The incredible history of China's terracotta warriors - Megan Campisi and Pen-Pen Chen
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ก.ย. 2024
- View full lesson: ed.ted.com/less...
In 1974, farmers digging a well near their small village stumbled upon one of the most important finds in archaeological history - vast underground chambers surrounding a Chinese emperor’s tomb that contained more than 8,000 life-size clay soldiers ready for battle. Megan Campisi and Pen-Pen Chen shares the fascinating history of Emperor Qin Shi Huang.
Lesson by Megan Campisi and Pen-Pen Chen, animation by Zedem Media.
It would have been nice if the video said how he died. Basically because of his pursuit of immortality, he drank a lot of a magical alchemical elixir, also known as mercury :)
According to historical records, Ying Zhen did not die from drinking alchemical elixir. Are the records correct? Historians can find out. Notice, over 2000 years, more than 99% of historians over exaggerated Ying's violence and undermined this emperor's achievement. Therefore, if those biased historians said this emperor died of natural caused. I trust those historians. After all, many historians would not hesitate to include any stupidity to this emperor. Therefore, if history records said the emperor died of natural cause, I believe. The emperor was so paranoid of his death. He died in his trip. To keep stability, the emperor's subordinates had to hide the news. Ying Zhen was a smart leader. he was ruthless, but most Chinese leaders were much worst than him. However, his fear of death and absolute power had prevented him from naming a successor. There was a political struggle. Unfortunately, an inept eunuch won the political battle. That eunuch support a playboy to succeed. The eunuch was good in killing his political enemies. The playboy only wanted to enjoy the life. Both men lack the skills to govern the country. That was why Qin fell 3 years after Ying Zhen passed away
And he ate powdered jade..
Neoniic Mango
Yummy.
Sorry, but there is no record telling the Qin Emperor consumed any metallic substance in attempts to achieve mortality. People back then were smart enough to figure out what are useless or even harmful to eat on pursuit of longer life.
Chilledfish And did you read its citation book before believing it?
I'm so pleased that the Chinese words are pronounced in the correct tone lol
+Olcay diabeetus dey turk er jerbs
Me too
Pen-Pen Chen narrates all the ones where Chinese is spoken, which makes me happy.
pinkgal2311 but WTF is 秦始皇帝（qinshihuangdi）
Michael Ma yeah it's not that bad, it's just one character...
When I die I wanna be buried with a Terracotta version of the Avengers so that if I see Qin Shi Huangdi in the afterlife I can challenge him to a battle.
"I have a Terracotta Army."
"I have a Terracotta Hulk."
Bahahahahaha
brilliant :)
Joss Goyanko that's soo good
I´d chose superman, somehow he´s the only one who got real insane power ;)
hahahhahahahahahahaha
The narrator has got both perfect and native English and Chinese speaking.
Which annoys me.
How can that annoy you?
***** I rather prefer someone speaks Chinese with subtitle, or speak just neutral English.
Well would you rather someone say "Ching Shee Hwayng Die?"
I find it remarkable!
Just imagine, you're in the afterlife and suddenly this Chinese dude shows up with a bunch of stone people and horses trying to build an empire.
LOL
I'm pretty sure a RIVER OF MERCURY is enough reason not to open that tomb.
+LukeDaDuke Well I mean he did die because he ate mercury pills prescribed by doctors to extend his life...
it's probably all evaporated to mercury vapor which is even more poisonous and untraceable.
we can use robots
The Chinese govenrment had officially abandoned the plan for dig out that tomb because the archiology tech we have right now can not guarantee the security of thoes treasuries.
LukeDaDuke no.it because current tech not able to save them
I appreciate the accurate pronunciations
100th liker
"contains palaces of precious stones..."
woah.
"...and artifacts."
WOAH..
"...and even rivers of mercury flowing through mountains of bronze."
*BRAIN STARTS PLAYING INDIANA JONES THEME
Bronze is still useful and expensive. The are the material of all electrical wires, including those really big cables.
I came across this comment while she was saying it lol
@@zeflute4586 My science teacher taught us it was mainly copper though
@@xiaohui2505 Haha you burned me~ Maybe I was talking about the electrical wires of cave people
Hipity hopity this is now my propert
Great Chinese pronouncing
kevinchang0527 I guess narrator Pen-Pen Chen has a Chinese ancestry and is natively multilingual?
kevinchang0527 I'll take your word for it.
