Cause & Context
The founding of unified empire gave Qin Shi Huang paramount imperial power and he pushed the ancient ideology of "serving the dead as the living" to its extreme. He sought to retain a vast guardian army even in death.
Epochal Overview
He mobilized over seven hundred thousand convict laborers to build a colossal underground palace at the foot of Mount Li. Around the inner chamber he buried thousands of life-sized, realistically painted clay terracotta soldiers in battle formation.
Civilizational Impact
The Mausoleum of the First Emperor and its Terracotta Army is one of the greatest art wonders of the ancient world, realistically recording the Qin military formation that swept the six states. It embodies the formidable mobilization capacity of the Qin state.
Key Figures
Qin Shi Huang was the visionary of this grand underground spectacle, his will driving the paramount project. Tens of thousands of nameless Qin clay craftsmen used exceptional artistic skill to create this sculptural wonder.