WEBVTT - How the Terracotta Army Works 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.320 Welcome to you stuff you should know from house stuff 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:12.559 Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:16.960 Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and Jerry. We're 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:21.040 just hanging figure we pressed record and see what happens. Yeah, 0:00:21.800 --> 0:00:27.120 Alry Terracotta Army of three not very imposing or terra Cotta. 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:29.000 Did you go to the High Museum and see this 0:00:29.040 --> 0:00:31.440 when it was around? No, I didn't. You know, Umi did, 0:00:31.480 --> 0:00:33.800 and I wish I would have gone, but I did not. Yeah, 0:00:34.000 --> 0:00:36.920 but she was quite blown away. It was awesome and 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:39.720 I didn't even Um, I hadn't heard of it until then. 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:41.800 And then when I went and saw it, was like, 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:45.080 this is pretty amazing, what a great story, And then 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:47.240 I wanted to podcast about it and then just sort 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:49.840 of forgot and now here it is a year later 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:53.040 or however long. Yes, it was a while ago. Yeah, 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:57.880 it was, um, but it's still a pretty fascinating story. Yeah. 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:01.000 In that exhibit. If you live um on planet Earth, 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:04.560 go to the website and see where it's going to be, 0:01:04.560 --> 0:01:08.080 because it travels around there. Is it like the Body's exhibit? Yeah, 0:01:08.120 --> 0:01:10.640 I mean there's uh, there's this exhibit. And then I 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:15.360 think there's permanent um exhibits elsewhere. There's a permanent exhibit 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:19.119 at the site itself. That's maybe one in London. I'm 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:23.680 not positive. Well London has everything, but they do, they 0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:25.560 really do, know you. The only thing they don't have 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:29.480 is twelve ounces of bears. That's yeah, because there's sixteen 0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:32.560 ounce that's right. Yeah, you don't need it. Took a 0:01:32.600 --> 0:01:34.240 trip there. I was like, what's with all these tallboys? 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:38.720 And they're like, what's that? Oh? I get it now. Yeah, 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:40.920 And it's not like you when you go to the pub. 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:43.600 You don't go in for a twelve ounce or you 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:46.760 go for a point. Yeah, and it's an imperial point, right? 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:50.440 Is that more than sixteen ounces? Is that one point? 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:54.160 Is that sixteen point nine? Is that one point nine ounces? 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:57.400 I'll bet it is, Jerry? Hold up fingers. Jerry said 0:01:57.440 --> 0:02:00.840 twenty ounces is an imperial point, so I was wrong. 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:03.400 Sixteen is a standard point? Are you sure it's not 0:02:03.520 --> 0:02:06.880 twenty five? Jerry? That's called a double deuice. That's called 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:12.880 the core's double doucee. Double deuce is technically why because 0:02:12.880 --> 0:02:15.240 the twelve is a single? Right, No, but a double 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:19.080 I thought double juice just meant, we're gonna put two 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:23.799 beers into one can. That's the double double beer. What 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:25.760 what are we talking about today? I don't know. I'm 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:28.240 thirsty all of a sudden, though. You want a beer. 0:02:28.320 --> 0:02:30.480 It's Friday. I love a beer. Let me just reach 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:35.600 into my bag. Here, you're your cooler bag, carry around 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:38.400 like a purse. I wish man, that'll be fun, cooler 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:41.560 Fannie pack drinking on the job like it's the nineteen fifties. 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:46.520 All right, let's get serious, buddy, Okay, Chuck. On the 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:51.519 morning of March seven, farmers set out to dig a well, 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:55.639 so begins the article on how Stuff Works dot Com. Yes, 0:02:55.720 --> 0:03:00.519 but it also begins this story, A pretty amazing story. Actually, yeah, 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:02.720 it's it's awesome. This was in the Chinese village of 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:07.880 Good Look. Uh oh, that was pretty good. That's what 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:10.799 I'm gonna say. Um And they were digging for water 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:15.120 and got down about thirteen feet and hit something hard 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:20.040 and dug up a terra cotta face and head. And 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:24.880 we're like, exactly, they're probably whoa yeah or whatever the 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:29.959 Chinese expression for what would be what was kind of universal. Okay, 0:03:30.080 --> 0:03:32.200 I'm curious, we do have we found out we're not 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:34.560 banned in China, by the way. Yeah, so hello to 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:37.480 all of our listeners out there in China. Um, and 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:40.640 will you let us know what woe was in Chinese? Yeah? 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:43.560 I think we should do a show sometime on Universal Uh. 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:48.240 Sounds like um, I heard different um or read different 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:51.640 things about how people laugh in different countries and people 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:57.120 remark of of of affirmation or decline something like, I 0:03:57.120 --> 0:04:00.680 think it'd be really interesting. Yeah. They're called idioms, right, 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:04.240 is that what it is? Like? Here we might go huh, 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:09.240 but somewhere else they might go what else I don't know. 