in central China.
Astonishing pictures of tragic Cheng Xiangtao, 26 – born blind and mentally disabled – chained by his ankle to his cave in remote Chengling village, Henan province, have outraged the country.
Dad Cheng Yuanchao, 70, abandoned his son after losing his home and going to live with his daughters.
Visit: Cheng Yuanchao during one of his three daily visits to see Cheng Xiangtao, who is covered in dirt and dust
Cheng Xiangtao, 26, was born blind and mentally disabled – and must now live out his life in remote Chengling
‘I have no home of my own now and nowhere to house my son. This is the best I can do. I visit him three times a day with food and water so he is never hungry of thirsty.
‘The chain is there only so he doesn’t run off and hurt himself,’ he claimed.
‘I’m not a wealthy man and we’ve never been able to afford doctors who might have been able to help him.
Under lock and key: Cheng Xiangtao’s father insists that this is the best way to care for his son… while he has moved in with his daughters
The miserable existence of Cheng Xiangtao has been met with outrage throughout his native China
‘There just isn’t anywhere else for him to go. I don’t like to see him like this but I have no choice.
‘He won’t wear clothes and if I don’t put the chain on he runs around hurting himself,’ he added.
But the pictures have shocked Chinese commentators after they appeared on social media.
‘It is appalling. Is this the best his father and his village can do? He’d be better treated if he was a pig or a cow,’ said one.
via- dailymail.com
James Churchward had made a great deal out of an “Inner Asian Empire ruled by White People” and made it one of the most important forces in prehistory. As usual, he got a few things mixed up. But there was a time that a caucasiatic people controlled the very heart of Asia, and right up against the Mongols of
the Gobi desert as well.
One of the most famous Tocharian mummies found is the “Beauty of Loulan” – Her face depicted on the right was reconstructed by an artist.
http://www.burlingtonnews.net/redhairedmummieschina.html
A Tocharian female mummy with long
flaxen blonde hair, perfectly perserved
in braided hair. Items of weaved
material, identical to Celtic Cloth.
A Tocharian man with red-blond hair; his clear European features still visible after lying
nearly 3,500 years in his desert grave in China
Tocharian male mummy. To his right is a swastika decoration found on his helmet
recovered from the Tocharian grave sites.
The swastika was part of the original Indo-European language, meaning “well being” or “Good luck”
Recent excavations in the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang province have uncovered more than 100 naturally mummified corpses of people who lived there between 4,000 and 2,400 years ago, indicating that the European race of red and blonde hair with blue eyes lived in this area at one time. The bodies were amazingly well preserved by the arid climate, and according to the New York Times “…archaeologists could hardly believe what they saw.”
The mummies had long noses and skulls, blond or red hair, thin lips, deepset eyes, and other unmistakably Europeanan features. Dr. Victor H. Mair of the University of Pennsylvania said, “Because the Tarim Basin Caucasoid corpses are almost certainly representatives of the Indo-European family, and because they date from a time period early enough to have a bearing on the expansion of the Indo-European people from their homeland, it is thought that they will play a crucial role in determining just where that might have been.”
One such mummy is of a teenage girl with blond hair and blue eyes. Her remains was found in a cave and has become quite a tourist attraction in Beijing. She has been given the name, “The Lady of Tarim” and is on display at the museum. It is believed that she was someone of importance who lived over 3,000 years ago. She was found buried in fine embroidered garments of wool and leather, along with beautiful jewelry, jars and ornaments of gold, silver, jade and onyx. Her remains are in such a remarkable state of preservation that she looks as if she was sleeping.
It’s McMummy! Chinese unearth 4000-year-old mummy with ginger hair and a kilt – The Daily Record
It’s McMummy! Chinese unearth 4000-year-old mummy with ginger hair and a kilt
Feb 22 2011
mummy Image 2
4000-year-old China body has red hair and kilt
A 4000-YEAR-OLD Chinese mummy has been claimed as a Scot – because of its red hair and kilt-like dress.
