it's a story over 2,000 years old about the birth of China's first imperial dynasty it was a time of conflict a time of betrayal and the lust for power it has all the makings of a great novel really it's got intrigue it's got violence sex mystery at its center is Qin sure Wong the Emperor who created a superpower out of warring factions a controversial figure historians viewed with scorn they portray him as irrational deeply superstitious incompetent a tyrant but is this depiction of Qin sherwin fact or fiction well you know it comes from the account by Sima Qian who was actually running during the historical period following the Qin Dynasty well this is a longer chain job with his achievements outweigh any of his failures the high water was he an incompetent ruler a brutal tyrant or a great leader now it's time to take another look at China's first emperor to 46 BC in Far East Asia war had been raging for nearly two centuries the collapse of a 500 year old dynasty had unleashed a ruthless power struggle between seven rival states each one vying for dominance each bent on conquest what once was the Jo Empire had fractured into pieces the battlefield was where disputes were resolved playing out the ambitions of their leaders thousands of warriors engaged in a ritual of combat wielding swords and facing their destiny it remained to be seen which of the warring states would emerge victorious and become the new power in the region during the chaos in Xi'an yang the capital of Qin State on the western border of the crumbling dynasty a new king was crowned his ascension to the throne was unexpected and to some within the kingdom represented an opportunity this new king was 13 years old ill-equipped for the responsibilities of being a monarch he inherited a palace rife with intrigue deception and duplicity few believed he could guarantee his own safety let alone control the fate of his kingdom but this seemingly unremarkable heir would do what no ruler had done before make one nation from the remnants of a broken Empire his name was yang Jung later to be called Jin Chuang but there's little we know of him the primary source for qincha Wong's life is this Han Dynasty texts called records of the grand historian written by Smuts yen written as it turns out more than a century after Qin sir Wang died and it really is a magnificent text it's it's very compelling it's full of detail dialogue and it has all the makings of a great novel really but is that text accurate according to symmetry on living with a young ruler was Chung's widowed mother Queen Dowager Zhao she was the only person the young boy King could trust or so it seemed what he didn't know was beneath his mother's serene gaze there lurked a dark motive she installed a palace minister to act as his adviser an influential ally who would allow the Queen access to her son's royal power his name was Luba Wade the man who had introduced the Queen when she was a lowly concubine to the previous king so when the young king versus under the throne he was just a teenager and it would have been common practice at that time to appointed a regent for rulers who had not yet come of age as regent and advisor to eun-jung Luba was the most influential man in the palace the power behind the throne who would rule the kingdom from the shadows but he had a secret of his own to hide he was Queen jowls lover and the likely father of the young king zhe lu buwei was concerned the young king would find out about his affair with the Queen which he feared would cost him his position in the court to issue to conceal his relationship with the Queen lü buwei looked for a man who could replace him in the Queen's bedroom a man he could trust and his queen would accept the way found a well-endowed man and paraded him about so that in Jung's mother's lasciviousness would be aroused a fusion she another hot new job lu buwei scheme worked at first lau i disguised himself as a eunuch so he could enter the queen's chamber without suspicion and ultimately capture her heart [Music] the Queen was a willing accomplice in Luba ways plan away from prying eyes she and Lau I began a torrid affair that fueled a plot to overthrow her son the king the trails coming from within the palace were perils young Zhang had to anticipate he may have possessed a king's power but being a teenager he was too an experience to use it effectively as a result he had to rely on Lu Bowie's advice which may not have always been in his best interests despite the constant state of war in the region Yin John had inherited a kingdom that was steadily growing there were talented generals there were wise ministers already in place and lu buwei was among them so while injeong was a teenager the Qin state continued to grow and consolidate land and become more and more powerful but the end two centuries of war was still off in the future rival states were consumed in battling each other for survival and for supremacy [Music] it would take a bold leader with fearless vision to rise above the fray and seize victory from his enemies [Music] eight years later 238 BC the affair between the queen and her lover had flourished now I no longer pretended to be a servile eunuch with the Queen's support he was now a powerful man and the pair secretly had two sons together but Lau I wanted more than lavish Palace comforts he had his sights set on a bigger prize why the monk law I had 3,000 men under him and was recruiting more all the time he wanted to see liens on throne for himself but Lao I underestimated the now 22-year old king young Zhang got word of the planned coup [Music] [Music] lupa ways matchmaking was about to backfire leaving him exposed to the wrath of an outraged king when his plot to overthrow King King John was discovered wow I decided to make his move without the element of surprise he and his followers rode toward the palace intent on making a preemptive strike [Music] but the king was no longer a naive teenager he had learned from his palace ministers and military advisers and had carefully planned a response the King saw his chance to eliminate both Lau I who was after his throne and Liu Bei his scheming to powerful regions [Music] yingxiong anticipated that lau i would try to storm the palace by entering the front gate you set a trap and now I am the rebels fell into it while I could only wonder who had orchestrated the attack then he spotted loop away the man responsible for his rise in the palace the co-conspirators were now mortal enemies well I thank you dr. hall life buoy never thought that law I would pose a threat to his power in the court but now he saw that if he didn't help stop law eyes plan to overthrow in tone he could lose everything through what would force a lie so that's why the bull way sided with the Kings against law it was all about preserving his position in the kingdom I don't wish me to bothers it