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:13.960 We got we have focus here, Terracotta army. Yes. Um. 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:18.120 So they alerted the government like any good um citizens should, 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:20.360 and said, hey, I think we have something here. You 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:22.840 should come look at. Yeah, because when they dug down 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:25.880 a little more and they found shards of the same 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:29.520 type of pottery and a lot of it in kind 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:32.600 of vague human form, and that's when they're like, there's 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:35.560 something weird going on here, So let's contact the authorities, 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:40.080 And the authorities said archaeologists away and sent them out 0:04:40.120 --> 0:04:42.880 to the site. Because it was nine seventy four, they said, hey, 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:46.800 let's contact the Chinese government right away. That's right. I 0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:50.880 don't know what that would happen today. Uh the Chinese people, 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:54.280 you think, I don't know. It depends on who they are. 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:57.360 I would guess they probably were more likely to in 0:04:57.440 --> 0:05:02.320 seventy four than today. So what they knew the the 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:05.359 government and experts and archaeologist said, well, hold on a minute, 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:08.920 you guys are digging near the burial ground of Chen 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:14.719 sure Handi, and Um he was the first emperor of China, 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:18.120 and he had a huge mausoleum. And I bet you 0:05:18.160 --> 0:05:21.080 anything that's what you guys have found. And Uh, it 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:24.800 turns out they were right, the archaeologists right. So Um, 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:29.560 the legend had it that Um Chen sure Huangdi, China's 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:34.640 first emperor, Um had himself built a pretty awesome mausoleum. 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:36.280 As a matter of fact, you couldn't even call it 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:39.120 a mausoleum. It was called a funerary complex. It was 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:42.520 so massive. But as they started to dig and get 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:45.080 further and further along in this excavation, which they have 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:50.200 still not even and come close to completing from or something, Yeah, 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:55.159 it's the size of Manhattan, the size of Manhattan, his 0:05:55.160 --> 0:05:59.600 his mausoleum. Yeah, Um, they started to realize, like it's 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:02.200 even big or than we ever thought, Like it wasn't lost. 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:04.400 They knew that he was buried somewhere around this area. 0:06:05.040 --> 0:06:09.960 It was just you don't go digging up emperor's tombs. 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:13.640 But these these farmers had found something pretty interesting and 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:16.280 it was enough to get the archaeologists over that, and 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:18.680 they started to dig. And they still have yet to 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:23.440 excavate Cheen's tomb, his actual tomb where he's buried, and 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:26.000 we'll talk about that later. But when they started dig, 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:28.440 they started to reveal like more and more of these 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:31.600 terra cotta figures, and they would stumble upon one room. 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:34.960 And first they stumbled upon a room and they found chuck, 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:38.960 like six thousand of these things of infantry men, all 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:42.560 standing at the ready, all larger than life. They were 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:46.200 about six to six and a half feet tall. Yeah, 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:51.960 all made of terra cotta. Um, crossbows, finger on the trigger, um, 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:55.000 dudes on horses. Well, those are in separate rooms. So 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:59.960 first room was like six thousand infantrymen like a information 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:02.800 information would be lined up. Then there was another room 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:07.480 that had like specialists like cavalry, got archers with crossbows, 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:11.480 blow darters yeah, um and then there was a third 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:14.440 room that had I think eighties six like commanders. It 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:17.840 was like the command room. So basically what they revealed 0:07:17.920 --> 0:07:23.960 was this terra cotta army information in this guy's grave, Yes, 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:27.360 with the idea that UM he wanted protection in the 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:32.400 afterlife because he was one of the great jerks of 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:36.520 world history. He really Yeah, he was terrible. He was 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:39.800 a tyrant for sure. He was a he perhaps was 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:42.280 responsible for the deaths of more than one million of 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:49.160 his citizens. He also though, got things done. Yeah, let's 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:52.640 talk about the guy. So he was the first emperor. 