The origins of the mummy, known as the Beauty of Xiaohe, have been the subject of much debate since she was found in Xinjiang region in western China.
Other mummified remains found in the region have been linked to warriors of the Caledonii tribe.
The Beauty is on show in Philadelphia in the US as part of the Chinese Secrets Of The Silk Road exhibition.
One source who viewed the mummy, believed to be among the earliest inhabitants of the Xinjiang region, said: “The hair has an orange tint and she looks Celtic or Scottish. The clothes had plaid patterns, like Scottish kilts.”
The mummies linked to the Caledonii have red-brown hair and a ginger beard and wore tartan leggings.
The bodies are better preserved than Egyptian mummies and similarities to traditional Bronze Age Celts are said to be uncanny.
Updated:
They did a DNA test on the Cherchen man (the 3800 year old 6’6 tall dark blonde mummy and the oldest mummy found), and the beauty of Loulan (the red hair mummy), and both of these mummies contained East Asian Mongoloid DNA. Even the Chinese scientist were astonished. The Mongoloid component of the Tocharians are not from Han Chinese or pre Han Chinese, but most likely from Altaic types of Mongoloids such as Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and Mongolians.
This obviously indicates that the Tocharians were already mixed for quite a few generations, since they looked mostly Caucasian. Very interesting. History books need to rewritten again, as intermingling between East and West occured at an even earlier date than conceived.
BTW, The Tocharians were not Iranic, its been proven over and over again. There language was so far from any Iranic language, that it needs its own seperate category: Tocharian.
New 2007 NG documentary on the mummies. It was released Nov 2007, and it aired on the National Geographic channel. It was very interesting It was again with Victor Mair, (the man whom brought the mummies into the Western World). The Chinese governement finally allowed more DNA test to go foward on just 12 mummies.
The conclusion on DNA test on all 12 samples of the Caucasoid mummies contained DNA from: Europe, Mesopotamia, Central Asia, Mongolia, India, and Siberia. So to make a long story short, the ending of the documentary concluded that Xinjiang was a crossroads town where people from all over came, traded, and mixed with each other. The documentary was incomplete but It was still good and informative. The documentary also stated that the test were not done and more information will be released once completed. They should have just finish the test before making this documentary as it was very vague but it was still informative.
Cherchen Man (dark blonde man that stood 6’6)
Beauty Of Loulan (red haired mummy)
Roman accounts
Pliny the Elder (, Chap XXIV “Taprobane”) reports a curious description of the Seres (in the territories of northwestern China) made by an embassy from Taprobane (Ceylon) to Emperor Claudius, saying that they “exceeded the ordinary human height, had flaxen hair, and blue eyes, and made an uncouth sort of noise by way of talking”, suggesting they may be referring to the ancient Caucasian populations of the Tarim Basin:
“They also informed us that the side of their island (Taprobane) which lies opposite to India is ten thousand stadia in length, and runs in a south-easterly direction-[This incidentally descibes Sumatra better than Ceylon-DD]-that beyond the Emodian Mountains (Himalayas) they look towards the Serve (Seres), whose acquaintance they had also made in the pursuits of commerce; that the father of Rachias (the ambassador) had frequently visited their country, and that the Seræ always came to meet them on their arrival. These people, they said, exceeded the ordinary human height, had flaxen hair, and blue eyes, and made an uncouth sort of noise by way of talking, having no language of their own for the purpose of communicating their thoughts. The rest of their information (on the Serae) was of a similar nature to that communicated by our merchants. It was to the effect that the merchandise on sale was left by them upon the opposite bank of a river on their coast, and it was then removed by the natives, if they thought proper to deal on terms of exchange. On no grounds ought luxury with greater reason to be detested by us, than if we only transport our thoughts to these scenes, and then reflect, what are its demands, to what distant spots it sends in order to satisfy them, and for how mean and how unworthy an end!”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarim_mummieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarim_mummies
(Seres=Silk People, the dealers-in-silk)
The Tocharians [Tokharians] were a fully Indo-Europid people that lived in parts of modern-day “China”, primarily in the west of modern-day Xinjiang 新疆 [‘New Frontier’] of which only since a decade or two became more known of. That being said, primarily because of the Chinese government allowing a bit more than what was the case in the past, regardless of their attitude to the whole ‘mummy people’ as a whole.