to fail in a palace coup is to invite the most severe punishment Wow I the Queen's lover paid a terrible price for daring to plot against the king [Music] Wow I and 3,000 of his men were executed or exiled by King John but young John didn't stop there he had the sons of lao i and his mother killed to keep them from one day seeking revenge against him in a gesture of mercy eun-jung spared his mother but placed her under house-arrest now he had one last conspirator to deal with loot away his advisor and the mastermind of the match between lau i and the queen would have to pay for his betrayal jinjing don't doubt with lu buwei at once he's sentenced him to exile in sichuan province where Luba way later committed suicide by drinking a cup of poisoned wine so here for the first time since taking the throne in dawn showed his willingness to act for himself sure it was a turning point in the growth of the young ruler the moment when in Jung becomes the king of Qin and this powerful man is the moment at which lu buwei decides to drink poison and kill himself realizing that he had angered what had now become the world's most powerful man young John went on to unveil an ambitious plan to unify the seven warring states into one he began to appoint men of ability guests officers regardless of their background and origin one of the first was Lisa originally from the Chu State Lisa had a superb legal mind and would later draw up the ruling ideology of the Qin Empire here we have an example of the first emperor allowing someone who came from an enemy state to serve him in a closed position because he recognized that Lisa was someone who could be of use yin Jong promoted another talented foreigner jean gua a hydraulic engineer from the nearby Han state in this case what the first emperor wished to have jung-hwa build for him was a canal that could be used to transform the area the plane around the capital of Qin into a fertile area however the canal project hit a snag from the very start King John learned that John gua whom he trusted was actually a spy from the Han State sent to divert Jin's resources to wasteful projects [Music] the king's most powerful advisors urged him to expel all foreign officers from the state but then Lisa from the Chu State weighed in he risked expulsion by writing a petition arguing that foreigners like himself were needed if King John was to achieve his dream of unifying the states ESA's petition was persuasive instead of expelling zhong gua the king ordered him to continue building the canal nice watch many of the king's advisors urged him to expel all foreigners by in zone rejected the idea he was convinced that accepting them in his kingdom and using their talents was of greater benefit being John's decision to welcome foreigners would alter the course of Chinese history the canal that John Guare completed made the Guanzhong plane into fertile land and his agricultural production increased the Qin Kingdom grew richer than other states [Music] with his Treasury overflowing Ian John was determined to make his dream of uniting the warring States a reality he reportedly recruited a million men to become soldiers supplying them with the latest weapons and training them in the art of war the result was a formidable fighting machine it would take time but yin Zhang's Warriors were ready to mobilize a million men stood poised to sacrifice their lives to fight their enemies on the battlefield and build yang John's mighty empire in 230 BC the 29 year old king of Qin embarked on an epic campaign of conquest he wanted to create an empire out of the pieces of the crumbling Zhuo dynasty and now he had the army to do it the Kings forces numbered over a million men had a vast arsenal of weapons and knew only one battle strategy to attack the first target in gang John's plan was the neighboring state of Han to the east in the past the states of the Jo dynasty created a series of alliances and coalition's to protect themselves against the threat of a powerful enemy it worked for a while but things were different this time diplomacy proved useless against the Qin war machine in little time the Han State fell then yingxiong set his sights on another neighbor jaws state blood flowed freely on the battlefield Gyrich in court the Qin military was such a powerful fighting force that the other kingdoms grew desperate to come up with strategies to counteract them she don't comedy she one of them was the kingdom of yang two years into the war diplomats from Yan arrived in Qin their declared purpose was to make amends with the Qin state and negotiate a peace as proof the Yan envoys came bearing gifts for yang Zhong the Envoy gingka brought a box containing the severed head of a Qin general who years earlier had fled to yan after betraying the Qin state [Music] [Music] gingka also brought a map of the yan lands to be presented to the ruler as a gesture signifying the peaceful surrender of the state [Music] but hidden within the map was a surprise while yingxiong avoided the poison dagger he was on his own against the assassin the Kings ministers are not able to come to his aid because there's a law that says they must ask permission to move about the throne room and they're not allowed to carry weapons either yingxiong eluded Gingka then sword in hand he killed him [Music] despite escaping unharmed the assassination attempt infuriated the king enraged he ordered his army to retaliate by speeding up the war against his adversaries the slaughter began the neighboring states were no match for Jim's massive army of skillfully trained soldiers ten years passed one by one the Qin armies conquered the six neighboring states that battled for the past 200 years young John's dream of creating an empire became a reality people had thought about an empire that occupied in effect the whole world but it was yang Jung who actually created it and by doing so he created an ideal that would remain important for the remainder of Chinese history up until the present day 221b see [Music] a massive crowd gathered for a coronation ceremony in the capital of Qin where at 38 years old yang Jung named himself Qin sure Wong the first emperor of a vast new territory a territory we now know as China the title of Emperor meant that there was now one and only one sovereign a declaration that the entire country was under his rule this was the birth of China a land of warring States that was now one nation it was the dawn of a new era yangsun's assumption the title the augusta first emperor Qin or Qin Shihuang is crucial because it suggests to us that he no longer saw himself merely as a terrestrial king but rather he saw his role as being elevated to that of the ruler of an empire and a world that could be viewed perhaps on cosmic proportions but his emperor qin sure wang still faced many challenges among them was the need to bring together people