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:57.560 Before him, China had seven kingdoms, and UM in four 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:00.560 eighty one, all these kingdoms said, you know what, I 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:02.800 want to be the main kingdom. So it started what's 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:06.760 called the Warring States, the era of battling for land 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:10.200 and superiority. And I saw this really neat documentary on 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:16.960 that geo I think called China's Ghost Army. I think 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:19.040 it's what's called I posted a link on our on 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:22.360 our podcast page for this episode. Totally worth watching. It's 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:25.640 like an hour. But they say that UM before this, 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:30.240 prior to this Warring States era, when an emperor died 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:36.480 in Cheen, the Cheen um Kingdom. Uh. They would kill 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:41.040 the whole court, hundreds of people would be buried alive 0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:45.640 with the emperor. And then this warring States, these battles 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:49.959 and wars were so significant as far as casualties went. 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:52.960 There like, we can't do that anymore, we need them 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:56.040 to go fight in the wars. So they stopped that tradition. 0:08:56.080 --> 0:08:58.960 But it was because of this um the Warring States 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:02.760 era and thing. And that can you imagine like two 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:06.960 people just being mass buried alive together because the emperor died, 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:11.120 I can't imagine. So let's get back to this jerk 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:17.880 chen He Uh he overtook and basically was the first 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:22.800 emperor Uh forced people to be in the army, built 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:26.680 up a huge army. Um. He relocated in his first 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:29.800 year about a hundred and twenty thousand families. And that's 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:32.880 like Stalin did that same thing. It's like, you can't 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:36.800 have ethnic unity and then that kind of collective thought 0:09:36.840 --> 0:09:40.520 and then potentially an uprising if you break up that 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:43.720 kind of ethnic bonds by basically bussing people in and 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:45.880 out of different areas. Yeah, it makes sense, but this 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:49.199 guy was doing it like UM a couple like about 0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:53.080 two thousand years before Stalin crazy. He burned all the books, 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:56.520 he burned all the writings. Uh. Scholars that didn't jibe 0:09:56.520 --> 0:10:00.800 with his line of thought were buried alive or behead. Yeah, 0:10:00.800 --> 0:10:04.720 he was a piece of garbage and he was terrible. Um. 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:08.960 He assembled a workforce of a million men to build 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:13.240 about five thousand miles of roads, um. And the Great 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:15.640 Wall of China. Yeah, the first Great Wall of China. 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:18.079 So while he said he was a jerk, he made 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:20.120 a point. He got things done. I mean he he 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:26.240 got a monetary system that was unified. Yeah, he also 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:32.560 unified weights and measurements. Um. He unified China from seven 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:35.720 kingdoms into one country. And it's still that way today, 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:38.880 two thousand years later. And if you've noticed a similarity 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:42.160 between Chin and China, that's because the country is named 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:45.520 after him. So he got things done, vital figure in 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:50.600 China's history. But he did a brutal, brutal, controlling, murderous dictator. Right. 0:10:50.600 --> 0:10:54.160 He wasn't asking and he also had a really conflated 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:58.640 view of his the empire that he'd put together, and 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:01.319 you can see this apparently the money that he meanted, 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:05.120 Like he there were different regions that he conquered had 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:07.360 different kinds of money, so he did create like a 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:10.640 single monetary system. I think you said, um, and that 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:14.800 that money was square shaped with a hole in the center. 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:16.960 It's kind of like a square donut. The band Liang 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:21.079 coin and that coin at the time in ancient China. 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:25.920 UM the square represented the earth and the circle represented 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:29.280 the sky or the heavens. And so what he was 0:11:29.280 --> 0:11:32.520 saying is that this earth, my empire, is even greater 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:36.800 than the heavens that surround the earth. That's how how 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:39.680 good I'm feeling about myself right now? He felt pretty good, 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:42.920 but he was parah annoyed, and I think that usually 0:11:42.920 --> 0:11:45.360 comes when you're on top and you get there by 0:11:46.000 --> 0:11:48.679 any means necessary, you're gonna be watching your back your 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:52.280 whole life. Um. Specifically, he came from the west and 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:56.360 conquered eastward. So when he was buried, he had the 0:11:56.440 --> 0:12:00.520 terracotta army facing east to protect him because of all 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:02.880 the badness he had done. And this is after he 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:07.560 had killed hundreds of scientists that he commissioned to try 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:10.559 and prolong his life. Yeah, so we talked about him 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:13.760 actually in the Bizarre Medical Treatments episode. I think without 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:17.880 realizing it that. Um. He at the back in the 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:21.440 day