Discovering the Secrets of Emperor Qin's Mausoleum

Transcript
0:00 when President Richard Nixon arrived in
0:02 China in 1972 the world large new
0:04 practically nothing about the secretive
0:06 country his visit was intended to
0:08 normalize relations with the closed
0:10 Communist dictatorship helping the
0:12 country open up to the world two years
0:14 later an agricultural working party
0:16 tasked with digging worlds in Xi'an
0:18 Province uncovered a single life-sized
0:21 terracotta statue of warrior they
0:22 alerted the government's authorities and
0:24 archaeologists duly arrived to preserve
0:26 the artifact and determine if there were
0:28 more nobody could have been prepared for
0:30 what lay beneath the surface a massive
0:33 necropolis the size of a small City and
0:36 a mind-boggling collection of weapons
0:38 Vehicles statutory and other artifacts
0:41 including an estimated 8 000 more
0:44 terracotta warriors just like the one
0:46 those agricultural workers had found the
0:48 discovery of the Terracotta Army as it
0:50 came to be known and the massive
0:51 Mausoleum associated with it arguably
0:53 did more to bring China to the world's
0:55 attention than Nixon's visit the
0:57 mausoleum complex has been under
0:59 archaeological investigation ever since
1:01 and is a staggering piece of monumental
1:04 architecture rivaling any other funery
1:07 architecture known today and oh on which
1:09 Continues Season after season to vastly
1:12 enrich our knowledge of ancient China
1:15 [Music]
1:26 thank you
1:30 arguably as devastating as the fall of
1:32 the Roman Empire was the collapse of the
1:34 Eastern Joe Dynasty in the 5th Century
1:36 BCE unlike some later Chinese Empires
1:38 the Joe Dynasty owes a more feudal
1:41 affair with Myriad individual Warlords
1:43 and city-states Loosely bound to the
1:45 central Administration or when this
1:47 Administration sees to function each
1:49 Petty ruler established their own
1:51 hegemony and declared independence from
1:53 the Joe this left a catastrophic period
1:55 of warfare which lasted more than 200
1:58 years wreaking Untold havoc on the
2:01 people of China eventually these Petty
2:02 rulers had through war and Conquest
2:04 Consolidated into seven main kingdoms
2:06 who developed a habit of building long
2:08 defensive walls and practiced Universal
2:11 conscription sometimes Fielding armies
2:12 hundreds of thousands strong amidst
2:15 these long grinding Wars of attrition oh
2:17 where the primary aim became the
2:19 destruction of enemy military capacity a
2:21 kingdom called chin seems to have begun
2:23 outstripping its rivals in terms of
2:25 military Innovation racking up a string
2:27 of Victories over the neighboring
2:29 Kingdoms in 204 36 BCE a 13 year old boy
2:32 called Ying Zhong suddenly became king
2:35 of the chin the son of a lowly concubine
2:38 who had shrewdly maneuvered her son into
2:40 the first position through Machiavellian
2:42 Court intrigued he was a surprising heir
2:44 to the throne of the Warring States
2:46 periods most rapidly Rising Kingdom he
2:48 seemed to have been obsessed with the
2:50 idea of eternal life and had already
2:52 been commissioning searches for an
2:54 elixir of immortality a search which
2:56 would continue throughout his entire
2:58 life and ironically be the cause of his
3:00 premature death the moment he took the
3:02 throne the new king who eventually took
3:04 the name chin Shi Huang began planning
3:07 the construction of his Mausoleum this
3:09 isn't as crazy as it might sound prior
3:12 to this period it was customary for
3:13 Kings to be buried in elaborate
3:15 Monumental tombs furnished with lavish
3:17 grave goods and supplemented by
3:19 sacrificial victims usually their
3:21 favorite horses pets concubines and
3:23 servants this meant that like the
3:25 Egyptian pharaohs building work needed
3:27 to start as early as possible as time
3:29 went on human sacrifices became less
3:31 usual and Kings would be buried with
3:33 bronze ritual vessels and their favorite
3:35 horses chinchi Huang appears to have
3:38 commissioned the creation of clay
3:39 figures to act as substitutes for
3:42 sacrificial victims though bodies of
3:44 both humans and animals have also been
3:45 found in the Tomb by 221 BCE the chin
3:48 Kingdom had defeated or forced into
3:50 submission all the other states of China
3:52 the direct dominance of most what we
3:54 call China today is what earns chinchi
3:57 Huang the title of first emperor as he
3:59 was the first direct ruler of a unified
4:02 China in its history during his Reign he
4:05 standardized currency weights and
4:07 measures commissioned the creation of
4:08 China's incredibly clever written