from different states and cultures under a single system to consolidate his realm it's pretty clear that he recognized that what he was doing had never been done before it was important to him that people not think of themselves as loyal to former kingdoms but rather loyal to the Qin Empire unification began with a change in the system of government ginger Wong abolished feudalism dividing the Empire into 36 prefectures or provinces which were placed under his direct control this centralization of power was unprecedented officials were appointed to positions on the basis of merit and ability rather than on hereditary rights or family ties this system known as legalism represented a break from previous traditions [Music] the early legalists viewed humans as essentially selfish but not necessarily in a bad way they thought the state could harness this selfishness and allow their subjects to pursue their desires and passions in the service of the state ginger Wong had to overcome fierce opposition from powerful ministers for his Reformation to succeed to do so he relied on Lisa who served as his prime minister and wrote many of Chin's new laws chin didn't emphasize ritual and tradition but instead they emphasized law and the importance of law codes of something that didn't vary or change according to family or according to local place this is something introduced by the Qin in 1975 archaeologists got a first-hand look at Jin's legal system when over a thousand bamboo slips were found in a small village in Hunan Province analysis revealed that the laws were written during Jinger Wong's reign the bamboo slips demonstrate how extensive and strict the laws were at the time they regulated people's lives closely and harsh punishments were meted out to violators [Music] there were also other changes in store for the Empire Lisa standardized weights and measurements units of volume length and weight were made uniform to simplify trade and tax collection Qin sure Wang continued his standardization policy throughout the empire this is the bond Lian coin of the Qin at the time different regions of the country used different types of currency Qin sure Wong unified the currency with bond Leone coins making buying and selling easier throughout China but that wasn't the last of the Emperor's changes among the reforms that ginger Wan introduced to unify China one stood as the most challenging state in the newly created Empire had its own form of writing which made communication between them difficult this was the biggest stumbling block to enforcing Chin's new laws and policies it was important to unify the writing system as quickly as possible the Emperor sent scholars to each province to teach the Qin script since writing systems Express thought and culture ginger Wong knew that without a unified script his empire could dissolve into chaos posing a universal written language made for better communication and acceptance of policies these characters mean horse in the varying scripts of each state ginger Wong unified them with the Qin script the significance of introducing a standardized system of writing cannot be overstated because it facilitated greatly the new system bureaucracy though is introduced under Qin Shihuang many of the standardized Chinese characters established during the Qin Dynasty have survived to the present day Qin sure Wang had achieved what many had dreamed but no one had done before uniting the warring States into a single nation he created a new society based not on custom and tradition but on a powerful central government and the rule of law yet despite this achievement ginger Wang has been portrayed throughout 2,000 years of history as a cruel and brutal tyrant some ancient records claim the Emperor ordered the burning of books that he believed criticized his rule or undermined his power he was also said to have decreed that dissident scholars be buried alive [Music] the reasons for book-burning essentially suppressing freedom of thought and speech were political the emperor was concerned about the spread of ideas opposing his Reformation policies and challenging the legitimacy of his rule yet historians today question whether wholesale book burnings actually occurred we doubt very much that if the burning of the books ever happened that it really represented a burning of all of literature I think we should if it happened we should take it as an example of a government wanting to control information wanting to define what is right and what is wrong to create a kind of orthodoxy and I think there's nothing especially unique in that every country every civilization wants to be able to tell its story the way they want to tell it according to the historical accounts the Qin Dynasty did not destroy all books some copies of forbidden texts were preserved in the Emperor's Imperial archives writings on medicine farming technology and astronomy were known to be kept in the palace it's evidence that ginger Wong did value practical knowledge but more disturbing than book burnings are accounts of the Emperor's brutality designed to enforce obedience through intimidation according to the records of historians writing after the fall of the Qin Dynasty Qin Chuang ordered that 460 Confucian scholars who own copies of forbidden books were to be buried alive but these accounts were written over a century after the burials were to have occurred which leads historians to doubt their validity and since in Chinese history there's a long-standing practice of dynastic histories being written by the successor dynasties but the view that is presented of Qin Shihuang by Sima Qian who was actually running during the historical period following the Qin Dynasty presents a ruler who was a tyrant whenever people talked about bad rulers bad kings in the past one of the things they would say about a bad ruler or a bad king was that this was a person who had no respect for scholars and buried them or or burned documents and so in effect what what we're told about the first emperor is just part of a tradition of criticizing rulers that you don't like and so in my view I don't think we can give very much historical weight to those claims made against the first emperor rather than being a cruel tyrant it's likely that Jin Chuang was a target of political propaganda created by the Han Dynasty that succeeded his [Music] its purpose was to discredit the Qin Dynasty and by doing so justify and elevate its own existence all of our sources for Qing Dynasty history come from the subsequent dynasty the Han Dynasty and so we always have to sort of take them with a grain of salt considering that they consistently portray Qin Dynasty ministers and Qin Shihuang himself as somewhat tyrannical somewhat opportunistic and ultimately a failure many of today's scholars see Jin Chuang in a different light Qing Chuang is often portrayed as an evil tyrant