The Terracotta Warriors (2007)

The Terracotta Warriors by Jane Portal was published by the British Museum Press in London in 2007. The author – Jane Portal – is a senior curator at the British Museum, with responsibility for the Chinese and Korean collections. This hardcover book is a slim volume: it is smaller than a traditional book (it measures only 16 x 19 cm), and the number of pages is only 96. But within this limited frame Jane Portal manages to tell us the story of China’s terracotta warriors, with text and numerous illustrations in colour. Obviously, it is the short version of the story, but all the basic facts are here.

The site was discovered in 1974. The location is ca. 30 km outside China’s old capital Xian. It is the tomb of China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi, who lived and ruled more than two thousand years ago. While the imperial tomb itself has never been excavated, several pits around the tomb have been discovered and the results are amazing. The excavation of this huge ancient site is an ongoing process. In this book Jane Portal covers the results of more than thirty years of work, from 1974 until the beginning of the 21st century.

The book begins with a brief introduction where the author offers background information. The main chapter of the book presents the figures which have been excavated with text and illustrations. She mentions fifteen categories.

The first five are:

*** Generals

*** Standing archers
*** Kneeling archers
*** Chariots and charioteers
*** Horses

After this we have the following:

*** A stable boy

*** Light infantry
*** Heavy infantry
*** Armour
*** A helmet

Finally we have the following:

*** Cavalry

*** Civil officers
*** Acrobats
*** A strong man
*** Musicians and birds

At the end of the book there is a brief bibliography. There is no index. Perhaps we do not need an index in a book which has less than one hundred pages.

I have to mention a minor mistake or misunderstanding on page 11 where Jane Portal mentions the imperial tomb: 

“Today a large tumulus occupies the centre of the tomb compound, and the artificial hill, planted with bushes and trees, has the shape of a truncated pyramid; its base approximately 350 sq. metres.”

The base of the tumulus is not 350 square metres. What she wants to say is that the tumulus is a square where each side is 350 metres long. The base of the tumulus covers an area of 350 x 350 = 122,500 square metres.

The Terracotta Warriors is written and published as a brief introduction to the topic. As such it works very well, and therefore it is highly recommended.

PS # 1. For more information about this topic, see The First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Army edited by Jane Portal (and published by the British Museum Press in 2007). This book is listed in the bibliography. This is not surprising. Jane Portal would hardly fail to include one of her own books when she compiled the bibliography.

PS # 2. The following two books are not listed in the bibliography, even though one of them could have been, because it was published in 2005, and should have been, because it is the most beautiful book about this topic: The Eternal Army: The Terracotta Soldiers of the First Emperor edited by Roberto Ciarla and illustrated by photos taken by the Italian photographer Araldo de Luca (White Star, 2005). The other book was published in 2007. Perhaps it appeared too late to be included in Jane Portal’s bibliography: The Terracotta Army: China’s First Emperor and the Birth of a Nation by John Man (Bantam Books, 2007).

PS # 3. I visited the ancient site not far from Xian more than twenty years ago, in 1991. At the time we could see the results of some fifteen years of excavations. It was an interesting visit. It was impressive to see the long lines of terracotta soldiers with my own eyes. If you are going to China, make sure that Xian is on your itinerary. The tomb of Qin Shi Huangdi is definitely worth a visit.

PS # 4. From April to September 2015 a small selection of the ancient objects from the imperial tomb are on display at a museum in Denmark, at Moesgaard Museum in Aarhus. The exhibition is called “The First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Army.” I saw this exhibition during a visit to Denmark in April 2015. It was good to see some of the old warriors which I saw in China in 1991 one more time. If you cannot go to China, because it is too far away, perhaps you can go to Denmark. The exhibition at Moesgaard Museum is worth a visit.

* * *

Jane Portal,

The Terracotta Warriors,

The British Museum Press, 2007, 96 pages

* * *