4:10 language which is universally
4:11 comprehensible across the dialect began
4:14 construction on the mother of all
4:15 defensive walls the great wall and
4:17 ordered the building of a network of
4:19 roads and canals to connect his empire
4:21 together along with developing his
4:22 country however he also developed a
4:25 serious case of paranoia now this wasn't
4:26 entirely unjustified as there were
4:29 multiple and continuous attempts on his
4:31 life it did lead him to become one of
4:33 the more murderous Emperors in Chinese
4:34 history however a tendency which was
4:37 probably exacerbated by mercury
4:38 poisoning in his quest for an elixir of
4:41 immortality he had become persuaded that
4:43 taking Mercury pills would preserve his
4:45 life of course rather than granting him
4:48 everlasting life ingesting Mercury
4:50 caused him debilitating pain and Sanity
4:52 and ultimately death chin Shi Huang He
4:54 died at the age of 49 and his dynasty
4:57 collapsed a few short years afterwards
5:05 one of the most important documentary
5:07 sources for the Qin Dynasty is the court
5:09 historian Shima chiung writing about a
5:12 hundred years after the emperor's death
5:13 care must be taken with his count
5:15 however as he was working for the
5:17 dynasty which defeated the chin and it
5:20 was in his interest to portray chin Shi
5:23 Huang as an inhuman monster it's
5:25 therefore likely that some details have
5:27 been exaggerated to serve this agenda
5:29 having said that the 40-year long
5:31 archaeological dig has confirmed much of
5:33 chiang's account and the extent and
5:36 magnificence of what's been uncovered in
5:38 some cases exceeds his descriptions in
5:40 fact the early discovery of the
5:41 underground complex is rehabilitated
5:43 Chang's history somewhat as did the 2017
5:46 discovery of a chin Court archive which
5:49 seems to confirm much of his assessment
5:51 of The Emperor's character plans for the
5:53 mausoleum were originally smaller in
5:55 scope with a tumulus and relatively
5:57 modest Acropolis to be filled this was
5:59 the custom at the time with bronze
6:01 vessels everyday objects and sacrificial
6:03 victims as the chin bar collapsed
6:05 however the plan became more and more
6:07 grandiose until at the peak of
6:09 construction more than 700 000 workers
6:13 were toiling at the site many of whom
6:14 had never done anything else in their
6:17 entire lives according to SEMA Chiang
6:19 the central Mausoleum aligned precisely
6:21 to the cardinal points and nearly 350
6:23 square meters is surrounded by a
6:25 rectangular tamped Earth wall 10 meters
6:28 thick inside this is an inner wall of
6:30 the same thickness and both walls are
6:32 equipped with Monumental Gates now lost
6:35 the configuration is reminiscent of the
6:37 outer and inner walls of the city of
6:39 Shion young the Gin Capital at the time
6:41 in the outer Court there are buildings
6:43 for the conduct of ritual sacrifices
6:45 some structures we still don't know the
6:47 purpose of and a set of stables
6:49 containing the remains of sacrificial
6:50 animals within the Southeastern portion
6:52 of the outer wall there's a cache of
6:54 armor pieces made in stone bronze Birds
6:56 terracotta figures and musicians and
6:57 acrobats and the remains more
6:59 sacrificial animals Shima Chien writes
7:02 of thousands of Craftsmen and Artisans
7:04 being drafted in many against their will
7:06 which makes sense given the sheer number
7:08 of statues figurines models Furniture
7:10 Vehicles weapons and other accoutrement
7:12 some historians have dismissed these
7:15 accounts as exaggerations designed to
7:17 paint the Emperor as they glorious
7:20 Tyrant but the workers Cemetery outside
7:22 the outer wall is crowded and the sheer
7:25 volume of fines seems to back up this
7:27 account an examination of the ears of
7:30 terracotta warriors has found that each
7:31 pair of ears in the sample group was
7:33 unique and that they contained a level
7:35 of variation matching a human population
7:37 on top of this each of the thousands of
7:39 terracotta warriors excavated so far
7:41 Bears a Hallmark indicating which of the
7:44 individual Craftsmen made it it's not
7:46 possible to extrapolate how many
7:47 Craftsmen there were from these marks
7:49 alone but they do support the idea that
7:51 the Terracotta Army was modeled from
7:53 life or were very least hand modeled
7:56 individually a process which would
7:58 require a great many Artisans and that's
8:01 for the Warriors alone there are many
8:03 tens of thousands of visually crafted
8:05 objects within the complex written
8:07 accounts also tell us that all of these
8:09 Artisans are was sealed inside the tomb