but actually he was a king who was more fair-minded than he's getting credit for so didn't tolerate corruption from bureaucrats especially when it came at the expense of the people no I think we should re-evaluate how we view by virtue of his military and political prowess Jin Chuang ended centuries of conflict and brought peace to the constantly warring States during his 12-year reign he journeyed throughout his realm in the company of his army to inspect the nation he had built but he also had a personal reason for undertaking these tours he wanted to live as long as possible he wanted to prolong his lifetime and so one of the reasons for making these expeditions around his empire was to look for the secrets of immortality that would enable the first emperor to extend his lifetime and extend his reign so that he could continue to rule over his empire as he traveled through his empire Jin Chuang had stone monuments called Steel II erected to commemorate his tours engraved on them are his decrees achievements and exploits the only written records from the time [Music] but even after forming a mighty superpower Shin sure Wong's realm was not free from outside threats [Music] and it led him to undertake one of the ancient world's most extensive construction projects to defend his nation [Music] the Great Wall of China erected as a defensive perimeter against enemies attacking from the north has become chin Sherwin's most visible legacy today it draws some 10 million visitors a year portions of the wall had already existed built by rulers of the states ginger Wang had conquered the Emperor's plan was to connect those walls with newly built barricades a project involving as many as a million of his subjects working over many years and so he set about consolidating these pre-existing walls of other kingdoms they weren't the brick and stone wall we know now that was primarily a project of the Ming Dynasty the Qin Dynasty wall was tamped earth essentially setting up wooden frame works and tamping earth between them and then raising the frame to the desired height once completed the great wall formed a vast structure running over 5,000 miles a monument to Qin sure Wong's vision of a great Chinese Empire his final great construction project was creating a national network of roads [Music] 2,000 years later these magnificent roads testified to the splendor of the Qin Dynasty the Emperor probably travelled along this roadway on his inspection tours the empire that ginger Wong created was centered around the Yellow River and stretched from the Great Wall in the north to the borders of Vietnam in the south his accomplishments are staggering in just over two decades of rule ginger Wong laid the foundation of China that would last for the next two thousand years [Music] once a vulnerable 13-year old king controlled by others Jung Jung survived treachery in the palace outwitted his enemies and became a powerful leader after a decade-long war he unified China and built an empire despite a reputation that portrayed him as a tyrant Shin Sherwin has emerged as a ruler who transformed the world he was born into well this is ovando job his achievements outweigh any of his failures cool tie water Ginga some say that he was too harsh and that his massive building projects may have sped up the fall of the Qing Empire Tobias is that others are even more dismissive saying he burned books and killed scholars Joshua Joshua chin Daniela that's but if we look at his entire reign we can see that he devoted his life to the development of China as a nation in my view he certainly wasn't the tyrant the historical records claim that he was - 10 BC 12 years after China was unified chin sure Wang was on another quest this time for immortality now 50 years old the emperor was exhausted from overwork and weakened from ingesting mercury pills which he believed would make him immortal [Music] on a hot summer day during a tour of Eastern China the Emperor died not at his royal palace but it is carriage [Music] the exact cause of death was never revealed though it's thought mercury poisoning likely played a part of his demise the emperor's body was returned to the qin capital and then laid to rest in his mausoleum under the man-made mountain in nearby xian yan the funeral procession entered a tomb that was the stuff of wonder a lavish divinely inspired replica of his empire awaited him underground a world he believed he would rule in the afterlife for eternity records from historian Sima Cheon claimed that it took 700,000 workers 38 years to build the mausoleum joining him in the afterlife were many priceless treasures including rare birds and animals as well as his childless wives all sealed with ginger Wang in his burial chamber a ruler who dreamed of immortality he also had an army of terracotta warriors buried nearby to protect him in the afterlife and enhance his legacy Chitra Wong has had a great influence over the last 2000 years of China's history many of the systems and policies that he originated during his reign are still in place today he is the one figure who cannot be left out of any record of Chinese history just four years after chin Chauhan died the dynasty he established collapsed but the nation he created lived on and still exists today [Music] China is a country of 1.4 billion people comprising 55 different ethnic groups who speak 120 different languages [Applause] home to this rich diversity for the past 2,000 years it's remained one nation we should keep in mind that the boundaries of empire that Yin John created are more or less the boundaries of modern day China China now enjoys the greatest economic prosperity in its history scholars tell us the essential principles and beliefs of Qin Chuang are still woven into the fabric of the nation I think it's safe to say that perhaps the most important legacy of Qin Shi Huang is the idea of Empire itself over 2,000 years ago the thirteen-year-old ruler of a kingdom in Far East Asia ordered the building of his mausoleum the boy would go on to conquer and unify the seven warring states of a crumbling dynasty making it one nation for the first time he would later be known as Qin Chuang the first emperor of Qin and would leave behind an enduring legacy that has shaped the china we know today but the location and magnificence of his final resting place was lost for centuries he was laying some of those intricate preparations to go on living after death then in 1974 workers in northwest China found fragments of a clay figure and unearthed one of the greatest archeological discoveries in history nothing like that had been discovered before that time this was completely unprecedented archeologists would excavate thousands of terracotta soldiers horses and chariots how were these life-size figures made why were they equipped with real weapons and what other secrets are there buried deep