***** What's a word worth ?
That's because this video was narrated by Pen-Pen Chen. Ahem, Chinese. Im Chinese too😊
+kevinchang0527 great English pronouncing
In the end, the emperor who unite China is immortal after all. With his terracotta armies that amazes the world and his last act to fortify himself with rivers of mercury, his legacy will carry on through centuries. After thousands of years, we can't even open the tomb.
With the power to open his tomb. It's just that the current technology can't protect what's out there. When the terra-cotta warriors were first discovered, each one was brightly colored, but after exposure to the air for a while, all the colors disappeared
Not that we can't,but we don't want to harm his legacy
@@kidneydealer9938 ngl, pretty sure the entire tomb would be in the british history museum if it was possible, they don't really care
Thank god they asked a person who knows Chinese to narrate this video... Or else the western pronunciations of Chinese words would be disastrous.
+Opamigaaa You're not Chinese, are you?
I am a Chinese, and I think western people's pronunciations aren't that bad!
Goodle You seem quite a tolerating person.
i'm a chinese(sort of), and i deliberately speak mandarin names like a foreigner when i'm talking to one. so they can understand me easier.
Mandarin's REALLY misleading, I saw a black guy smacking a Chinese student for calling him a nigga, turns out he's just speaking on his phone in Mandarin.
When Gilgamesh understood that he couldn't reach for immortality he realized that the immortality comes with the name. Your name, your actions, your works are as timeless as far as people keep talking about them. Today we sill talk about Emperor Qin Shi Huang. He is, indeed, immortal.
He’s nothing more than a dead tyrant. They all are. Immorality has not and will never be prescribed for foolish man for death isn’t a enemy to be conquered nor is it a prison to be escaped, it’s a part of life, we have absolutely no choice but to accept it, such is the decree of the Creator.
@@nihalloumouh8247 shut up irrelevant peasants, nobody will remember you after you died, but most will still know Qin Shi Huang, he is immortalized.
Dude, he drank Mercury. MERCURY, crying out loud
Imagine being so powerful that you named a massive country with a huge population after yourself and the name still stands over 2000 years later. You achieved immortality in my opinion.
For once, a video about Chinese with good Chinese. Cool.
zeiitgeist Cheen Shr Huwong Dee
John Smith You've got to take into consideration how hard it is to speak english so fluently and have Chinese words right in the middle. It's thrown me off balance too many times too.
+John Smith Its Ching Shi Huang and he got his last name huang to make Haung di which means emperor and huang is also yellow and thats why yellow is an emperors colour.
+Nathan Galen Qin*
+Nathan Galen Not being nasty but you were wrong in just about everything.
Qin Shi Huang Di is not his name but the title he coined for himself, meaning "the first emperor of Qin". Huang Di (typically translated as emperor in English) is a title he created using two characters that toughly meant ruler/sovereign.
His last name is Ying (like all previous Qin rulers) and given name is Zheng. The narrator mentions this at 0:46. Neither Qin nor Shi nor Huang nor Di is his first or last name. Emperors' personal names are less known in history because they were forbidden to utter regardless of context during that particular dynasty's reign.
Huang, meaning yellow（黃）and Huang, meaning emperor (皇) have the same pronunciation in modern Chinese but are completely different characters. Yellow being a royal color didn't happen until the Tang Dynasty 400 years later (correction: 800 years later) . In the Qin Dynasty the royal ceremonial color was black. In the following Han Dynasty it was red.
Fun fact: all the soldiers had monolids, known as "Phoenix eyes" as it was considered the most desirable and beautiful eye shape/type
Thank you for the info!
Yelp, 丹凤眼
I really love how researchers decided to keep the actual tomb sealed. So many ancient relics destroyed by modern researchers in the pursuit of knowledge
I saw the statues as a kid when they brought an exhibit of the terra cotta warriors (as they called it) to the US. There was only a rope barrier and being that close to something so old and yet very human I think was the first time I got some perspective on how long we’ve existed. They’re pretty awe-inspiring so I can only imagine how amazing the burial sites are.
u can find videos/pictures of them online, but its still different experience to see it in person, i felt like i could be traveling back in time at any moment while i was walking next to them, the site was massive, watching something at that scale yet so ancient right next to u, it was a wonderful feeling.
