Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum and the Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses Museum
秦始皇陵与兵马俑博物馆
Emperor Qin Shihuang (259-210B.C.) had Ying as his surname and Zheng as his given name. He name to the throne of the Qin at age 13, and took the helm of the state at age of 22. By 221 B.C., he had annexed the six rival principalities of Qi, Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao and Wei, and established the first feudal empire in China’s history.
秦始皇（公元前259-公元前210年），姓嬴名政，13岁受封为秦王，22岁掌权。公元前221年，嬴吞并齐、楚、燕、韩、赵、魏六国，并建立中国历史上第一个封建帝国。
In the year 221 B.C., when he unified the whole country, Ying Zheng styled himself emperor. He named himself Shihuang Di, the first emperor in the hope that his later generations be the second, the third even the one hundredth and thousandth emperors in proper order to carry on the hereditary system. Since then, the supreme feudal rulers of China’s dynasties had continued to call themselves Huang Di, the emperor.
公元前221年，嬴统一帝国并自封为帝，自称始皇帝——第一个皇帝。他希望自己的后世沿称“二世皇帝”、“三世皇帝”，以至万世传之无穷，以世袭自己的帝位。自此以后，中国历代的最高统治者都沿用这一做法，自称皇帝。
After he had annexed the other six states, Emperor Qin Shihuang abolished the enfeoffment system and adopted the prefecture and county system. He standardized legal codes, written language, track, currencies, weights and measures. To protect against harassment by the Hun aristocrats. Emperor Qin Shihuang ordered the Great Wall be built. All these measures played an active role in eliminating the cause of the state of separation and division and strengthening the unification of the whole country as well as promotion the development of economy and culture. They had a great and deep influence upon China’s 2,000 year old feudal society.
秦始皇灭六国之后，秦始皇废除分封制，采用郡县制。他推出行同伦，书同文，车同轨，改币制，统一度量衡。为抵御匈奴的侵扰，秦始皇下令修筑长城。所有这些措施对消除割据，加强统一以及经济文化的发展都起到了积极的促进作用。这些措施对中国2000多年的封建社会起到了深远的影响。
Emperor Qin Shihuang ordered the books of various schools burned except those of the Qin dynasty’s history and culture, divination and medicines in an attempt to push his feudal autocracy in the ideological field. As a result, China’s ancient classics had been devastated and destroy. Moreover, he once ordered 460 scholars be buried alive. Those events were later called in history “the burning of books and the burying of Confucian scholars.”
秦始皇下令焚烧除有关秦朝历史和文化、卜筮和医药典籍之外的百家书籍。因此，中国的古籍被焚毁殆尽。此外，他还曾下令活埋460名术士。这些事件被后世称为“焚书坑儒”。
Emperor Qin Shihuang，for his own pleasure, conscribed several hundred thousand convicts and went in for large-scale construction and had over seven hundred palaces built in the Guanzhong Plain. These palaces stretched several hundred li and he sought pleasure from one palace to the other. Often nobody knew where he ranging treasures inside the tomb, were enclosed alive.
秦始皇为一己之乐，强征几十万刑徒大兴土木，在关中平原建造了七百多座宫殿。这些宫殿绵延几百里。秦始皇逐个在这些宫殿中寻欢作乐。通常没人知道他陵墓中的具体藏宝位置。
Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum has not yet been excavated. What looks like inside could only be known when it is opened. However, the three pits of the terra-cotta warriot excavated outside the east gate of the outer enclosure of the necropolis can make one imagine how magnificent and luxurious the structure of Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum was.
秦始皇陵尚未被发掘。陵墓里面的具体状况只有到它被发掘之后才能知道。但从秦始皇陵墓东侧已经发掘的三个秦始皇兵马俑坑看来，人们便能想象到秦始皇陵墓是有多么宏伟华丽。
No.1 Pit was stumbled upon in March 1974 when villagers of Xiyang Village of Yanzhai township, Lintong County, sank a well 1.5km east of the mausoleum. In 1976, No.2 and 3 Pits were found 20m north of No.1 Pit respectively after the drilling survey. The terra-cotta warriors and horses are arrayed according to the Qin dynasty battle formation, symbolizing the troops keeping vigil beside the mausoleum. This discovery aroused much interest both at home and abroad. In 1975, a museum, housing the site of No.1 and covering an area of 16,300 square meters was built with the permission of the State Council. The museum was formally opened to public on Oct.1, the National Day, 1979.
1号坑是在1974年一位临潼县晏寨乡西杨村的村民离陵墓东侧1.5米的地方挖口井时，被偶然发现的。1976年，在1号坑北侧20米处，2号坑和3号坑经过科学钻探之后相继被发现。这些兵马俑按照秦朝时的战斗队形排列，象征着戍卫秦始皇陵的军队。这一发现，吸引了国内外众多的关注。1975年，国务院决定，在1号俑坑原址上，建立一座占地面积16300亩的博物馆。1979年10月1日秦始皇博物馆开始想公众开放。
No.1 Pit is 230 meters long from east to west, 62m wide from north to south and 5m deep , covering a total area of 14,260 square meters. It is an earth-and-wood structure in the shape of a tunnel. There are five sloping entrances on the eastern and western sides of the pit respectively. The pit is divided into eleven corridors by ten
earthen partition walls, and the floors are paved with bricks. Thick rafters were placed onto the walls (but now one can only see their remains), which were covered with mats and then fine soil and earth. The battle formation of the Qin dynasty, facing east. In the east end are arrayed three lines of terra-cotta warriors, 70 pieces in each, totaling 210 pieces. They are supposed to be the van of the formation. Immediately behind them are 38 columns of infantrymen alternating with war chariots in the corridors, each being 180m long. They are probably the main body of the formation. There is one line of warriors in the left, right and west ends respectively, facing outwards. They are probably the flanks and the rear. There are altogether 27 trial trench, it is assumed that more than 6,000 clay warriors and horses could be unearthed from No.1 Pit.