8:11 as well as the structures on the surface
8:13 a massive network of underground
8:15 Chambers and corridors has been revealed
8:17 by ground penetrating radar and
8:18 excavation there is surveys the size of
8:21 the Subterranean Acropolis at between 60
8:23 and 100 square kilometers its layout has
8:27 been variously interpreted as being
8:29 reminiscent of the capital XI and Yang
8:31 or of the geography of the Qin empire in
8:34 the northern part of the enclosure are
8:35 34 tombs for the emperor's Companions
8:37 and the rest of the complex houses pits
8:40 for animal sacrifices and the storage of
8:41 grave goods and according to chian's
8:43 account are replicas of towers temples
8:46 and palaces to create the emperor's
8:48 Central tomb quote the laborers dug
8:51 through three Subterranean streams which
8:53 they sealed off with bronze to construct
8:55 the burial chamber end quote from Jan by
8:58 the way magnetic anomaly scans of the
9:00 chamber have revealed that Tam Turf
9:02 retaining walls were constructed all
9:04 around it presumably to protect it from
9:06 being flooded as the water table in the
9:08 area is quite High directly above the
9:09 chamber is the tumulus which I was
9:11 recorded as being more than a hundred
9:13 meters high it currently stands at 54
9:15 meters and or we don't know if it's
9:17 eroded or if it was unfinished or if
9:19 Chan simply exaggerated or had the
9:21 figure wrong either way thousands of
9:23 tons of dirt over shoveled by hand
9:25 create the tumulus a Monumental feat in
9:27 itself once it was done an entire forest
9:30 was planted to disguise the location the
9:32 labor involved as with every other
9:34 aspect of this Mausoleum is
9:36 staggering
9:38 [Music]
9:42 it's possible that we'll never know
9:44 what's in the central Chambers at the
9:46 moment archaeologists don't have the
9:48 technology to excavate the tumulus
9:50 without destroying the Dooms and the
9:51 fines within Shima Chan's account
9:53 however provides a detailed description
9:55 of its contents he says that the
9:56 emperor's tomb is surrounded by rivers
9:58 of liquid mercury the emperor's
10:00 immortality elixir of choice fashioned
10:03 to simulate the hundreds of rivers as
10:04 well as the yellow and Yangtze rivers
10:06 and the Sea into which they flow the
10:08 Dome representing the firmament was
10:10 supposed to be high metal beams above
10:12 his resting place set with celestial
10:14 bodies made from pearls and precious
10:15 gems he also gives detailed descriptions
10:18 of booby traps made with crossbows
10:19 designed to shoot anyone who tries to
10:21 enter the tomb the floor of the chamber
10:23 was decorated with the map of the Empire
10:25 so that xinji Huang could continue his
10:27 rule in the afterlife much of this
10:29 especially the rivers of mercury was
10:30 viewed with suspicion by historians but
10:32 probes inserted into the burial chamber
10:34 of detected Mercury at more than a
10:36 hundred dimes the normal levels which
10:38 lend some Credence to this account and
10:40 if Mercury's in there then the traps
10:42 might be as well and archaeologists say
10:44 there's every reason to believe that
10:46 they'd be preserved in working order
10:47 which I would make any dig not just
10:49 dangerous to the monument but to the
10:51 diggers as well over the last 40 years a
10:53 great many test pit small scale
10:55 exploratory excavations have been dug
10:57 within one of these a 50 meter long pit
11:00 was discovered containing two chariots
11:02 correct in every detail but with all
11:04 parts and fittings including the
11:06 Chariots themselves made of bronze and
11:08 at half scale the leading Chariot is
11:10 canopied and manned by a crossbowman
11:12 whereas the rear vehicle is in enclosed
11:15 Carriage Man by a single driver this
11:16 Convoy matches textual descriptions of
11:19 The Emperor's travel Arrangements a
11:20 common funerary practice of the time was
11:22 to create objects called minchi which
11:25 were painstaking replicas of functional
11:27 objects but made with the wrong material
11:29 it's possible that these bronze chariots
11:31 were mingji but of the sets of stone
11:33 armor found in the pit the east of the
11:36 complex definitely were they are
11:37 full-size pieces each scale link and
11:40 plate made individually from Stone as if
11:42 designed to be worn but in reality far
11:44 too heavy to be used it's thought that
11:45 stone was considered to be effective
11:47 against evil spirits at the time and
11:49 this may explain why these sets of armor
11:51 were stored here the similar practice
11:52 prevails in some Taoist funerals with
11:55 elaborate grave goods made of paper