The Tocharians remained fully Europid during their ‘stay’, far longer than expected or than anyone could’ve dreamt – even with rather fair features in complexion – for thousands of years. This shocked many of the multiculturalist archeologists and anthropologists, but they couldn’t deny it.
Aside that they were also responsible for founding and spreading the Indo-European religions Hinduism and Buddhism, of which in the latter case most Tocharians belonged to spiritually and theologically. Not only that, perhaps just a mere detail, but most amazingly perhaps is that they brought both the horse and the wheel to China; which both didn’t exist there prior to their arrival. Those horses, by the way, ironically used against many other peoples in the world – mostly Europids – as the Mongols grew united and started their expansion in approximately the year 1100 after Christ.
This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 512×289 and weights 16KB.
Takla Makan desert region, nowadays the Tarim Basin
Mair has claimed that:
The new finds are also forcing a reexamination of old Chinese books that describe historical or legendary figures of great height, with deep-set blue or green eyes, long noses, full beards, and red or blond hair. Scholars have traditionally scoffed at these accounts, but it now seems that they may be accurateTarim mummies – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tocharian languages – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tocharian script – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tocharians – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Silk Road transmission of Buddhism – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Around 2300 BC, Aryan tribes (Indo-Iranians) poured off the Pontic Steppes, and migrated east & south. By ~1800 BC, they had reached China & India. In the figure below, these Indo-Iranians’ original homelands are colored dark red, while their migrations are marked in light red*:
This expansion coincides with a catastrophic climate change, around 2200 BC**, which laid low Egypt’s Old Kingdom***.
[Around here we refer to that as the Old Kingdom Catastrophe. In regards to this map it is important to note that THE TOCHARIANS BELONGED TO THE BLUE GROUP OF EUROPEANS (incl. Celtic) RATHER THAN TO THE RED ONES: They were Centum speakers and not Satem ones.]
Meanwhile, the Indo-European Ancestors (Afanasevo culture) had already settled southern Siberia, north of the Himalayas & northwest of China, from 3500 to 2500 BC*. Like the Indo-Iranians, the proto-Tocharians then migrated south & east, to the Takla Makan desert, west of China. There, mummies, dating from 1800 to 1000 BC, show clear “Europoid” Aryan features**. These proto-Tocharians herded sheep, and used horses, donkeys, & carts. They likely introduced the Chinese to sophisticated wool weaving, the wheel, & bronze. By 1000 BC, they had established vast trading networks. By 300 BC, they were trading, with the Chinese, in silk, probably starting MUCH earlier.
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afanasevo_culture ** NOVA — Mysterious Mummies of China (VHS). The mummies wear red woolen plaids, remaniscent of Celtic tartans, have blond & red hair, & even typical European oval faces & overbites.
In sum, archaeological evidence shows “trade networks right across Asia” by 2000 BC, and “possibly earlier“, nearly 2000 years before Emperor Ch’in opened up the Silk Road to Roman merchants*. Indeed, the Ulu Burun shipwreck, in the Aegean, from the 14th Century BC, contains:
- Copper ingots, from the Middle East
- Pottery, from Cyprus & the Levant
- Elephant tusks & ebony logs, from Equatorial Africa
- Tin & colored glass, from Central Asia
- Gold, from Egypt
- Ornaments, from Mycenaean Greece
This shows that the “greater part of the Mediterranean in antiquity was connected by trade“, to the Middle East and Central Asia**.
* Mysteries of the Ancient World (Episode II) (DVD) [36:00]. Moreover, the proto-Tocharians’ sheep, from analysis of their wools, were of European (not Chinese) stock.
