64. China and The First Emperor

The Great Wall of China

BBC World are doing commentaries on China and some of the things I’ve discovered have left me quite breathless. Apparently there’s quite a flurry at the British Museum revolving around one of the biggest enterprises of the Museum’s History- the exhibition of The First Emperor.

A couple of centuries B.C. this gentlemen was an Emperor for barely 11 years (before he was only king). It was thanks to him if China is still the immense nation that it is and for the Great Wall of China. One would have thought that was quite enough for one fellow to achieve in a life-time, but not for Chin Shur Hang Di, The First Emperor. This gentleman was not content in having achieved the maximum of achievement in this life- he also concerned himself with securing the same achievement in the next life he sooner or later would find himself in. So he prepared an army, an eight thousand strong army of cavalry, infantry and chariots each drawn by four horses- all made of clay- The Terracotta Army... remnants of which the British Museum proudly would like to show you.

This Army was only discovered in 1974 when a country folk digging up the ground found this bigger than life face staring back at him. And where that came from, there were more, more and more- and still they haven’t finished digging up all of them, nor alas, piecing them together because being buried in this pit which was covered with a wooden roof and when that collapsed each and every one of these warriors were shattered to pieces.

 Warrior

It seems the Emperor had created this army to take with him so as to conquer the heavens above as he had conquered the earth below- which says quite a bit on the vanity of the gentleman. However, be it as it is, one thing remains amazing, each and every warrior has a peace loving expression on his face and I doubt it that with such an army, the Emperor would have achieved any ferocious fighting anywhere.

I gather that those two thousand years old expressions are a message in themselves- as today’s Gospel quotes: “Those who have eyes to see, let them see.”