It is said that after Qin Shihuang unified China at the age of 22, he ordered a large-scale mausoleum to be built for him. Because of the beautiful scenery of Mount Li and the jade produced in Yang Shan, the mountain is full of precious jade, which is in line with his superstitious thoughts, so he chose the cemetery at the northern foot of Mount Li. He not only transferred more than 700,000 "prisoners" from all over the country, but also recruited a large number of civilian workers from Shandong and Henan.

2. Replacement of Ren Tao:

Qin Shihuang also ordered Li Qi to collect thousands of boys and girls in advance to prepare for his martyrdom. Reese was dumbfounded when he saw the imperial edict. He thought that recruiting so many people to die would be strongly opposed by the people. Once the people rise up, the Qin Dynasty will never have peace. But if you don't do this, you will offend Shi Chun and you will die.

After careful consideration, I had to write a letter, which said, "I, Reese, risked my life to tell you the truth." You recruit so many boys and girls to be martyred, which is bound to cause riots all over the world. It is better to use the Tao to be martyred to protect the security of Daqin Jiangshan. " Qin Shihuang felt very reasonable, so he changed his mind and immediately ordered Reese to recruit skilled craftsmen from all over the country and set fire to the honor guard on a large scale. Moreover, he asked that the fired pottery horse should be as big as a real horse.

3, difficult to fire:

Reese selected hundreds of bricklayers from migrant workers, read them the imperial edict, and ordered them to burn Ren Tao and Ma Tao on schedule. Otherwise, you will be killed.

But these craftsmen can only burn bricks and tiles, and no one has ever burned Ren Tao Ma Tao. They tried to burn them many times, but all failed. More than 100 craftsmen were beheaded for this. Among the killed craftsmen, an old craftsman came up with a way to tell his son before he died that he should burn them in a single kiln. After the son buried his father in tears, according to his father's instructions before his death, the single kiln and single figurine were fired in sections and then assembled. After adopting this method, Ren Tao Ma Tao was finally successfully fired.

After the success of the experiment, the craftsman Qi Xin worked hard day and night, and finally fired thousands of pottery figurines and war horses as scheduled, and arranged them neatly according to the requirements of Li Si.

4, craftsman martyrdom:

After the death of Qin Shihuang, Qin Ershi Hu Hai succeeded to the throne. He was afraid that craftsmen would reveal the secrets in the tomb, so he secretly transported the spiritual pivot of Qin Shihuang into the tomb, and then ordered all the people involved in the construction of the tomb to go to the tomb to watch the play and receive a reward. Poor craftsmen, civilian workers and torturers who shed blood and sweat to build the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor were cheated by Qin Ershi. As soon as they entered the mausoleum, they were sealed alive in the tomb and became martyrs.

5, close to death:

Legend has it that only one young man escaped. He was the first person to burn clay figurines. Because he built a waterway in Qin Shihuang's tomb and saw that the situation was not good, he got into the waterway and didn't escape until dark. Later, I wandered in Guanzhong and made a living by firing clay pots and crocks (the utensils for putting noodles in Guanzhong). Until now, these pottery products are still very popular in the rural areas of Guanzhong.

Extended data:

1, building structure:

The burial pits of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shihuang sit west to east, and the three pits are arranged in a zigzag pattern. The earliest discovery was the Terracotta Warriors Pit No.1, which was rectangular. There are more than 8000 terracotta warriors and horses in the pit, and there are inclined doorways on all sides. There is a Terracotta Warriors pit around the No.1 Terracotta Warriors pit, which is called Pit No.2 and Pit No.3..

Terracotta Warriors Pit is an underground tunnel-type civil structure building, that is, a pit about 5 meters deep is dug from the ground, and a parallel earth partition wall is built in the middle of the pit. Wooden columns are arranged on both sides of the wall, and cross bars are placed on the columns. The crossbar and the earth partition wall are densely covered with shed wood, covered with a layer of reed mat, and then covered with loess, forming the pit top, which is about 2 meters higher than the surface at that time.

The bottom of the pit is paved with blue bricks. The space height from the top to the bottom of the pit is 3.2 meters. After the terracotta warriors and terracotta warriors and horses into the pit, the surrounding doorways were blocked with stumps and filled with rammed earth to form a closed underground building.

2. Artistic value:

Terracotta Warriors and Horses vividly shaped various characters with certain personalities. Its style is vigorous, refined and full of touching artistic charm, which is a symbol of the maturity of China ancient plastic arts. It not only inherited the tradition of pottery and plastic sculpture since the Warring States period, but also laid the foundation for the prosperity of plastic arts in the Tang Dynasty, and played a connecting role. It is known as "the eighth wonder of the world" and "the treasure of ancient human spiritual civilization".

3. Discover the story:

1March, 974, when farmers in xiyang village, Lishan Town, Lintong County were drilling wells at Lingdong 1.5km, they found several broken life-size clay figurines. After exploration and trial excavation by Shaanxi Archaeological Team, the Terracotta Warriors and Horses came to light again.

References:

Baidu encyclopedia-terracotta warriors and horses