** History Channel Digging for the Truth — Troy: of Gods & Warriors (DVD)
CONCLUSION: By linking all the lands, from China to Mesopotamia, with one single culture, the Indo-European tribes paved the (proto-) Silk Road, by 2000 BC*.
NOW THEN, I’ll tell you something which went unnoticed for a century until these mummies statrted turning up again.
Ignatius Donnelly had mentioned these Tocharians an by name in 1882, long before the press heard anything about the redheaded mummies in China. And until I btrought the matter up myself, nobody saw the connection because even Donnely was talking about a different time and place. Donnelly in Atlantis, the Antediluvian World says in chapter VIII, The Bronze Age in Europe,
For the merchants of the Bronze Age we must look beyond even the Tokhari, who were contemporaries of the Phœnicians.
CELTIC WARRIOR, FROM EGYPTIAN MONUMENTS.
The Tokhari, we have seen, are represented as taken prisoners, in a sea-fight with Ramses III., of the twentieth dynasty, about the thirteenth century B.C. They are probably the Tochari of Strabo. The accompanying figure represents one of these people as they appear upon the Egyptian monuments. (See Nott and Gliddon’s “Types of Mankind,” p. 108.) Here we have, not an inhabitant of Atlantis, but probably a representative of one of the mixed races that sprung from its colonies.
Dr. Morton thinks these people, as painted on the Egyptian monuments, to have “strong Celtic features. Those familiar with the Scotch Highlanders may recognize a speaking likeness.”
It is at least interesting to have a portrait of one of the daring race who more than three thousand years ago left the west of Europe in their ships to attack the mighty power of Egypt. [They are, in fact, one of the “Peoples of the Sea” fleeing Megalithic Europe during a Catastrophe!-DD]
They were troublesome to the nations of the East for many centuries; for in 700 B.C. we find them depicted on the Assyrian monuments. This figure represents one of the Tokhari of the time of Sennacherib. It will be observed that the headdress (apparently of feathers) is the same in both portraits, although separated by a period of six hundred years. [At this time they were mercenaries and guardsmen. Doubtless many had been hired on as guards along the perilous caravan routes to Central Asia, where we finally find them carving out a new land for themselves in the most unlikely place, but where they had a complete blocade on the only trade artery running to China!]
It is more reasonable to suppose that the authors of the
p. 245
[paragraph continues] Bronze Age of Europe were the people described by Plato, who were workers in metal, who were highly civilized, who preceded in time all the nations which we call ancient. It was this people who passed through an age of copper before they reached the age of bronze, and whose colonies in America represented this older form of metallurgy as it existed for many generations. [ie, the Atlanteans were originally Chalcolithic rather than bronze-casters, a very sound conclusion-DD]
[‘TOKHARI’] CELTIC WARRIOR, FROM ASSYRIAN MONUMENTS.
What Donnelly has told us, without specifying exactly, was that the Bronze Age of Europe was run by a unified trade network of nations including the makers of the Nordic Bronze Age in Scandinavia and the Atlantic Bronze Age with headquarters in Tartessos.were descendants of the original Atlanteans, many held the myth of their origin on an island which they called Paradise, and they recognised a commonality of their nations as being Atlanteans. We know this from Classical authors. At the time of the Phaethon event, All these people stopped what they were doing, uprooted and fled to the Eastern Mediterranean as Pirates and mercenaries, comprising an astonishing variety of nations recognising their brotherhood but desperate beyond measure. And one of these Western-European nations of a race, language and physical type related to the Celts, escaped from the fall of the Megalithic culture and would up circa 1000 BC (the date is disputable) on the Borderland Wilderness of China. And they had something to do with the introduction of megalths and mound-burials in the region, something else mentioned by Donnelly at another time.
Although it may not look like it at first glance, Donnelly is defining Atlantean Europe as Megalithic Europe (with its Bronze Age Successor). In the case of the Tocharians, he knew the megalithic cullture was related from the descriptions but he did not say that a specific Western-European people were responsible for transplanting European culture there. Such seems to have been the case. Icidentally the Megalithic culture in Southern India was also starting about the same time as the Tocharians were.