beneath the colossal man-made mountain honoring China's first emperor [Music] during the summer of 1974 near the central Chinese city of Xian yang came news of a spectacular archeological find buried some 15 feet below ground not one but hundreds of life-sized figures made of clay an army of soldiers that would become known as the terracotta warriors archaeologist un Jang Yi was one of the excavators working at the site when the terracotta soldiers were discovered people in China and around the world were amazed teams of archaeologists descended upon the site combing through dirt and clay trying to solve a mystery over 2,000 years old aasif I it was a puzzle because no one had any idea what the statues were - yeah some people thought they were statues of gods a few old women went inside the site and burned incense and worship hi hi oh just one other people said they were false gods and that they should be destroyed Oh you no one knew who created the figures nor did they know when or why hundreds of objects were dug up during the excavation but archeologists questions remained unanswered then they uncovered a vital clue to solving the mystery a number of relics they could pin down to a specific time period they were bronze weapons called a dagger axe it consists of a long wooden shaft with a blade attached to the tip and was used to thrust at and stab the enemy researchers found on the blades of the weapons a statement written in a Chinese script from the 3rd century BC in the pit of the terracotta soldiers some weapons were excavated and on those weapons were descriptions of the ministers of the time including the hue who served under Chuang the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty this confirmed that the tomb nearby was too so long it was impossible to think otherwise but only after more excavation did archaeologists learn the extent of the discovery they attributed the vast tableau to the first emperor of China Qin sir Wang the ruler who created the nation out of a group of warring provinces the figures dubbed the Terracotta Warriors looked vividly lifelike as if blood flowed through their veins standing in battle ready formation this army was unveiled for the first time in over 2,000 years the Terracotta Army captured the public's imagination and fueled intense curiosity about that ancient era visitors wanted to know more about the ruler ginger Wan and why the army of statue warriors came to be buried here complicating matters CIMMYT Cheon the historian who chronicled the Emperor's life offers little help Asuma Chan wrote nothing of the existence of the Terracotta Warriors there's nothing in his account that suggests to us but he is aware of their production in interment in the pits that surrounded the first emperor of Qin mausoleum answering questions about the Terracotta Warriors requires a journey back into China's early history in 246 BC a new king ascended the throne in the western state of Qin little was expected of him at the time he was only 13 years old his name was yang Jung the ruler who would later become ginger Wong China's first emperor following royal tradition upon taking the throne the king ordered his prime minister Liu Bei to fulfill a special command by the second year of their reign Kings would begin building their own tombs that's why which had 14 intone ordered the construction of his mausoleum the capital of Qin state Xi'an yang is one of the oldest cities in China it was the Eastern Gateway to the famed Silk Road trade route and served as a center of politics economy and culture around chew 46 BC on the outskirts of Xian yang work began on what would become the young rulers final resting place the burial mound is 345 meters wide 350 meters long and 55 meters high a structure bigger than the Great Pyramid of Giza the location of the Terracotta Army site is almost a mile away from the Emperor's burial mound because of the distance from chin sure Wong's tomb archeologists suspected there was more to the site than the life-size clay Soldiers they uncovered in one of several pits below ground their investigations led to the conclusion that the soldiers served as bodyguards for ginger Wong in the afterlife some scholars think that they are defending it some think that they are a representation of the retinue that Qin Shihuang would have traveled around his empire with Jing hua Xiong he did run away far Kenya our investigation of the site revealed it to be extremely large hello minister in the first pin we found a large number of clay figures mostly infantrymen some charities and horses about six thousand of them happy by the discovery of the Terracotta Army helped us understand a great deal about the time okay yeah all of the clay figures were very realistic so by starting them we learned much about the Qin military the political situation even the clothing they wore during the third century BC the region we now call China was a bloody battleground with the collapse of the centuries-old Zhuo dynasty seven states erupted in endless wars for supremacy [Music] the battles went on for decades finally by 221 BC under ruler Gangjeong the chin defeated all the other states and the reasons for his success can be found in the innovations that produced his remarkable army of the Dead the world has never seen anything quite like the Terracotta Warriors the figures are tall and wear expressions that reveal the imposing character and fierce resolve of the legendary Qin Dynasty soldiers looking at them individually and in their military formation you get a real appreciation for the strength of the Qin army they don't use informal fees on the dojo oh yeah oh they're extraordinary and it's no wonder that with them Qing Chuang conquered the other states new gonna ship when I need you Pitt wanted the Terracotta Warriors displays the battle formation of the Qin military the first three rows consist of archers facing forward behind them stand infantryman in 38 rows poised to strike upon the commander's order the flanks are defended by troops on the periphery facing outwards watching for threats from any direction pit one contains a well-organized infantry Corps of 6,000 men the Warriors once held weapons befitting their duties and the shapes of their hands all differ according Lee these are Spears and dagger axes used by the infantrymen crossbows and bronze arrows allowed the warriors to attack enemies from a distance during the excavation one discovery took the archaeologists by surprise despite being buried for over 2,000 years the swords of the infantrymen were still in pristine rust free condition the Qin dynasty's metalwork was highly advanced for its time [Music] researchers examined why the weapons maintained their team cutting edge and didn't trust we did test to see why the source were still short after being buried so long and what we found evidence of chromium oxide on the