at the time, they believe mercury had some sort 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:27.640 of like life enhancing or immortality bestowing properties, and he 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:31.120 would take mercury pills. I think that that's ironically what 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:36.040 killed him. Um. But he in addition to mercury, he 0:12:36.160 --> 0:12:38.760 sent out people to like find fountains of youth or 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:43.040 whatever was the Chinese legend version of that. Um. He 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:47.920 was obsessed with remaining alive and simultaneously, like you said, 0:12:48.000 --> 0:12:50.920 totally paranoid with dying. So he must have been a 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:55.960 very tormented person. Yeah, he killed four eighty Um doctors 0:12:55.960 --> 0:12:59.320 and scientists were killed who could not come up with 0:12:59.320 --> 0:13:02.160 a way to make him immortal and again buried alive 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:08.400 or beheaded. Great. Not a good die. UM. All right, 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:10.040 you want to take a break here and talk more 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:34.600 about the Terracott Army. Yes, right, So Chuck Um, when 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:37.480 we uh we were talking about this guy, I think 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:40.320 you're painting it a pretty good picture of him. I 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:42.880 guess he comes to either he comes to grip with 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:45.079 the idea that he's gonna die because at the time, 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:50.559 like he's trying to chase immortality, he's concocting um like 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:54.560 a huge burial masso lium for himself. I guess, hedging 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:57.600 his bets in case he does die. But by this time, 0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:00.880 like Confucius and other scholars in China had basically, like 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:05.720 philosophically debunked the idea of life after death. So this 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:12.360 man was utterly crazy by his contemporary standards. Um and 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:14.559 that kind of shows if you step back and really 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:18.120 think about the attitude and the mentality behind what he 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:21.280 was doing. But he at some point either came to 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:23.400 grips with the factor he was gonna die, or he 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:25.120 was just hedging his bets and thought he was going 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:27.840 to remain immortal. But just in case, let me have 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:32.320 this incredible grand funerary complex created, and let's build a 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:35.920 terra Cotta army to protect me in the afterlife. Yeah, 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:38.160 it's really neat to look at the Terracotta army now, 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:41.640 his art, but eight thousand soldiers, Like, this guy was 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:46.520 clearly cuckoo. He was off his rocker. Yeah, he's a batman. 0:14:46.720 --> 0:14:49.880 He was a bad man. Alright, So shall we start 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:52.520 with the army. Yes, let's because it's not all that 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:55.480 is that he had commission, But the armies are very 0:14:55.520 --> 0:14:58.400 it's pretty significant it is significant. Um, Like you said, 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:03.000 they are information. So the front dudes are Um, they're 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:06.200 kneeling down their bowmen and they were famous the armies 0:15:06.240 --> 0:15:08.000 they had then, and this is one of the reasons 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:10.360 he took over. They figured out the crossbow, and they 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:13.000 figured out how to shoot while riding a horse. And 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:15.800 that was basically all she wrote. Yeah, everybody else is 0:15:15.880 --> 0:15:19.640 like mother. Yeah, like down here with a sword on 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:22.040 the ground and you're shooting at me from twenty ft 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:25.920 away with some weird metallic bolt. I guess not metallic, 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:31.320 but wouldn't. Yeah, they weren't Fortune steel back then. I 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:34.320 wonder when they did start. I don't know, something like 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:38.320 a podcast it does how steel works. Yeah, it'd be 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:41.080 a good one. I could see that. Um. So you 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:44.320 have these bowmen they have on their armor, Um, their 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:48.880 fingers on the trigger there, incredibly detailed down to the 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:51.840 soles of their feet. Yeah. They have their shoes they're 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:54.560 wearing have like treadmarks on the bottom. It's all. They 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:57.760 took great pride, these artists, clearly because they probably didn't 0:15:57.760 --> 0:15:59.720 want to get killed. Because each of them had to 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:02.400 sign in case there was a flaw. I could be 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:05.400 traced back to who built this one. Yeah, they were 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:07.720 killed that they didn't like it. They most decidedly were. 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:11.320 There were eighty three. They found the stamps, which were 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:15.880 ultimately the signatures of eighty three different foreman, and each 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:18.800 foreman had a team of apprentices working under him, and 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:20.920 the reason that they did assign those stamps so that 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:23.600 he could have them killed if he didn't like how 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:26.840 slow work was progressing, if he didn't like what it 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:30.680 looked like. Um. And at first, chuck, they were like, well, 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:33.400 this is clearly they just set up an assembly line. 