Why Did Qin Shi Huang Build the Terracotta Army? China's First Emperor and His Quest to Live Forever

Qin Shi Huang, the man who unified China in 221 BC and made himself its first emperor, had the Terracotta Army made as part of his vast tomb complex near Mount Li: thousands of life-size clay soldiers intended to accompany and protect him in the afterlife. Farmers digging a well discovered the first figures in 1974, and about 6,000 have been excavated so far. The army reflects the emperor himself: enormous ambition, a love of standardised organisation, and a fierce preoccupation with death, which he spent years trying to escape.

A boy king in a warring age

Qin Shi Huang was born in 259 BC in Handan with the name Ying Zheng. He was born into the Warring States period, when several kingdoms competed for control of the Chinese heartland. He became king of the western state of Qin in 246 BC, at about the age of 13, and took full power in 235 BC.

Qin was already a formidable military power, organised along strict lines. The young king used that machine relentlessly.

221 BC: one China

Over about a decade, Qin conquered the other major states one after another, and by 221 BC the king ruled all of them. To mark the new era, he created a new title, huangdi, usually translated as "emperor", and called himself Shi Huangdi, the First Emperor. Chinese monarchs went on using that title for about two thousand years.

It is often said that the English word "China" may come from the name Qin, although the origin of the word is debated.

Making everything the same

The First Emperor's most lasting achievement was standardisation. Working with his chief minister, Li Si, he standardised the written script, weights and measures, currency and even the width of cart axles, so that wagons could use the same ruts on roads across the empire. He also abolished the old feudal system, dividing the empire into commanderies and counties run by officials appointed from the centre.

A shared written script was especially important. People across China spoke very different varieties of Chinese, but a single standard script let officials, merchants and scholars communicate in writing. That idea, one script across many spoken forms, still shapes the Chinese language today.

Roads, canals and walls

He launched huge building projects. He linked existing defensive walls of the former states into a precursor of the Great Wall, built roads, and in 214 BC began the Lingqu Canal in the south. These works were built by enormous numbers of conscripted labourers, at great human cost.

Burning books

The First Emperor made Legalism, a philosophy stressing strict laws and harsh punishments, the official ideology, and suppressed rival schools of thought. In 213 BC he ordered most books to be burned, sparing works on practical subjects such as medicine and agriculture. Tradition also says he had hundreds of scholars buried alive; recent research suggests that those executed may have been alchemists rather than Confucian scholars.

The search for immortality

As he grew older, the emperor became obsessed with avoiding death. He sought an elixir of life and was deceived by several charlatans who promised to find one. Some scholars suggest that mercury-based elixirs, taken in the hope of prolonging life, may have contributed to his death.

He died in 210 BC while touring eastern China, aged 49. His officials hid his death until the party returned to the capital, Xianyang, and his younger son became the Second Emperor. The dynasty he expected to last ten thousand generations collapsed within a few years.

The army in the earth

His tomb lies near Mount Li, close to the modern city of Xi'an. The Terracotta Army fills pits near the burial mound: infantry, archers, officers, horses and chariots, arranged in battle formation. The figures are life-size, and their faces, hairstyles and armour vary, which has fascinated visitors and researchers ever since their discovery.

The emperor's own burial mound has not been excavated. Archaeologists are cautious, partly to protect whatever lies inside.

Tyrant or nation-builder?

Traditional Chinese history portrayed Qin Shi Huang as a brutal tyrant, a view shaped largely by historians of the Han dynasty that replaced Qin. Since the mid-twentieth century, scholars have questioned that assessment and given more weight to his role in creating a unified state. Most would agree on one thing: few rulers have left marks as deep, or as literally buried, as his.

Learn with Qin Shi Huang: English phrases

Phrase	Meaning	Example
to unify	to bring separate parts together into one	The new rules unified the whole team.
to set the standard	to create the model others follow	This app sets the standard for language learning.
at great cost	with heavy losses or effort	The wall was built at great cost.
larger than life	more impressive than ordinary people	He was a larger-than-life figure.
to stand the test of time	to remain valuable for a long time	His reforms stood the test of time.

Try this: The First Emperor standardised everything. Write three English sentences about one thing you could "standardise" in your daily study routine, using "set the standard" and "stand the test of time".