11:57 being burned so that their Essence joins
11:59 The Departed in heaven of course most
12:01 famously there are the numerous pits
12:03 containing the Terracotta Army
12:04 interestingly Shima Chan makes no
12:07 mention of this Warrior statues made
12:09 from separate pieces and brightly
12:10 colored with mineral paint are all
12:12 individualized in terms of their facial
12:14 features and hairstyle some scholars
12:15 believe that the realism of these
12:17 figures may be a sign of Greek
12:19 influences as this was also the period
12:21 of the seleucid the inheritors of
12:24 Alexander the Great's Empire who spread
12:25 Hellenistic art and culture throughout
12:28 Asia at the time the Warriors are
12:30 accompanied by horses and War chariots
12:32 more than 40 000 weapons and pieces of
12:34 equipment were found in the pits which
12:36 have been excavated some of the swords
12:38 were made from a rare 13 element alloy
12:40 which has kept the blades pristine and
12:42 sharp to this very day additionally a
12:45 perfectly preserved and elegantly simple
12:47 action for a repeating crossbow was
12:49 found in the pits which has led some
12:51 historians to hypothesize that Superior
12:52 military technology may have been a
12:54 factor in the rise of the Qing Kingdom
12:56 the soldiers stand in a variety of
12:58 battle orders which correspond to
13:00 traduses on Military science of The Day
13:02 The Chariot here Battalion for example
13:04 consists of about 1300 men and is formed
13:06 with archers and crossbowmen in the
13:08 Vanguard and planking files the center
13:10 is composed of infantry and War chariots
13:12 and armored vehicles make up the rear
13:14 guard this and other infantry and
13:16 Cavalry formations match Warfare manuals
13:19 preserved from the period one of the
13:20 pits contains only 68 figures as opposed
13:22 to the thousands in the others and these
13:25 are thought to represent the Central
13:26 Command Staff all military figures found
13:28 standing thus far are placed in
13:31 defensive trenches Facing East some
13:32 Scholars speculate that as this was the
13:35 direction where the Qin Empire's
13:37 greatest threats existed the Army was
13:39 made as a symbolic or spiritual defense
13:41 against these threats this is sort of
13:44 speculation however it's equally
13:45 possible that the Eastern alignment has
13:47 some religious significance the cardinal
13:49 points having ritual importance
13:51 throughout most of China's history a
13:53 large pit in the western part of the
13:55 enclosure containing the remains of
13:57 hundreds of horses as well as many
13:58 exotic species of deer and other animals
14:00 are thought to have been the emperor's
14:02 Zoo perhaps sacrificed and buried for
14:04 his Amusement in the afterlife as well
14:06 as this pit on the Eastern side yielded
14:08 a multitude of figures representing
14:10 entertain as such a strong and jugglers
14:11 and acrobats along with these were
14:13 spectacular heavy cauldrons thought to
14:15 be props for a strong man exhibition as
14:18 oh well there's a great many figures of
14:19 birds in both clay and bronze at the
14:21 time the ownership of private Parks
14:23 large enough to accommodate water Birds
14:25 was an important status symbol and it's
14:27 possible that these figures together
14:28 represent a pleasure Garden of this type
14:31 other figures found in different areas
14:33 of the compound are clearly scribes and
14:34 officials meaning that the bureaucracy
14:36 of the empire was also represented in
14:38 the necropolis all this put together
14:40 strongly suggests that similar to
14:42 Egyptian funery practices the chin
14:44 Mausoleum may have been designed as a
14:47 complete venue in which the emperor
14:49 could live out his afterlife this
14:50 brought into note though that we have no
14:52 textual evidence to help us understand
14:53 the mentality or religion of the emperor
14:56 and that any speculation that's took the
14:59 tomb's purpose must remain just that
15:01 speculation the laborers tombs outside
15:03 and at some distance to the West
15:05 revealed the brutality of the conditions
15:07 during the construction project there
15:09 are hundreds of graves many still marked
15:12 with fragmentary clay tablets which bear
15:14 the names of the dead and in the case of
15:15 the prisoners air offenses and
15:17 punishments the bones in these Graves
15:19 show deep lacerations indicating they
15:21 were either mutilated or executed the
15:23 presence of women and children in these
15:25 graveside similarly marked by violence
15:27 May indicate that the chin practice
15:28 punishing whole families for single
15:30 offenses might have been an operation
