The forbidden city.
I may write more of these things some day but for now I will stick to what I have managed to write so far and so my story resumes in the city of Xian.
(Disclaimer - The following information is what I remember from what I was told. Seek other sources for a more reliable historical account.)
The Terracotta Warriors
Once upon a time there was a mighty emperor called Chin who ruled a land which forms a large part of what we now call China. He unified many lands by force. He forced the people to speak a common language and write a common script. He forced the people to build a great wall to protect the land from invaders from the North. He forced the people to build a grand palace that was six kilometres long. The rules of the land were harsh and Emperor Chin's power was supreme.
But he knew that one day he would die and he wanted to carry his power with him to his afterlife in the underworld. So he forced his people to build a great mausoleum under a large hill. It contained treasure and buildings and a river of mercury. And to guard the necropolis he had 7000 artisans construct an army of 8000 life size terracotta warriors which were set in military formation facing the enemies to the east.
The Emperor feared death so he sent many wise men to different lands to search for the elixir of eternal life. None of them returned for to do so in failure would mean certain death.
One day the Emperor's wise men prepared him an elixir that would make him live forever. But the potion contained mercury and the Emperor soon died. Chin's son buried him in the mausoleum which was then sealed. His body in a boat floating on a river of mercury. The pits of the warriors were covered with timber roofs.
The Emperor's son became the new Emperor but he was not as effective as his father.
Two years later some farmers were bringing there taxes to the city. If they could not pay their debts within three days they would be executed. But there were problems and delays. They knew they faced certain death so with nothing to lose they started a revolt. The revolt gathered momentum and the palace was attacked. They found the terracotta warriors and smashed everyone of them. The terracotta warriors had real weapons and these were stolen by the revolutionaries. The roof was set on fire and collapsed over the broken army. The palace was set on fire and it took a whole month for the six kilometre structure to burn. The mausoleum with its riches was not uncovered.
Many emperors came and went. Many wars were fought and cities rose and fell. Occasionally people digging fields or graves near the city of Xian would uncover pieces of pottery. This was a bad omen so they would smash it into pieces and rebury it and not speak of it to anyone.
Then in the nineteen seventies a group of farmers were digging a well when they uncovered the head of a warrior. They took it to the government who sent a team of archeologists who uncovered the warriors. Today only a portion of them have been uncovered and painstakingly reconstructed and arranged in their original positions in a huge hall the size of a sports stadium.
The mausoleum is still buried. The soil contains dangerous amounts of mercury. Excavation could release a poisonous cloud into the atmosphere and kill many people. Also there is a worry that exposure to the atmosphere could destroy many of the treasures buried within.
In the museum we watch a twenty minute film on a 360 degree cinema. We were expecting state of the art digital technology. There are ten screens around the room each with its own projector. One of the screens is blacked out. The main screen where the story is being told is going in and out of focus. The film is a print which looks like it came from the seventies.
In the gift shop I purchase a book about the warriors and I have it signed by one of the original farmers that dug the well and discovered the head. He was the youngest and the last survivor. Afterwards our guide tells us he is very wealthy and has a position of honor and must sign books every day and is the only one permitted to smoke in the museum.
I can't decide if he feels honoured. It sounds like he is a prisoner, forced to sign his name for hours on end every day for the rest of his life. It sounds like the sort of curse you might get assigned to you in hell. Maybe he would have been better off if he'd smashed that head into pieces, buried them and told no one about it.
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