sword blades which prevents them from rusting and which means it's impressive that China had developed this technology over a thousand years before the Western world after all Germany didn't discover this method until the 1930s in America not until the 1950s [Music] bonding a chromium oxide coating to a metal surface requires temperatures of 1400 degrees Fahrenheit to toughen it and make it durable because of this advanced technology the Qin States weaponry and its superior troop strength gave its fighters an advantage over their enemies on the battlefield [Music] the initial excavation of pit Wan took over two years during that time the archaeologists uncovered two more pits in the vicinity pictu is located about 60 feet from pit one and is smaller in size but measuring a hundred and thirty six yards wide and a hundred and seven yards long it's still three times larger than a soccer field the figures and weapons here differ from pit one pit two contains a variety of soldiers including archers and charities compared to pit one which contains mainly infantrymen after 20 months spent removing earth and Timbers archaeologists found pit 2 to be full of chariots archers and cavalry men soldiers with crossbows stood in formation at the front while cavalry men were positioned behind them flank to the side was a mixed array of mid-sized chariots and infantrymen with three armored men placed in each of the four horse chariots [Music] [Applause] archaeologists estimate the number of horses in pit 2 to be over 500 the horse figures revealed a feature previously unknown to experts well made that team qualifies entity we found the horse saddles in this pit to be very well decorated dodges the fatal hob putting a saddle on a horse makes for more comfortable riding and it also gives you an advantage when you're fighting in battle before this discovery scholars thought that saddles were first used in the Han Dynasty the empire that followed the Qin saddles were known to greatly improve the speed mobility and tactical strategy of the cavalry men another innovation found in pit two involved the crossbowmen in the front ranks their powerful weapons had an automatic trigger which may have been the reason for the Qin Army's success in battle [Music] some experts think the crossbow had arranged twice that of today's modern assault rifles during battle soldiers with crossbows must have shot bronze arrows continuously from the frontlines bombarding the enemy forces from as much as a mile away later research has found that the triggers of the crossbows had standardized parts this would allow soldiers to quickly replace broken or defective triggers with a spare while on the battlefield this was the earliest instance of China's standardizing weapons we think of standardization as a modern concept but examining these weapons from the Ching dynasty it's clear they were technologically advanced in terms of production so scholars now say the Ching dynasty was the first to make weapons with replaceable parts systemization was not limited to the crossbow most other weapons including bronze arrowheads Spears swords and dagger axes were standardized as well it meant that chin soldiers would not be hampered by broken weapons during battle a key factor to their success [Music] while pits 1 & 2 contain thousands of infantrymen and cavalrymen pit 3 is the smallest and houses the Army's high-ranking officers this separate command post was unusual today's modern warfare features superior officers issuing orders from a command post behind the lines [Music] but this was rare in ancient battles where strategies were different back then most military commanders let troops onto the battlefield but instead the Ching officers used their skills to issue orders from behind the front lines the Jin dynasty had well trained soldiers state-of-the-art weapons and employed bold military tactics this is how experts believe they fought when the commanding officers gave the orders soldiers with crossbows at the frontlines attacked first raining arrows down on the enemy this would plunge the adversaries into chaos while chin infantrymen following behind would begin their advance charioteers and cavalry men would then rush to outflank the enemy with infantrymen charging head-on cavalry men and charioteers used a pincer action to surround the enemy and close off any escape routes the result uh niall ation with superior weapons and brilliant tactics the Qin army defeated the neighboring states in less than a decade setting the stage for a new era in the region's history but even though he now had victory in his hands the young John would crave something more in 221 BC following the end of nearly two centuries of war a cram ceremony took place in the Xian yang palace here yang jiong the 38 year old ruler of Qin state declared himself sovereign over the lands of the former Jo dynasty he assumed the new name Jin Chuang the first emperor of the new Qin Dynasty when the king of Qin in Jung crowned himself the first emperor of the Qin that was an unprecedented move and it shows that he understood the magnitude of what he had accomplished to suggest to us that he no longer saw himself merely as a threshold King but rather he saw his role as being elevated to that of the ruler of an empire and a role that could be viewed perhaps on cosmic proportions ginger Wong would go on to unify his realm by imposing a series of reforms abolishing the long-standing feudal system centralizing the legal code standardizing weights and measures introducing a common currency and establishing a single writing system but despite his triumphant achievement there was one goal that eluded Qin Chuang it was his desire to conquer death to be immortal and Emperor in the afterlife she performs pursuit of immortality is known to us from the accounts of Sima Qian this would not have been at all unusual at the time what is unusual however is the great lengths to which he went in order to create his post-mortem environment the idea is clearly that the deceased would continue to live in death as they did in life and they would want the comforts that they had in life Jin Chuang demanded that his mausoleum which had been under construction since he was 14 years old reflect the scale of his power and grandeur ancient records say over 700,000 laborers worked on the site for over three decades they created a prominent earthen mound that rises to a hundred and fifty feet while digging the Emperor's royal resting place deep underground in the past people have said that while they were building the tomb workers dug down through three separate Springs which we think means three layers of underground water that's about 85 to 90 feet below the surface it was brutal back-breaking work that came with a high price archeologists later discovered mutilated skeletons that told a horrifying story countless workers died of