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Published: June 22nd 2008
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King Liuwu
King Liuwu was the third king of the Han Dynasty. This is his statue in front of his tomb - obviously added later after the tomb was opened for public viewing. The school decided to change our teaching schedule, so we finished off our teaching term on Friday 13 June, instead of 5 July. As we had some unexpected time off, we decided to do a bit of exploring of Jiangsu Province, where we are based. Yancheng is south of the middle of the Province, but closer to the east coast. We had read about some Terracotta Warriors in the city of Xuzhou, which is located up in the far northwest of our Province. It is about a 4 1/2 hour train trip away. Not much is written about these Terracotta Warriors, as they certainly aren’t as famous as the Qin Dynasty Warriors found in Xian, in central China.
The Han Dynasty was in power in China between 206 BC and 220 AD. The Chu King, who started the Dynasty, came from the Xuzhou region, so established the Han Dynasty headquarters in Xuzhou, forming the eastern part of the Han Dynasty. Guarding the Tomb of the Third King of the Dynasty, in 1984, they discovered and excavated a terracotta army of the Han Dynasty found in China. It is another significant discovery after the Xian Terracotta Warriors and Horses of the
Liu wu's Tunnel diagram
The tunnel was quite detailed and provided for the King's needs in his after-life. Many relics were found when they opened the tomb. Qin Dynasty. Later, the Chinese built a museum at the original place of the discovery.
Located at the foot of Lion Mountain, the museum is an important part of the tomb of Liuwu, who was the third king of the Chu Kingdom in the Western Han Dynasty (206BC-24AD). The funerary objects of the king, about 4,800 pieces of colored terracotta warriors and horses about 40 cm high, filled with vivid expressions, were located. Most of these clay figures are on display at the museum site at Lion Mountain.
There are six pits altogether in the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of the Han Dynasty: three infantry pits, one pottery-guard pit, one cavalry pit and one chariot pit. So far only two infantry pits and one pottery-guard pit have been excavated fully. In the two infantry pits there are about 1,016 pottery figures in Pit No.1 and 1,377 in Pit No.2. The terracotta warriors and horses are basically in good condition and they are all arranged in battle formation of the Chu Kingdom in the early Western Han Dynasty, with soldiers as well as officers visible in the infantry. The soldiers are in different positions: some are standing, still armed
Battle formation
This is No.1 Pit and the warriors were found in battle formation. Some items have been removed for display in Museums. with crossbows and in their suits of armor, and some are kneeling.
Apart from the six pits, they also have a military exhibition hall and a temporary exhibition hall displaying clay figures, weapons, carriages and horses.
Compared with the Xian Terracotta Warriors and Horses of the Qin Dynasty, the Han tomb figures are smaller but the development of their features is based on that in the Qin Dynasty. It is reported that in the Han Dynasty, craftsmen paid careful attention to detail. They focused on the soldiers' inner world and their spirit. As tomb figures of the king, most of them show some sorrowful and respectful expressions. According to historical records, citizens between 18 and 55 years old in the Han Dynasty had to join the army for two years. Consequently you can see both young and old soldiers among the pottery figures.
Later we visited another Tomb, known as the Guishan Han Tomb, which is situated in the west side of Guishan Mountain, in the northwest of Xuzhou City. It is the tomb for the sixth King Chu Liu Zhu (who reigned between 128 BC-116 BC) and his wife in Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-24 AD). With
Terracotta warriors
There were only a few horses in this formation. The tall fellow is an important public official or officer, hence is is larger than the soldiers. an area of over 700 square meters, this tomb boasts the grand scale, extraordinary design and delicate work. It is composed of two parallel but communicating parts: the south part is the tomb of Liu Zhu and the north part of his wife. Each part has a path for people to enter the main body of the tomb. The main body of the tomb consists of fifteen halls including bedrooms, parlors, kitchens and even the washing room and stables. The whole tomb even has a complete drainage system. It is just like an underground palace for the King and his wife for their after-life.
The two paths respectively leading to the two tombs are paralleled, and the distance between them is about 19 meters. Each of them is about 56 meters long, 178 mm high and 106 mm wide. They are not built up by laying stones but excavated by hand, chipping away at the rock of the hillside. What's amazing is that just relying on the simple craft and tools, the workmen should limit the paths' deviation within 5 mm from midline and the angle between the two paths is even less than 20 seconds. Moreover, without any
Soldiers
Here you can see the standing soldiers who carried long bows, whereas the kneeling soldiers used cross-bows. advanced machine, the wall and floor in the whole path are chiseled so smooth that could be on a par with modern tilt-slab wall.
Walking along the paths, people could enter the main body of the tomb. With about 2600 cubic meters, the main body nearly takes up the whole bosom of the mountain. In the main body, there are fifteen halls. Connecting to each other, those halls are arranged in a clear order according to their functions. With the elaborate design, the roofs of the halls are in various styles like vault, flat or four-angled spire. And by the exquisite work, all the corners in the halls are almost carved into a right-angle. In some larger halls, there are huge stone pillars left when the halls were excavated.
In the hall where the casket of Liu Zhu lies, there is an interesting scene. The north wall of this hall reveals a silhouette of a life-sized person in Han clothing. He is in a position of greeting the guests. It is called the 'Greeting Chu Wang' (which means Liu Zhu). What's amazing is that this scene does not appear at first but gradually shaped after the tomb is opened
Aquatic Warriers
Here is a separate display, as this pit was found under a lake. The horses showed a cavalry formation and the horses were larger than the other soldiers in Pit 1. to the public eye. It looks as if the Prince Liu Zhu is extending his greeting to the tourists.
The unearthed relics from this tomb like various bronze ware, vivid gold-plated tigers and delicate jade articles are now exhibited in the Xuzhou Museum, which we also visited to see the real objects.
We also visited the Gallery of Han Stone Sculptures, which covers an area of 25,000 square meters containing a total of over 800 different thematic stone sculptures of the Han Dynasty. The stone sculptures belong to a kind of plastic arts, which combine painting, carving and architecture together. Usually they are carved on grave chambers, coffins and ancestral temples. The stone sculpture in Xuzhou is one of the three kinds of 'Top Craftsmanship in Han Dynasty'. The stone sculptures of the Han Dynasty in Xuzhou, the Stone Carvings of Six Dynasties (386-589) (referring to Northern and Southern Dynasties) in Nanjing and the Classical Garden in Suzhou (we will be visiting this site too in two weeks), are together ranked as 'Three Treasures of Jiangsu Province'.
There is also a Xuzhou Folk-Custom Museum, which is in the urban precinct. It also occupies an area of 6,000 sq
Cavalry
A view of the cavalry formation - and the yanks thought they invented this for the indian wars. meters and is built on the residential site from the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. The museum's theme focuses on folk relics and folk culture. It contains over 160 rooms that show the strong local flavor of old residential houses in Xuzhou.
Overall, we had a great trip back to the Han Dynasty. Seeing some of the ancient carving, pottery and tombs was incredible and well worth the trip. We’re are certainly looking forward to further adventures. This week, we are off to the seaside town of Nantong, which is situated on the northern bank of the Yangtze, as it spills into the ocean. Oh well, we will just have to eat their seafood dishes, but definitely no swimming - we are not that trusting of the water quality.
We thank China Travel Guides for a lot of the information we obtained about Xuzhou.
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