1号坑长230米，宽62米，深5米，总面积14260平米。俑坑呈长方形，土木混合构造。俑坑的东西两侧分别有五个斜廊。俑坑被十堵夯土墙分割为11个过洞，底部用砖头铺成。墙上放有厚厚的椽子（但现在只能看到椽子的轮廓），这些椽子先用席子包裹住，然后盖上细沙和泥土。军阵主体向东，东面三排战士俑为先锋，每排70个，共计210个。在它们后面，排列着38路步兵和战车纵队。没猎场180米。他们也许是军队的主体。在南、北、西边廊该有一排战士俑向外，也许是担任护翼和后卫。总共有27条探沟，据推断，1号坑最少能发掘6000多个陶俑。
No.2 Pit sis about half the size of No.1 Pit, covering about 6,000 square meters. Trail diggings show this is a composite formation of infantry, cavalry and chariot soldiers, from which roughly over 1,000 clay warriors, and 500 chariots and saddled horses could be unearthed. The 2,000-year-old wooden chariots are already rotten. But their shafts, cross yokes, and wheels, etc. left clear impressions on the earth bed. The copper parts of the chariots still remain. Each chariot is pulled by four horses which are one and half meters high and two metres long. According to textual research, these clay horses were sculptures after the breed in the area of Hexi Corridor. The horses for the cavalrymen were already saddled, but with no stirups.
2号坑的大小大约是1号坑的一半，总面积约为6000平方米。从探坑可以看出，2号坑的布阵更为复杂，包括步兵，战车和骑兵。2号坑粗略估计能出土1000多件陶俑，500辆战车和陶马。2000多年的木质战车已经被腐蚀，但车辕，横轭和车轮等在土层上留下了清晰的印记。战车的铜质部分仍然保留着。每辆战车驾有四匹1.5米高，2米长的陶马。据考证，这些陶马是由河西走廊的马种为原型塑造的。这些给骑兵的陶马都有鞍却没有装马镫。
No.3 Pit covers an area of 520m2 with only four horses, one chariot and 68 warriors, supposed to be the command post of the battle formation. Now, No.2 and 3 Pits have been refilled, but visitors can see some clay figures and weapons displayed in the exhibition halls in the museum that had been unearthed from these two pits. The floors of both No.1 and 2 Pits were covered with a layer of silt of 15 to 20cm thick. In these pits, one can see traces of burnt beams everywhere, some relics which were mostly broken. Analysis shows that the pits were
burned down by Xiang Yu, leader of a peasant army. All of the clay warriors in the three pits held real weapons in their hands and face east, showing Emperor Qin Shihuang’s strong determination of wiping out the six states and unifying the whole country.
3号坑面积约为520平方米，仅有四匹陶马，1辆战车和68件陶俑，应该是军队的指挥部。现在，2号坑和3号坑都被重新填满。但参观者能在博物馆的陈列室看到从这两个坑出土的陶俑和兵器。1，2号坑的地步铺了一层泥土和15厘米到20厘米的石砖。在这些坑中随处可见烧焦的横梁以及一些损坏殆尽的遗迹。分析显示，这些坑都是农民起义的领袖项羽烧毁的。三个坑里出土的所有陶俑手里拿的武器都是真的，他们面东而立，显示了秦始皇灭六国，统一中国的决心。
The height of the terra-cotta warriors varies from 1.78m, the shortest, to 1.97m, the tallest. They look healthy and strong and have different facial expressions. Probably they were sculpted by craftsmen according to real soldiers of the Qin dynasty. They organically combined the skills of round engraving, bas-relief and linear engraving, and utilized the six traditional folk crafts of sculpturing, such as hand-moulding, sticking, cutting, painting and so on. The clay models were then put in kilns, baked and colour-painted. As the terra-cotta figures have been burnt and have gone through the natural process of decay, we can’t see their original gorgeous colours. However, most of the terra-cotta figures bear the trace of the original colours, and few of them are still as bright as new. They are found to be painted by mineral dyestuffs of vermilion, bright red, pink dark green, powder green, purple, blue, orange, black and white colours.
兵俑的高度从1.78米到1.97米不等。他们看上去健康强壮，面部表情各不相同。也许他们是由工匠根据秦朝士兵的真人雕塑出来的吧。秦俑的塑造手法是圆塑，浮雕和线刻相结合，并采用民间传统的堆、塑、捏、贴、刻、画六种手法。塑造好的陶俑随后放进窑里烧制，最后拿出来上彩。这些陶俑因为被大火焚烧，加上积年累月的大自然腐蚀，人们已经看不出它们原本华丽的色彩。但大部分陶俑都还能看出原有的色彩，少数陶俑仍焕然如新。秦俑彩绘主要是用矿石染料，包括朱红、鲜红、粉红、粉绿、紫，蓝，橙，黑和白等几种颜色。
Thousands of real weapons were unearthed from these terra-cotta army pits, including broad knives, swords, spears, dagger-axes, halberds, bows, crossbows and arrowheads. These weapons were exquisitely made. Some of them are still very sharp, analyses show that they are made of alloys of copper and tin, containing more than ten kinds of other metals. Since their surfaces were treated with chromium, they are as bright as new, though buried underground for more than 2,000 years. This indicates that Qin dynasty’s metallurgical technology and weapon-manufacturing technique already reached quite a high level.