People: Wow Chinese accent, Wow chinese pronunciation WWOWOWOWOWOWOW!!11!!!one
Me: lol he have 6 fingers ( 2:22 )
He literally brought an army to conquer the afterlife. What a legend
People in ancient China at 13: becomes emperor and is incredibly rich
Me at 13: dankhead still playing with mud
Felt
me too
The fact that he lived to be 56 after consuming opium and liquid mercury almost nonstop is surprising.
There's even an empress I forgot her name but she was 2 years old 😭
Fun fact:
This guy also probably accidentally created another nation after sending one adviser and a crap ton of kids to a group of islands of the Eastern Coast, which we now know as Japan. We have no idea why he thought this would grant him immortality, or if there were other people on the Japanese islands already, but the Chinese influence on very early Japanese governments is unmistakable. Of course, Japan did diverge, and currently has a vastly different culture in part due to the Tang Dynasty obsession that medieval Japan had and the rapid westernization post WWII.
Empire of Japan starts sweating nervously.
*NANI?!*
Japanese nationalists will deny that. Btw i thought the Chinese developed Japan, not create it? Because there were people living in Japan before the Chinese found the land.
@@zennoix9984 there are a lot of stories regarding this subject and even some residents of japan believe they're the descendants of the explorer's sailors (or the concubine yang yuhuan but that's another story). the tale is this alchemist/explorer told the emperor of a land with fruits of immortality to the east of the sea, and the emperor gave him men, offerings and ships. however the guy never returned, and instead found japan and settled there with the locals.
there's even an extension (as a joke) to this story. the fruit of immortality was kiwi fruit--a well known fruit containing vitamins and antioxidants. as soon as the explorer discovered that the fruit was indeed kiwi fruit, he knew there was no reason to go back, since the area where the emperor resided already produces tonnes of it.
The native Japanese people are called Ainu. kouryukagami I heard a version similar to that but instead of finding the kiwi (which is the national fruit of China by the way), my mother told me that they couldn’t find what the emperor wished so they stayed on the island(s) fearing his wrath :)
the aside's accent when speaking the Chinese word like "秦始皇“is very standard, I guess she is ethnic Chinese
Not surprised, just look at the name. It's very clear the narrator is has Han descent.
Maybe this is a dumb question, but how do we know these sculptures were meant to accompany the emperor into the next life? How do we know it wasnt just his version of a sort of time capsule, showing future generations what life was like back then? I mean, it had soldiers, artisans, entertainers, government officials, etc, and if the emperor was obsessed about his legacy, wouldnt he want future generations to know what he accomplished in his civilization? I know other cultures sacrificed servants when their masters died so their spirits would accompany him/her in the afterlife, but are we projecting their beliefs onto this Chinese emperor? After all, surely the man was smart enough to realize that mere statues dont have souls, right?
As the Chinese first emperor, Ying Zheng militarily wiped the rest of six hostile regimes in east away finishing Chinese integrity as well as created" a central focus of power political system" in China before 2200 years ago;but at the same time he enslaved all people cruelly to satisfy his private greedy and ambition to be God,aimed to smother people's ideas by burning progressive books and burying great scholars alive massively,aimed to enjoy life by gathering heavy tax and forcing millions of population to build palaces leading to a large number of deaths ,aimed to intimidate people by the cruel punishments and so on.At the last,he thirsted for living forever but lose after drinking useless prescriptions wizard made.So he wanted continue the most majesty dominating all in other world after his death and then he built the tomb related to thousands of death of craftspeople as it would be finished. Qin Empire collapsed finally after the emperor's death four years.
The guy was smart, but to know that slay statues do nothing is not back then. Many ancient cultures built wives and soldiers among other things out of clay to accompany their dead ruler to the afterlife including ancient China. We know this emperor built sculptures for that and not for later generations to see is because it's just not possible for other theories. It was precisely a practice back then as people firmly believed in a life after death. Also, the man was obsessed with immortality, and when he cant have that he opt to have a kingdom of his own afterlife. Furthermore, the soldiers are all a part of his tomb, and what was most people back then afraid of the most? Their final resting place being sabotaged by thieves/political opponents, or their "sleep" being disturbed. So I doubt that he wanted us today to see him or his troops
One thing we know is that these soldiers are model from real person, Heroes who helped him to defeat others six kingdom. Legend says their soul were sealed in.
Lucas Johnson other cultures including Egyptians did this as well. I think she was just mentioning the fact that sacrifices had been done before. This was actually more common. The statement is a bit misleading.