15:32 here
15:33 [Music]
15:37 a gray many bodies have been found over
15:40 the course of the excavation with most
15:42 of these being large groups of people
15:43 apparently buried alive in underground
15:45 Chambers these bodies match historical
15:47 accounts of The Emperor's sudden death
15:49 while traveling and the hurry closing
15:51 off and filling in of the various
15:52 underground Chambers sealing the workers
15:54 inside to preserve the secrets of the
15:56 Tomb more recently however human remains
15:58 have been found which might support more
16:00 of the historical accounts of the end of
16:02 the first Emperor's Reign according to
16:04 Shima Chan the Emperor died suddenly in
16:07 his Carriage the enclosed one which
16:09 seems to have been represented at half
16:10 scale in his tomb the chief minister
16:12 worried that an uprising might break out
16:15 in the two months that it would take to
16:16 get the body back to the capital and he
16:19 strove to hide the death he confided in
16:21 the emperor's youngest son ying huhai
16:23 and a few trusted eunuchs and together
16:25 They carried on a pretense of attending
16:28 on a still-living Emperor they brought
16:31 food and water to the sealed Carriage
16:33 pretended to Harry messages back and
16:35 forth and changed his clothes daily they
16:37 also purchased a massive quantity of
16:38 Abalone to be carried With A procession
16:40 in order to hide the smell with this
16:42 early notice of The Emperor's death who
16:44 I was able to execute a bloody coup
16:47 forging the emperor's signature on
16:49 orders for his eldest brother and a
16:50 senior military ally to commit suicide
16:53 after he reached the capital who High
16:54 sees control and ordered all of his
16:56 siblings to be executed dismembered and
16:58 buried in his father's tomb he also
17:00 ordered all childless concubines to be
17:02 executed to ensure that no rival
17:04 successes would emerge in the future
17:05 when these killings were done he
17:08 instructed his men to finish the
17:09 underground Chambers and tumulus and to
17:11 seal all of the Craftsmen and laborers
17:13 in his father's tomb while it's not
17:15 conclusive a group of skeletons mostly
17:18 male and all shot in the head at close
17:20 range with crossbows maybe who hires
17:22 unfortunate siblings they've been
17:24 tentatively identified as such as the
17:26 bodies were found with artifacts
17:27 belonging to the royal family quite
17:29 close to the central burial chamber
17:30 about a hundred Dooms have been
17:32 uncovered most of which appear to be
17:33 empty outside these however a scattered
17:36 body parts showing signs of fatal
17:37 violence and Scattered gold coins
17:39 gemstones and Pearls this is suggestive
17:42 of Shan's account of the killing of
17:44 concubines whom he said were driven deep
17:46 into the tomb before the soldiers lost
17:47 control of them and had to chase them
17:49 down and murder them where they stood
17:51 work continues but it seems like these
17:52 latest finds further bear out the
17:54 historical picture painted by Shima
17:57 Chiang
17:58 [Music]
18:03 after killing all of his rival claimants
18:06 it was not however capable of holding
18:08 onto power in the face of widespread
18:09 popular unrest and Rebellion chaos
18:11 spread through the land and within three
18:13 years of the first Emperor's death the
18:15 chin armies are decimated by Zhong new
18:17 Warriors from the Central Asian step
18:19 what followed was a period of warfare
18:22 known as the chuhan contention which
18:24 would eventually end in the
18:25 establishment of the famous Han Dynasty
18:27 the chin Emperor is Mausoleum though
18:28 still remembered a hundred years on in
18:30 the writings of Shima Chien Court
18:32 historian for the early hand dynasty was
18:34 eventually forgotten as thousands of
18:35 turbulent years of Chinese history
18:37 passed chinchi huang's arrogant bid for
18:39 eternal life and a reign of Ten Thousand
18:41 Years yielded him only an early grave
18:43 and an undying reputation for
18:45 megalomania and cruelty along with being
18:48 credited with the first and most lasting
18:51 unification of China regardless of
18:53 Chin's character and Legacy however his
18:54 tomb stands as a stunning Testament to
18:57 Chinese Imperial civilization still the
18:59 largest most intricate single tomb
19:01 complex in the world the mausoleum of
19:02 Jin Huang is also a treasure Trove of
19:05 information on a dynasty which
19:07 short-lived as it was laid down some of
19:10 the basic structures of pan-china stated
19:12 which is present to this day
19:16 [Music]
19:25 [Music]

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