exhaustion and were buried in mass graves others were apparently killed to keep them from revealing the secrets and location of the tomb it took 38 years to complete the mausoleum of Qin Chuang his royal chamber was placed in the center of the burial mound inner and outer walls were built complete with watchtowers many pits containing the Warriors of the Terracotta Army were also located nearby [Music] the Emperor's underground palace was constructed over 2,000 years ago but it still awaits excavation to get change Marni chiang kohung stone is in the middle of the mausoleum grounds which is just under a square mile in area no one knows for certain but it's thought that the underground palace lies under the earth and mound there compared to the other mausoleum sites this is considered to be one of the world's largest is not the largest nearly five million visitors come annually to see the excavation site what draws in most visitors is the massive Terracotta Army out of 8,000 life-size terracotta warriors found by excavators not one of them appears to be the same because of their highly realistic appearance is office said that the Terracotta Warriors weren't intended to be portraits well we cannot answer this question definitively what we do know is that their method of construction was highly modular and that this was work carried out by Palace artisans experts marvel at the creation of the Terracotta Warriors saying they could not easily be made even with modern technology so how did Qin state artisans create them this demonstration shows contemporary artisans creating similar figures out of the local clay if the clay is too wet or too dry the sculpted figure would fall apart so back then Qin artisans used a special technique to create the Warriors in this case they made clay ropes and form the figure from bottom to top as a result the hollow statues would be less likely to collapse under their own weight this method also led itself to individualizing each figure by adjusting the thickness of the clay ropes the sculptors could make different shaped bodies once the bodies were complete they would add the finishing touches such as armor details [Music] complex parts such as hands and feet were made separately and tried before being fitted to the bodies experts think the heads were not based on the craftsmen's imagination but instead modeled on real soldiers [Music] studies of the figures show that no two are exactly alike from their facial features of apparel it's possible to discern differences in the Warriors age function and rank as well as determining where in the country they came from the facial features of the Warriors reflect a range of people from the Empire including the Sachi area the eastern part of China Szechuan even the western region of China in 1999 excavators found different terracotta figures in a pit located not far from the others [Music] they were in sharp contrast to the soldiers and officers of the Terracotta Army to begin with they're not dressed in military outfits or wearing any type of armor nor are they aligned in a group formation [Music] decorative walls from the later Han Dynasty provide important clues the bare-chested figures are in dynamic poses very different from their military counterparts the figures look like they're captured in mid performance they show us another side of the Emperor's world life back then for many a needle royal life during qin qiong's reign had all the trappings of luxury and splendor [Music] according to historian Sima Qian 10,000 court ladies chosen from all over the country lived in the Emperor's Palace they served at the pleasure of Qin sherwin with the best dancers performing during banquets at these banquets acrobatic troupes also displayed their skills for the court they were called by ji a word referring to entertainments that gave a hundred different joys to the audience included in the performances were demonstrations of physical dexterity and strength [Music] the Bhaiji were also known to travel to the battlefields to demonstrate their skills and boost morale among the troops in the field acrobatics is one of the oldest arts in China a tradition famously carried on to this day the continuing excavation unearthed other artifacts elegant bronze cranes swans and geese which symbolize longevity [Music] and yet another pit archaeologists found stone armor made for chin sure Wong's warriors leading researchers to wonder what other treasures will be revealed next as first emperor of China chin sir Wang wanted to enjoy the comforts and treasures of his empire not only during his lifetime but in the afterlife as well [Music] that's why his nearly one-square-mile mausoleum complex contains many rare and priceless objects from throughout his realm chaise honking logic a few on the Union so so good leave that Deewani qin qiong's mausoleum is the largest of all the royal tombs in China I found it to be relatively well preserved containing a rich array of artifacts so far we found about a hundred 80 pits filled with fascinating objects it's a real underground treasure trove that tells us a great deal about him and his realm we know that he survived assassination plots so he must have been cognizant of that fact that his life could end at any moment we know that he traveled with a large retinue of soldiers when he surveyed his new empire so as to protect against assassination plots so on the one hand it seems like he was quite concerned almost obsessed with dying but on the other hand he was laying some of the most intricate preparations to go on living after that the Emperor's mausoleum has yet to be excavated but many features of the elaborate world ginger Wang had built underground have been unearthed thanks to the work of archaeologists and artisans the carefully organized effort to reconstruct the world of the Emperor begins with labeling artifacts and fragments found at the site took a brownie olio the labels have two functions tomorrow biogenic and RG God first they indicate where an artifact was found in the pit second it makes it easier for us to find similar pieces while we're doing our restoration as part of the restoration process pieces of the relics are carefully cleaned using special tools to avoid damaging them [Music] then a special glue is delicately applied to broken portions of the object to assure proper bonding these craftsmen know they're not only reassembling pieces of an historic artifact but also restoring pieces of lost time bringing the past to life this is how many of the thousands of terracotta warriors have been reconstructed [Music] during the immense excavation and restoration project researchers encountered another surprise today the Warriors appear reddish brown and gray consistent with the color of the clay in the area but in removing 2000 years of dirt and debris from the surface of the figures traces of vibrant