Lucas Johnson I actually just heard on another doc on the Asian History channel that there were hundreds of people sacrificed for his tomb. So, she must have only been speaking in reference to the Army.
The terracotta soldier exhibit is an incredible sight. I highly recommend it. The sheer number that is on display (yet only a fraction of the total) and the clear differences in appearance of each soldier makes such an impression that cannot be explained through words or pictures. You really need to see it for yourself.
There's a manga and anime based on this dude's life called Kingdom, it's pretty dope, yall should check it out!
Its the best yet underrated.
Anyone who may want to visit this, remember the food in this city is great you should try it. The city's name where the tomb located is called Xi-An.
+Susu Xu In 2014 I spent a week in Xi'an on business. It's difficult to imagine how impressive these buried sites are without actually seeing them. The scale is massive. And, the food was very good.
Do you know what's greater? Us getting a dinner together at a fancy restaurant in Xi-An
Xi'an is my hometown. Welcome to Xi'an!
@@dbb666 And what we've excavated is but a _small_ fraction of the true size of the tomb. Latest estimate by modern archeologists suggests the entire burial site and surrounding compounds (pits and what not) is about 50 *square* *kilometres* !!!!
ONE FASCINATING LEGEND SHE DIDNOT MENTION: In the actual tomb chamber, there would be six giants made from bronze stood guarding him.
It is said after unifying china, he felt no more war will ever happen, swords would be useless. So he commanded, all the swords from enemy warriors of the six kingdoms he conquered to be melt, recast into six huge bronze statues.
no, it was just that he was a bit paranoid according to my sources (might be wrong and I know im 5 years late), but yeah, he did melt all weaponary and turn it into bronze statues
what was so interesting to me was that this whole burial project was a secret. and in order to keep it a secret, everyone who knew about the tomb would literally have to be sealed in with the emperor when he died as well, so that no living soul would tell of the burial ground. like can u imagine that the construction workers that helped build the structure were building their own graves?
Wait is that true for this case
@@DylanDkoh没错，我们国家的古代历史有很多残忍的事情
Found in the year of the wood tiger 1974. A strong year!
My dad also of wood tiger, always said bury alive!
Very sadly, though, when one of the Terrecotta soldiers was sent to a museum in the USA (Philadelphia, I think) for exhibition a few months ago, an American took a thumb off the solider and took it home. Most Americans aren't aware of the event because US media was too embarrassed to report...
I went to see them and they're just as majestic as you'd imagine!!
I'm amazed that they haven't figured out a way to safely open the kings chamber. God knows what they'll find.
one of the most atractive thing in the world ...
51 area is the other one 😂
My thoughts exactly. I am gagging to know what's in there!
I hope that they're able to figure out how in my lifetime - maybe with robots, considering it has rivers of Mercury.
@@ember-brandt yes and it better be before im 78 years old. curently 20 so ;((
The things people will do for immortality
Ironically, it is believed that Huang died of his immortality potion since it most likely had lots of mercury in it.
Amarís Blackscale Ironically, Chinese had a torture method where the victim received a slice on the scalp and the torturer will pour drops of mercury onto the wound slit. The victim will scratch itself to death because mercury running underneath skin causes extreme itchiness.
Conclusion: MERCURY KILLS!!!
TheCheungDan It's amazing how much creative energy people put into hurting each other.
It's surprising that he lived to be 56 after doing that, and smoking opium, since he was 13. Unsurprisingly, he ended up suffering from Severe Acute Paranoia and schizophrenia as a result; it was comparable to a drug addict becoming paranoid and schizophrenic as a result of prolonged hard drug use. He was so paranoid, he never slept in the same place twice. If you wanna live forever, don't become a crack addict.
One particularly interesting, and disturbing thing about the site surrounding the mound that holds Emperor Qin's tomb is that it is covered with 800+ skeletons of women all lying in a way that points to the mound. Archaeologists think that they may have been royal concubines as they were buried wearing precious clothes and jewellery and apparently date back to around the period that the emperor died. This whole burial area of the emperor is not only a massive find, but a final testament to Emperor Qin's ruthlessness
Many of them might actually have been killed under the orders of the emperor's son and successor.
@@miaomiaochannigga, it aint like they desecrate the tomb by waiting the concubines to die of old age one by one and reopening and closing the tomb again and again.
By using the divine power of simple logic, a person can conclude that all of them were [involuntarily retired] after the emperor died.
