Terracotta Warriors: The eventful story of how one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in history was discovered in China

Zhao knew that The characters are buried in the past In the area near the city of Xi'an, not far from the tomb of the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang.

A decade ago, He himself spotted three crossbowmen kneeling. But he was not sure that it dated back to the time of the emperor, who first united the Chinese nation under the short-lived Qin dynasty (221-206 BC).

But what this expert was about to find was beyond anything he could have imagined.

Peasants have stumbled upon one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the twentieth century: an army of approx 8000 clay soldiersIt was designed on an industrial scale 2,200 years ago to defend the Emperor in the afterlife.

He was An entire ghost army, with horses and chariots, is hiding underground The living never saw it.

Zhao headed to the discovery site with a colleague. “We were very excited about it “We were riding our bikes so fast it seemed like we were flying.”he later wrote in a 2014 article.

On one occasion he told the British historian John Mann that when he arrived he saw “seven or eight pieces, pieces of legs and arms and two heads, near the well.”

He said he realized that immediately They were probably the remains of statues from the Qin era.

They asked the farmers to stop their work. They found the pieces weeks ago, and in fact, They have already sold some shares Bronze for scrap.

The antiquities were collected and transported to the museum in trucks. Zhao began to assemble the parts with great effort. Some of them were the size of a fingernail, he later said.

After three days of work Before him stood two majestic terracotta warriors, Each one is 1.78 meters high.

Although Zhao was encouraged by this amazing discovery, he was also nervous. In 1974, China was in the final stages of Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution, Under which the fearsome Red Guards sought to destroy ancient traditions and ways of thinking in order to “purify” society.

Chow, as Mann said in his book “The Terracotta Army,” He was subjected to a “self-criticism” session. In the late 1960s as someone “engaged in oldies”.

Now, even though the worst of the excesses of that period were over, Zhao was worried about what might happen to the statues.

And I decided to keep it a secret, recover the pieces, “Then wait for the opportunity to report it.”

But their plans were changed by a young journalist from the state-run Xinhua agency, who came across the statues while visiting the area.

“Asked: “This seems to be a great discovery.” Why don't you report it?“.

Ignoring their pleas The journalist published the discovery, and the information reached the leadership of the Communist Party. However, Zhao's fears that the monuments might be vandalized for political reasons proved to be unfounded.

The authorities in Beijing decided to excavate the site, and in the following months more than 500 warriors were discovered.

As the work continued, the extraordinary scale of what the First Emperor had done – a ruthless man who defeated six states to unify China under an imperial regime that lasted until 1912 – became clear.

He had ordered its creation The underground project has a total area of ​​56 square kilometersshortly after ascending the throne at the age of 13.

Thousands of warriors were placed in battle formation, ready to do battle Defending his emperor from what might await him in the afterlife. It was an elaborate work, with dozens of different types of heads, and there were 100 chariots and tens of thousands of bronze weapons.

the Emperor Qin Shi Huang's tomb remains closed. There could be thousands of precious artifacts inside.

But it's dangerous to open it Cause irreparable damage To all that is at home has hindered the Chinese government so far.

In 1975, a year after excavations began, it was decided to open a museum at the site. And while Excavations continued during the following years. Word spread about the size of the discovery.

Foreign leaders and some tourists started visiting the place.

But it took a few years for the site to gain global recognition. It has been announced World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1987.

Today, the Terracotta Warriors are widely recognized as a national treasure of China. But there is a sense that the personal role Zhao played in the discovery has never been fully acknowledged. It is not known at all in China.

In his place was a peasant. Yang Zhifa, who is said to have discovered the first piece, is introduced to visiting tourists as the person who discovered it To the warriors.

For years, he sat in the Terracotta Museum of Warriors and Horses, signing books silently and without a smile. It was he, not Chow, who traveled abroad to tell his story.

In 1998, when then US President Bill Clinton visited, it was Yang who shook hands.

A few years ago, he admitted that he had not gone to see the Restored Army until 1995, when he was its director The museum gift shop asked him to sign books.

“He told me he would pay me 300 yuan (about 50 US dollars a month). I thought it wasn't bad, so I came,” she told China Daily. Three other peasants later joined him and their salaries tripled. But everyone complained about it They were not rewarded adequately for their discovery, and in fact their lands were confiscated. To create the museum.

Three of the seven members of the original farmer group died in terrible circumstances. One of them hanged himself in 1997, and two others They died over the age of 50, without having the money to pay for medical careaccording to the South China Morning Post.

The local guide, Liu Guiyang, had not heard of Zhao Kangmin, but said that the scammers approached visitors, posing as Yang Ziva or one of the other peasants.

Chow was furious when, in 2004, The four surviving peasants asked to be registered as discoverers Of warriors. They did not receive a response.

“All they want is money,” Zhao told China Daily. “Seeing does not mean discovering. The peasants saw fragments of clay, but they did not know that they were antiquities cultural, and even break it.”

“I was the one who stopped the damage,” The fragments were collected and reconstructed “The first clay warrior.”

He told Hun Man that if he had not shown up, “it would have been a disaster.”

Wu Yongqi, director of the Terracotta Warriors Museum from 1998 to 2007, agrees.

Without them, this extraordinary discovery could have been postponed for years, Wu said.

Unlike the peasants, who signed books for hordes of tourists at the main Terracotta Warriors Museum, Zhao stayed at the much smaller Lintong Museum. until In his later years, he could be found sitting next to some of the warriors he had brought back, conversing with curious visitors.

Although he never achieved fame or fortune, Zhao seemed pleased with the recognition he received, proudly saying that during the initial excavations, an envoy from Beijing told him that He “made a huge contribution to the country.”

In 1990, it was Personally recognized by the State Council He received a special pension. He left behind a wife and two children.

Zhao's vision of his special place in Chinese history is clear, regardless of what others say.

At the Lintong Museum, he signed postcards and tourist books bearing an extravagant description: “Zhao Kangmin, the first discoverer, restorer, and appreciator, Name generator and prospector of terracotta warriors.”

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