paint were detected [Music] archeologists have concluded that the Terracotta Warriors looked far different when they were originally created to match the soldiers were painted very colorfully you find traces of red yellow green purple and black high ASA the colors on this figure faded when it was excavated but we found most soldiers still have bits of paint on their uniform collars this is how some of the Warriors looked when they were found buried in the dirt [Music] but once the figures were exposed to the air the colors quickly disappeared like a mirage [Music] so how did the Terracotta Army appear at the time of Qin sure Wong's reign [Music] based on the research of archaeologists who have studied these figures for over 40 years the Warriors would have looked very different the finished warriors would have been a splendid inspiring sight 2200 years ago [Music] [Music] after forging one nation out of a cauldron of warring States ginger Wong did not retreat inside his lavish palace he made a number of inspection tours of his empire traveling under the protection of his guards on at least five occasions the first emperor made a tour of his empire it seems in fact that he really enjoyed doing this that he preferred getting out of the capital and surveying the lands that he had conquered I think it's part of human nature to want to see in effect what you own this bronze chariot found in pit two shows the remarkable craft of the Qin Dynasty artisans it's a half sized replica of the one Qing Chuang broke during his journeys to achieve the bronze chariot really is the best relic the crown jewel of them all especially when you consider its size and the technology involved in its construction it consists of about 3,000 pieces she even using modern processes like welding you can see it would take a great deal of effort to build it originally two bronze chariots were found completely smashed in a pit just 20 yards from Qin Sherwin's burial chamber this smaller vehicle with a high canopy is a half-size model of the escort chariot which rode ahead of the Emperor in a procession together the presence of these two chariots may represent Ginger Wong's expectation that he would be able to continue touring his underground Empire in the afterlife the fascination generated by Ginger Wong's terracotta warriors continues decades after they were first discovered in 1974 but at the site of the first Emperor's mausoleum one great mystery lingers though hundreds of relics have been discovered and excavated Ginger Wong's burial chamber has remained unexplored we don't know what's actually inside the burial site in his writings somach Ian describes it in great detail mentioning that there are depictions of the constellations in the ceiling overhead and on the floor recreations of rivers and oceans filled with Mercury since symmetry on wrote his account a century after the Emperor's death scholars have doubted his descriptions of the burial chamber but recent studies have found high concentrations of mercury at the site you are illuminated scientists use modern remote sensors and spectral analysis machines to investigate burial and what they found was surprising towards the level of mercury in the soil at the site measure twenty times higher than in the area surrounding us one ancient method of preserving bodies after death involves deep burials and airtight conditions this keeps oxygen from reaching the corpse and slows down decomposition when this tomb in Hunan province was opened archeologists made a remarkable find inside was a han dynasty noblewoman known as the lady of die [Music] her body had been buried nearly 40 feet underground no one anticipated a discovery like this though her death occurred 21 centuries ago the lady of dyes body is well-preserved most of her internal organs are intact and blood still remains in her veins her skin is moist and elastic like that of the living her discovery led researchers to consider a new theory we think it's possible to ensure one's body might have been preserved the same way as the lady of dies body especially if his tomb was sealed in the same way and he was buried deep in the earth more clues representing how the emperor's body may have been preserved appeared in other parts of China this is a shroud made of jade for a king of the han dynasty who died 2,000 years ago Josiah knew some more if the Emperor was in fact buried in a suit of jade armor it's possible the decomposition process has slowed down this method of burial was common among the Qin Dynasty royalty so we can infer that perhaps Qing Chuang could have him buried this way 210 BC ginger Wong on another inspection tour of his empire was struggling with illness [Music] despite his search for the elixir of life that he believed would grant him immortality he died at 50 years old [Music] now began his last earthly journey back to Xian and his final resting place [Music] he had created a small-scale version of his empire and his palace underground where he could oversee the world he unified for eternity [Music] it had taken some 700,000 workers 38 years to build Qin sure Wong's royal tomb [Music] then in 210 BC the emperor together with as many priceless treasures his childless wives and his dreams of immortality was sealed in his burial chamber [Music] historian Simha Cheon writing in his records of the grand historian described in detail what the Emperor's tomb was to have contained [Music] the Sun Moon and stars were drawn in the sky to bless and protect the afterlife underneath the stars was a miniature version of geographical features [Music] mercury filled the river so as never to dry up and its horrors burning murmur oil will never be born out [Music] Chimchar Wong had unified China for the first time establishing a new form of government uniform laws weights and measures and a single writing system ancient historians say the underground world he created reflected the grandeur of as many achievements but for now there's no way to know for certain whether the accounts describing ginger Wong's tomb are true the Chinese government has steadfastly refused to excavate the first emperor's burial chamber a position at odds with what many in the general public would prefer there are no plans to excavate the underground palace in the future it's because the excavation itself could destroy what we're trying to preserve we're not excavating the tomb at present we might consider whether in the future we could use new forms of technology to investigate the underground palace in my view team I'd say it's possible for now we can only peer into the Emperor's tomb through ancient writings and our imagination during his life ginger Wang hungered for immortality and now over 2,000 years after his death thanks to the work of archaeologists and artisans and the unforgettable Terracotta Army that still guards his memory he's achieved it you