Not to mention the problems you will have if you kept the concubines alive. Most likely the new emperor finds it ***immoral*** to take the previous concubines as his own, and even if you release them out of the Palace any of them could give birth in a year and claim that the baby is the heir.
I visited the site 2 years ago. It's awesomely huge.
Eyyy how are you now??? It's been 9 years
It's great how they used two voices to make sure the Chinese words were pronounced properly. That's the first time I heard his named pronounced properly. Thank you!
I came to see it more than ten years ago. Actually, the area of terracotta warriors is just a small part of the empire's tomb. I also believe the best way to protect those historical relics is never to unearth the rest of the tomb.
Chinese history has been pretty interesting to me lately!
I think that is why Chinese is getting aggressive nowadays because they've got invaded by the Japanese, USA, and Europe back in WW2
I went to China some years ago and visited the Terracotta army . I was told , when the local people were digging the well, that led to the discovery of the buried statues . If they had dig only 3 feet to the left, or 3 feet to the south , they would have miss it all together . As it was they dig was right in the bottom left corner of the site ! In our time the excavation too place . It was found that a grave had been started to be dug in the 17 th century . But when they found what they had dug into . They quickly covered it up and dig it else where ! Afraid they would lose their land . Which happened to the modern farmers .
1974, wood tiger year!
gonna use this in my animal crossing village
OMG, I was watching this on my school account but then i saw you and i got on my main account (this one)
Ps. I watch you a lot on my other account. Tysm for being amazing
*Zavrolli playz* yurr
@@Syn OMG YOU ACTUALLY REPLIED! I AM HONESTLY FREAKING OUT! THANK YOU SO MUCH
That’s such a good idea omg-
Helo there-
As an ABC, never knew this famous feature of China had such a complex backstory. Thank you!
Would be a good basis for a knew Doctor Who episode :-)
+doverandover61 But Doctor Who does not speak Mandarin.
The TARDIS uses telepathy to translate any language :-)
Oh. I thought we have to call "Doctor Hoo" to be an interpreter.
Or Maybe Hu? ;-)
+doverandover61 It's already been made. Quite some time ago too.
YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW HAPPY I AM THAT SHE CAN PRONOUNCE CHINESE WORDS PROPERLY WITH THE RIGHT PING YING, USUALLY OTHER PEOPLE CAN EVEN PRONOUNCE 木 correctly, and that is sooo easy to pronounce
It's pinyin, not ping ying...
Thanks to the great emperor of China Qin Shi Huang for leaving such an amazing things in modern world.
"Fortunately, as ruthless as he was, Emperor Qin chose to have servants and soldiers built for this purpose, rather than sacrificing living ones to accompany him"
But you forget all them workers had to get killed to keep his tomb a secret.
I saw some of these in San Francisco's Asian Art Museum. They were quite impressive. They are life sized, and each one looks like a different person. Some evan seem to have a degree of ethnic diversity from others.
I’m Chinese so I’m very happy that you guys did this.
When I went to the terracotta warriors site, the guide told us that each soldier carried a bronze weapon. The weapons were then stolen by the villagers who dug the well during a rebellion.
ou can search the story of xiang yu（项羽）.
When I was 13 my school took a field trip to see a lot of the army. I think it toured 5 cities in the US. It was amazing! Each man had a different face. The horses were really cool too.
Is nobody going to mention that the emperor has 6 fingers?
lmao😂😂😂
Dee Rains lol
Dee Rains .....
lol, for real though?
???!!!!
We're watching videos about him thousands of years later...he kind of actually found the elixir of life
“Great Emperor! So glad too see you here in the afterlife”
*bows*
“Wait but why do you have a army with you”
Quin Shi: “I don’t know. Wait did you just question me?! Army! Attack!”
More than 2000 years ago, a large number of Chinese elites and technical personnel sent by Emperor Qin. They moved to ancient Japan (including the ancient Korean Peninsula and ancient North Vietnam). There were also some Chinese nobles and officials who fled to ancient Japan because of the war ...
For example:
Emperor Qin's son. Yang Guifei of the Tang Dynasty. Of course they are not alone. Instead, they arrived in ancient Japan by a team.
These Chinese elites moved to Japan. They are responsible for developing a very primitive place in ancient Japan (backward and lack of resources). Establish a local local regime in the local area. The Chinese emperor named ancient Japan as "東瀛 dong ying & 扶蘇 fusu & 倭wo". As one of the regions of China's power jurisdiction. It is closely related to the Chinese royal family and the official.