Archaeologists uncover a new trove of terracotta statues, raising more questions about beliefs in the afterlife.
As archaeologists here excavate a palace complex that has been buried for more than two millennia, new puzzles are emerging surrounding ancient beliefs of the afterlife.
Decades after discovering thousands of sculpted terracotta warriors and bronze war chariots deployed to protect China’s first emperor, Qin Shihuang, on his journey through eternity, scientists are now exploring the nearby remains of a subterranean palatial compound – believed to have been built on his orders, so he could continue his reign.
The assemblage of palaces, courtyards and watchtowers now being excavated is part of an underworld cosmopolis, guarded by the terracotta army, that stretches out across 50 square kilometres.
The palace complex, designed symmetrically along a north-south axis and protected by a vast perimeter wall, “included the emperor’s residence, along with palaces for his court officials to administer affairs of state” in the netherworld, said Sun Weigang, an archaeologist who is leading the excavation.
“Qin Shihuang believed he would become immortal; the entire underground palace complex was built around this premise,” Sun explained.
Enthroned in 259BC at the age of 13, in the kingdom of Qin, Shihuang carved out an empire by invading and annexing a succession of states. He named himself First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty, and created a highly centralised system of governance that has prevailed in China ever since.
To consolidate his rule, the First Emperor embarked on a book-burning campaign that raged across the land. Hundreds of Confucian scholars who dared to criticise him were buried alive, according to an imperial scribe, Sima Qian, who wrote about Qin Shihuang a century later.
In his chronicles of the Qin empire, Sima Qian also recorded that Qin Shihuang had constructed a huge underground imperial city, filled with glorious architecture and artifacts, to extend his reign through the afterlife. These records, which depicted a subterranean doppelganger version of the Qin empire, with gemstones to mark out celestial constellations and mercury-filled waterways that coursed through Qin Shihuang’s underworld, were so fantastic that later scholars questioned their accuracy – until the terracotta warriors were unearthed in the 1970s, near mercury-rich channels resembling now-dry riverbeds.
Sima Qian’s depiction of the wondrous architecture and design of the First Emperor’s afterlife palaces are proving to be accurate, said archaeologist Sun Weigang of the current excavation.
Yet China’s great historian also wrote about the dark side of Qin Shihuang and the construction of his city of the dead: 700,000 dissident scholars, sculptors and slaves were conscripted into an army of forced labour to build the necropolis. Many of the First Emperor’s concubines, along with artisans who designed and built the site, were sealed inside the mausoleum after Qin’s interment, all in order to protect the secrecy of the tomb’s location and its treasure-trove of artifacts. The First Emperor, Sun said, “believed he was the Son of Heaven”.
Secrecy through death
A long line of Chinese emperors who termed themselves the Son of Heaven believed they would be deified upon passing over into the afterlife, explained Yang Xiaoneng, co-author of Son of Heaven: Imperial Arts of China.
“As for the artisans who made the terracotta army, we are not sure whether or not they were all killed and buried,” said Yang, a scholar at Stanford University in California. “Sculptors who knew the secret of his underground palace would have been killed.”
During the centuries leading up to Qin Shihuang’s rule, “human sacrifice was common for the elite” as part of elaborate burial rituals for supreme rulers, Yang wrote.
“For many centuries,” he noted, “the custom endured of ‘following in death’, whereby servants and concubines were put to death when their lord passed away … the Qin First Emperor seems to have followed that custom.”
Lukas Nickel, a scholar on the Qin dynasty at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, said one mass grave containing the remains of more than 100 contemporaries of Qin Shihuang had already been unearthed in the First Emperor’s underworld, and added future excavations could uncover more mass graves containing the human sacrifices chronicled by Sima Qian.
“Qin Shihuang’s tomb still hasn’t been opened,” said Nickel.
“The terracotta warriors are standing in marching formation, waiting for orders from their commander.”
