Are Terracotta Soldiers Made from Real People?

Chinese Terracotta Soldiers in Xian is known to world wide tourists. It was made in 2000 years ago in the Qin Dynasty. And the discovery of it in 1970s shocked the global archaeologists.

What was special about the Terracotta Warriors? It is said in Terracotta Army Museum, each people would find a soldier figure that has the similar face with him. And that finger may be your prolife. When you take a close look at each figure, you will feel they are not the normal dead statues, but with their unique spirit, they look just like alive peoples. They are so vivid that some people doubt they are made from the real people – workers apply mud to prisoners to make prototypes and then fire the prototypes in caves.

Is that true? To solve the puzzle, experts in Terracotta Army Museum examined some damaged soldier figures. They found each figure is hollow in the inner side, and they carried out CT test, the result shows no nothing of real people.

Actually Terracotta Soldiers isn’t patent of Emperor Qin Shihuang. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, many dukes had terracotta figures in their tombs. Qin Shihuang’s is best known because his terracotta soldiers were made totally the same size as the real people and has very large quantities.

Then how can each terracotta figure has an unique face? Master of Xian Terracotta Warriors Museum, who is also an expert who research Terracotta Warriors and Horses, said each handicraftsman has a model when making the figures. It can be his family, friends, neighbors, etc. Under pressure of extremely strict check and accept rules, handicraftsmen were required to carve their names  on figures’ soles. If the official find which terracotta figure failed to meet requirement, the handicraftsman would be punished. To survive, each handicraftsman tried his best to make perfect figures. Just because of that, we can see the thousands of different  facial expressions of Terracotta Soldiers.

Not only each soldier has his unique face, they also have very beautiful & neat hair braids. Ordinary tourists are forbidden to go down into terracotta soldiers pits to look them in close. If you have enough time for a Terracotta Army tour, we highly recommend you bring an telescope to observe their interesting facial expressions and exquisite hair style. I believe you will learn much more than just look them by walking along the pits.