For example: 卑彌呼 Himiko. She is the adoptive daughter of the Chinese emperor. She is a Chinese female official position. On behalf of the Chinese emperor, she is responsible for governing Japan. All funds are supported by the Chinese royal family. She knows Chinese Taoist ghosts and magic spells and divination. She is fluent in Chinese language (official language and Han dialect) and Chinese characters......
During the Tang Dynasty, Chinese national strength was more powerful. The navigation technology was stronger. The Chinese emperor sent a fleet to Japan. Some Chinese people followed the fleet and returned to China (there may be a small number of japan's indigenous slaves followed). This is almost 70 years apart. They asked the Tang Emperor to send more Chinese elite teams, high -tech personnel and a large number of Chinese products to go to Japan 倭. This is the " Tang ambassador 遣唐使 "recorded in history. They are ancient Chinese . After that, a large number of Chinese officials, nobles and elites also appeared on ancient Japan 倭 (Today Japan still has many ancient Chinese tombs and unearthed cultural relics ).
Ancient Chinese architects built a Chinese palace in ancient Japan 倭. Exercise China's official governance system. Representing this place (ancient Japan) was occupied by the Chinese.
The Chinese and a large number of Chinese culture naturally appeared in ancient Japan 倭. anicant Japan 倭 in this period. Chinese culture is an explosive growth.
Including : Dragon Totem (representing Chinese imperial power), Chinese characters, Chinese scholars (recorded local history), Chinese architect (Chinese palace), Chinese physician, Chinese monk, Chinese martial artist, Chinese artist (music, painting, calligraphy, chess art, tea culture..........), Chinese growers, various technical personnel in China (cloth, iron, weapons ...), Chinese officers, Chinese coins, a large number of Chinese products and Chinese history books ....... all appeared in ancient Japan.
These are used to use it to the local Chinese nobles and Chinese. They call Japan at that time "China 中國" and "Shenzhou 神州" (the Han people's named beauty to China). They have always been proud of the Chinese identity and the Han family.
At that time in ancient Japan 倭. In addition to the Chinese regime, there are more than 100 indigenous tribes (including Japanese ancestors today). They often attack local Chinese. These contents are recorded in history.
In the 13th century in Japan.
Some of these indigenous people (speaking Japanese language. Hairstyle is bald in the top of the head) occupied the Chinese palace. Killing some senior Chinese officials. Control all Chinese technicians. Forcing them to join the "Japanese 日本人".
And let these Chinese provide Chinese high culture and technology for their rule. Help and continue to develop "Japan 日本", a country that is performed by indigenous people.
These indigenous people re -named this place is "Japan 日本". And protest and provocative to the Chinese royal family.
Local Chinese scholars (forced to become Japanese) use Chinese Chinese characters to create "Japanese characters" that can be suitable for Japanese language.
Later. Chinese emperor Wu Zetian 武則天 knew that China's "倭" was captured and occupied. She instructed officials to modify the ancient Japanese name of history. From then on, in the Chinese history book, the Chinese city "倭" was renamed "Japan日本".
《舊唐書》中有《倭國傳》，而且增加了《日本國傳》。其《傳》云：「日本國者，倭國之別種也。以其國在日邊，故以日本為名。或曰：倭國自惡其名不雅，改為日本。或云：日本舊小國，並倭國之地。其人入朝者，多自矜大，不以實對，故中國疑焉。」
It's so cool how there're in battle formation
Came across an article published in 2021 where scientists proposed using cosmic rays from space to scan the tomb. Scientists used it previously and found a tunnel in the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Moral of the story? Emperor Qin was an Egyptian Pharaoh.
and to think before they found the army, everyone thought it was a myth ans doubted how there could every be an enormous army underground, well I guess there are always aspects of truth in every myths and legends
Can't really imagine the treasures that may be hidden in that sealed tumb. If it was on any other part of the world it would already been open and all stuff stolen to be sold in the black market. Pretty amazing they managed to keep it sealed.
The clarity of her voice in both languages is so pleasant to listen to
Actually, dozens of people were sacrificed in his tomb. Walled up alive with him. Not sure why the video claimed this was not so.
When they finally open the tomb, the first thing they will see are the skeletons of the poor souls desperately trying to open the door. Kinda fucked up.