Conquests in the afterlife
The First Emperor, with his sculpted warriors, battle-ready chariots and high-tech bronze crossbows, set out to create a microcosm of his empire that he could activate in the afterlife to continue his military expansion, said Armin Selbitschka, an expert on Qin Shihuang at Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich.
China’s founding emperor knew he had created enemies across the kingdoms he conquered, and was prepared to defend against their counterattacks, Selbitschka said. “The army would also have to fight aggressive wars in the supposed netherworld.” To record his military conquests into the afterlife, Selbitschka added, Qin Shihuang’s underworld empire was also peopled with terracotta scribes.
Attempting to reconstruct Qin Shihuang’s mindset towards the end of his reign, when he faced a series of assassination attempts and an alienated class of scholars and other malcontents.
“The First Emperor might have thought there could be an uprising upon his death. He was the first person to unify all those states, and faced the threat that it could all fall apart when he died,” Nickel said.
Even as archaeologists piece together the palaces and master plan for the First Emperor’s afterlife abode, other scientists – from China and Germany – have joined forces to preserve and restore his sculpted clay archers and charioteers to their original colouring. After being individually carved, the eyes, armour and attire of the terracotta troops were carefully painted so that from afar, they might have appeared to be living combatants poised to do battle.
Catharina Blaensdorf – a scientist at the Technical University of Munich, who led a series of conservation projects with the painted soldiers – said the First Emperor’s ability to deploy massive human resources on his underground city, along with “the astonishing artistic skill” in the creation of the terracotta figures, all made the complex unique.
“It was the emperor and the enormous size of the country under a centralistic rule which made it possible to realise such an enormous burial complex,” she said.
Susanne Greiff is a conservation expert at the Roman-Germanic Central Museum who helped restore a group of huge, naturalistic bronze waterfowl that populated the banks of Qin Shihuang’s quicksilver waterways She said the First Emperor’s netherworld complex had turned out to be “one of the most outstanding archaeological discoveries ever made”.
Sun said as he and other researchers systematically uncovered and deciphered the sculptures, artifacts and architecture of the First Emperor’s afterlife city, they were also reassembling the thinking, beliefs, designs and ambitions of Qin Shihuang.
The founder of imperial China, Sun said, had three overarching dreams for the afterlife that could be pieced together from the ruins of his still-astounding underground capital. The palace complex now being examined, he said, represented Qin Shihuang’s dream of a powerful central government; the terracotta soldiers were designed to bolster the goals of an ever-stronger military; and the quicksilver streams and seas might have symbolised the emperor’s wish to launch new maritime expeditions off China’s east coast.
Yet it was the emperor’s nightmare – of an armed uprising against his dynasty – that became reality after his departure for the tomb. Leaders of the rebellion entered one section of Qin Shihuang’s underground city and set it ablaze. “The roof collapsed and crushed the terracotta warriors,” said Alexandra Hilgner, another German restoration expert who has worked at the site.
The First Emperor’s necropolis and terracotta troops were discovered – by chance – during the twilight of Mao’s rule in 1974.
“The tomb of the First Emperor became one of the most famous archaeological discoveries ever, and was on the [Chinese] leadership’s mind when they built Mao’s huge mausoleum” in 1976, said Nickel. Both structures, he added, were filled with sculptures and symbolism, and with the ambition to project power beyond the tomb.
By: Jordan G. Teicher
Follow Me, 2003. “At least on the surface, China is communicating well with the rest of the world,” Qingsong said. “However, when I look at myself, I see a ‘backward’ guy, still failing to speak English. Such thoughts inspired me to create the photograph.”
Wang Qingsong challenges his country and the world with large-scale photographs that are theatrical, political, and humorous. They tackle a range of issues facing contemporary China, from education and international politics to religion and consumption.
“Most of my artworks discuss the ongoing stories in this dramatic society. I am like a photojournalist capturing the contradictions that we encounter in the transforming China,” Wang said via email.
Though the issues he addresses are often timely, the photographs have little in common with photos one might find in a newspaper’s coverage of daily events.