They weren't sacrificed per ce. They were just buried alive so that no man could come back and steal or tell the secret of the tomb.
That was what the Grand Historian Sima Qian wrote.
But unless we open that main pit, we will never know if there were actually 50 000 people were locked inside. It would be scary to think how those people spent their last hours, possibly eating each other.
Buuuut also remember this is ancient China we're talking about. Don't quote me on this, but I could imagine the people who were buried with him thought it an honor to be sacrificed in this way. It would, at the very least, be incorrect to apply our cultural norms to a time and place where these norms were completely different.
Derrick Liu they would have suffocated before then
Dozens?? Hundred of thousands!!!!
as a kid, i went to the 1982 world's fair in knoxville tennessee. it was awesome! the china exhibit had a couple of the terracotta warriors! plus got to eat real swiss chocolate at the swiss exhibit. once in a lifetime experience!
I would like to make a correction, when in the end you pointed out that at least he didn't bury real people with him, hence pointing out that he was not as insane as one could be, you forgot to take into account what he did to the workers.
Emperor Qin killed everyone that helped to build the underground army. Millions of people were enslaved over the 38 years it took to build his self-indulgent monument and 700,000 people were killed to keep anyone from revealing its location. It was then buried and hidden from view. Some people were buried alive. His 3,000 concubines were forced to self-sacrifice and other people were just plain murdered.
Nobody was left alive to tell anyone where the 8000 clay warriors and horses leading bronze chariots were buried.
Also the mercury rivers you mentioned as exotic are the real reason for not excavating his tomb, the archaeologists are scared of the mercury gas that must have accumulated in the tomb.
However, more figurines are not being unearthed because of the reason you mentioned.
TBH couldnt we build a very LARGE airtight tent, then a smaller one over an entry point then drill down into the room REALLY!!! REALLY!!! carefully and bottle up all the mercury gas?, they have hazmat tents that i think would do an amazing job at keep all the bad shit in, and then hazmat suits to go in with. i dunno. its just an idea.
Since I'm currently studying about this, I found out that his concubines self-sacrificed happily because they thought that if they were buried with him, they will go to heaven because Emperor Qin Shi Huang seemed to have received the blessing of the 'Mandate of Heaven'. I'd really appreciate if you replied because thanks to your explanation, I'm sure I wont fail in my test. Your comment was probably one of the most rational and understandable out of the comment section. Thank you :)
3000 CONCUBINES?
Jigyasu Pandey stop make up numbers. 3000 concubines is a figure of speech in the poem. the record of most concubines an emperor have is 400. in acient chinese, 3,6,9 is often used to as a figure of speech, not actual number.
"3,000 concubines."
I don't Qin ShiHuang had that many.
Oh and also, they didn't sacrifice themselves or be sacrificed. They were killed by Qin Shihuang's son Huhai, who believed one of them could harbor a baby that could be a threat to his rule.
WOW! BEST PRONUNCIATION EVER HEARD! VERY VERY IMPRESSIVE!
One day, them mf statues gonna start moving and plotting battle strategies. Just you wait.
That would be epic though
Some other documentary mentioned that the soldier's faces ,clothing and features are based on real soldiers serving under the Emperor at the time.
Your pronunciation is pitch perfect!!
There were historical records that he built the mercury River to protect his coffin.His coffin was floating in mercury, shifting its position with time.When people found his tomb, people really found the existence of mercury, I think this confirms the words of historical books.
I'm so os happy that TED-Ed has Pen-Pen Chen. Chinese history deserves a fluent Chinese speaker.
Omg, someone that actually pronounces chinese names the right way ❤️❤️
that's only 1% of the tomb.99% not been opend.because of the limit of the current technoly
李林 it would be 99 percent but ok
uhh what's technoly???
@@yasmeenalzaghal2916 I think he means technology.
About 1/5th of pit 1 had been excavated. The rest is still buried because they don't have the tech yet to preserve the paint from falling off.
This is my favourite TH-cam channel by far! I love the historical videos, you should do more of them.
I was surprisingly moved when I heard the final line; I think that the soldiers probably would have done well for their emperor.
I saw the terracotta warriors in person and dang it was cool
warning this video contains spoilers for the manga Kingdom
marlonyo You are hilarious :)
manga are japanese ;)
Charlie Z but kingdom is base on Chinese history. i know that may be confusing because on the usa movies, books, series ect are all on the usa.
Charlie Z
No, they have one based on this history. Some Mangas are based on Chinese histories and they are good.
+TheCheungDan tell me. i know only kingdom :(
Im impressed. Very accurate pronounciation
A detailed history of the terracotta warriors! Really informative and good animation!
THANK YOU FOR SAYING HIS NAME PROPERLY AND NOT WIERDLY
The farmer that discovered the teracotta army made a career out of selling his autographs to tourists. He became very rich. Now that’s what I call lucky
Well he might not have lived to see today, but his name did achieve some sort of immortallity and so did his achievements, ruthless yet great.
Egyptian kings dies: Bring treasures to the afterlife.
Japanese kings dies: Bring horses and houses to the afterlife.
Chinese King dies: Bring army, now your treasures in the afterlife belongs to me.
He also had philosophers, early scientists and anyone that attempted to argue against the burning of all historical writings that differed from his ideals buried alive.
there are so many misconceptions about qin shi huang. first of all, he was heavily smeared by later historians because he practiced legalism, an adversary of confuscius teachings. second, he proposed the idea that aristocrats should follow the same laws as peasants, which angered many aristocrats (who were the ones writing those history books). amongst the books he burned many were false medical texts. i mean, if he really burned the good books, then where did all the confuscius and daoist texts come from? qin shi huang was a harsh ruler, but not an unwise one. his son, however, imposed some of those stricter laws. that led to internal disorder and brought the downfall of qin dynasty.
The burning wasn’t fully successful, but damaging enough that we have surviving texts that reference texts that have not survived. For the depth of Confucian and Daoust studies we have, we actually have quite sparse information from before the Qin.
Imagine they finally excavate the tomb, only to find Emperor Qin just chilling there, alive
Angel:Welcome to the afterli-
Yhing:CHARGE!
Angel:FUCK
It's true that he didn't sacrifice people to join him in the afterlife, but all the workers still working on the tomb when the emperor died were locked inside as they sealed it shut
Azazel
Under the orders of his successor, Hu Hai, because he's afraid that there will be heirs of the deceased emperor to challenge his throne.
He ordered all the concubines and heirs of Qin Shi Huang to be buried along with the tomb, along with the skilled workers that were still crafting the tomb.
Great lesson!
Thank you! My social studies teacher has been trying to teach us this stuff but has made no sense. This is a much easier way to learn.
"Whatever the hereafter was, he better bring an army"
I can imagine God just standing there being like "Yo, why'd you bring this army of clay people"
Wow he is 13 years old when he became a king and he also unified china? My god he must be a genius war strategist....
Well, he only began to rule personally after coming of age at 18 (before that his regents held de facto power). And the war of unification stretched over many years. He was already 38 years old by the time the feat was complete.
He died 49 because of drug abuse.
Many of you here are amazed by the correct Chinese pronunciation, which is understandable cuz the narrator has a Chinese origin!
Her name - Pen-Pen Chen - said it all !!!
Thanks, I just noticed that.
I am addicted to this channel and the mandarin pronunciation of words is pretty good. keep it up!
This just shows how selfish and small a human mind is. The king didn't wanted to lose his luxuries after his death, so he battled.A great piece of history reflecting on the human conscience.
No matter how long it took to make those they turned out very well in design and technique.
That's really just incredible.
My teacher told my class to watch this video cuz we’re learning about ancient China. Thx for teaching me a lot 😁😋😋
I just realized that at 0:25 he has 6 fingers xD
Ancient Filipinos made big jars to place a corpse inside.The lid is a boat with the deceased and Death,paddling towards afterlife.Some tribes took liberty and treated corpses differently.
I've been to xi'an to see these terracotta warriors and they're amazing! Definitely should see them at least once in your life time
What a miracle! I can't believe we had the patience to keep his tomb closed!
I hope that it is protected though, otherwise once we get there there will be nothing left inside.
must say it's uncommon to find people dedicated enough learn the proper pronunciations of the words they're reading from a script.
your narrator must have respect for foreign cultures or at least Chinese, I'll assume the former.
+Ebon Hawk her name is a typical chinese name
+Ebon Hawk The narrator, Pen-Pen Chen, is obviously of Chinese descent.
+John 5mith yeah I think she is at least partially Chinese, because her pronounciation was correct, like perfect and her name is chinese :)
I’m glad they weren’t shoved in museums across the globe and left where they’re supposed to be :)