“Considering that the news he can see on TV or read in the newspapers are just a partial vision of the truth, he needs to construct his own reality, his own vision of a situation to show their different dimensions and facets,” said Jeremie Thircuir via email, whose publishing house, Thircuir Books, has released a monograph of Wang’s work.
Follow Him, 2010. Wang says the photograph is about education in China, where “knowledge is taught but not learnt by many people who fail to understand the real meanings.”
Wang’s photographs are each massive undertakings. They require months of preparation, giant spaces, and sometimes hundreds of models to produce. Wang said all the shoots are done in a day, and since 2000 he hasn’t used any digital manipulation. The final, physical products are often massive themselves. A print of his 2010 photograph, The History of Monuments, for instance, measures nearly 138 feet across.
“You could of course go back to the tradition of [the] Chinese scroll, the idea of [a] piece bigger than what the mind can capture in one glance,” Thircuir said. “There is a spatial and temporal dimension in these works. By looking at them, the narrative develops. At the same time, he’s also using very Western classical structures of representation, and the overscaled photographs trends initiated by the likes of Gursky.”
But not everyone in China is a fan of his work. According to the New York Times, Wang has been questioned by police, and on at least one occasion, he was forced to turn over his negatives.
“Politically, I think he is surely one of the most critical artists in China,” Thircuir said.
Dormitory, 2005. Wang says the photograph is about Beijing’s population of migrant workers and reflects “the inherent conflict the floating population experiences when their dreams are in conflict with reality.”
Past, Present and Future, 2001. Wang says he finds that urban state sculpture iconography can often best reveal Chinese history and ideals. “However, I alter the sculptures, posing implicit doubt on what we have achieved and what we are expecting,” Wang says. “With such ‘doubt,’ I portray myself as a bystander in the photograph.”
But although many of his interests relate to China, Wang’s messages often transcend any one specific culture. In his most iconic photograph,Follow Me, Wang poses alone at a desk in front of a blackboard cluttered with hundreds of pieces of information from various disciplines in different languages.
According to Thircuir, Wang’s work has become darker over the years, a transition that can be seen in the differences between the kitsch and colorful approach to 2000’s Night Revels of Lao Li and the bleaker vision of 2011’s Goddess.
Wang has also produced video art, and moving forward, Thircuir said Wang has expressed interest in venturing into cinema. When he first became interested in video a few years ago, Thircuir said, Wang enrolled at the Beijing Film Academy to “get the basics.”
“I think this tells a lot about the man: his humility and simplicity, but also his determination and ability to start again from scratch, [despite] his current position in the art world,” Thircuir said.
Competition, 2004. Wang constructed a giant wall for this photograph and covered it with advertisements. “On my gigantic wall, I make the fight for advertising as fierce as a struggle for military power, with inevitable casualties on the battlefield,” he says.
UN Party, 2007. “In the left panel of this work, over 1,300 people sat around U and N shaped tables and enjoyed cheap fast-food while entertaining heated discussions and expecting a bright future,” Wang says. “However, in the right panel, all that remains are leftovers and a scene of chaos. The clouds of smoke overshadowing the black secretive place represent gloomy fantasy.”
Night never comes to this massive complex newly constructed in China. Complete with its own artificial sun (as well as beaches and waves), the world’s largest structure is not a skyscraper but a building both horizontally and vertically vast.
The New Century Global Center in Chengdu, Sichuan, has offices, shops and five-star hotels as you might expect, but it also has simulated exterior spaces with LED screens depicting views of artificial horizons as well as theaters, amusement park rides and an Olympic-sized ice skating rink.
Its square footage is hard to fathom, even in meters (1.7 million square), so its creators have come up with another way to visualize the enormity of the space: you could fit 20 Sydney Opera Houses inside of it, 3 copies of the Pentagon or 329 football fields.
Critics call it boring and massive, but fans admire its relative simplicity and highlight its variegated interior experiences. Though basically minimal overall, a thick and wavy roof line helps define it and provides a way to brand and identify it as both a Chinese structure and potentially iconic symbol.
The Highlanders 