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:37.320 Molds were known to the Chinese back then, and um, 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:41.080 that's the only way you could possibly create seven thousand 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:44.480 figures from a terra cotta army. And they found that yes, 0:16:44.680 --> 0:16:48.640 actually the heads were um created through molds. I think 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:50.880 the arms were and stuff like that, but the bulk 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:55.480 of them were created by this thing called coiling. Okay, 0:16:55.880 --> 0:16:58.840 so what is that like? Three D printing? Very much so. 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:02.720 Actually they take clay and hammer until it's soft impliable, 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:06.359 and then you wrap it in like a rope around it, 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:10.560 and then you mold it. And the thing it really 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:13.720 took these there's people who are recreating it to try 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:16.639 to figure out how they did it, and they've examined 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:18.840 like broken pieces so they can see the inside and 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:22.280 they can see the coiling evidence very clearly, and they're like, 0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:27.040 it doesn't make any sense, Like you can't quickly make 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:31.359 um all these figures in an efficient way by coiling. 0:17:31.440 --> 0:17:34.600 Why would they not just use molds? And finally somebody realized, 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:38.400 like this emperor was a bloodthirsty tyrant. He didn't care 0:17:38.400 --> 0:17:43.800 about efficiency. He cared about differences distinctions. So while so 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:46.560 while the heads just the actual shape of the heads 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:51.119 were made in mold, the bodies were made by hand, 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:54.640 each one through this coiling method. So where you could 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:57.359 make like a molded body and maybe a week, it 0:17:57.400 --> 0:18:02.000 would take a month to do one body by coiling. 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:04.840 And that's what they were doing because he wanted them different. 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:07.879 That's crazy. Yeah, he just didn't want to carbon carbon 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:12.240 copies soldiers. So each one of these the body was 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:16.399 made by hand through this incredibly intensive coiling method. So 0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:18.680 they're starting from the ground up obviously with the base, 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:21.880 and then coiling their way up. The legs then were 0:18:21.880 --> 0:18:26.240 molded and affixed, uh, as well as the arms and torsos. 0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:32.680 No not the um okay, gotcha, but then the heads. 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:35.639 They said they found eight different head molds. Yes, and 0:18:35.640 --> 0:18:38.240 that's just the big mold, not the faces. Right. The 0:18:38.320 --> 0:18:44.040 faces were done by hand individually as well, right, each face. Yeah, 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:47.200 the hair and expressions, yeah yeah, and the hair. Uh. 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:49.800 You know, warriors who had had the most kills had 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:56.320 longer hair and a bigger up right big and um, 0:18:56.400 --> 0:18:58.919 so they would. You know, they took great care into making, 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:02.720 you know, the the most revered soldiers have their hair 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:06.360 matched as it should basically as realistic as they could. Yea. 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:09.600 If you're just an infantry man, you'd be wearing like 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:13.440 one of one of those beanies beanie hat probably um, 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:15.959 with maybe like your bun just kind of sticking up 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:19.159 off to the side underneath. If you're a general, you 0:19:19.240 --> 0:19:21.879 might be wearing a huge hat with a pheasant feather 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:25.720 and a bow tying the whole thing underneath you. Yeah, 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:29.560 very fancy. So these things were incredibly detailed. They weren't 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:35.399 like a knockoff Star Wars figure that you would find 0:19:35.480 --> 0:19:41.120 in Bulgaria or something like that, you know, or China. Yeah, 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:44.160 sure that was way more appropriate than Bulgaria. They probably 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:48.679 make the real thing too. Um. Yeah, these were very detailed. 0:19:48.960 --> 0:19:51.560 Not you know, you wouldn't want to say life like. 0:19:51.680 --> 0:19:56.600 They're still artistic slightly, but they were pretty detailed still. Yeah, 0:19:56.640 --> 0:19:59.400 and they the ones you see now when they see 0:19:59.440 --> 0:20:01.600 him in the museum where you look it up on Google. Um, 0:20:01.640 --> 0:20:05.000 they're not colored, but that is because of humidity and time. 0:20:05.600 --> 0:20:07.760 But um, originally they fired him in the killing and 0:20:07.800 --> 0:20:10.320 they painted and lacquered them as well. That's right. I'd 0:20:10.320 --> 0:20:13.480 love to see those. Look at watch that National Geographic thing. 0:20:13.520 --> 0:20:16.840 They've redone one in the original colors that they think, 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:21.800 and they're almost garish. They're so different like colorful wise 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:28.560 and um, lots of surprising lavenders and blues and purples 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:33.919 and things. Reds colors used to be way more garish, right, Um, 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:39.240 but so okay. They were doing some assembly line stuff. 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:43.120 Most of the bulk of it, though, was coiled by hand. 0:20:43.680 --> 0:20:48.200 The faces, the hair all done by hand, and then 0:20:48.240 --> 0:20:52.120 each one was painted by hand and then given a 0:20:52.200 --> 0:20:58.359 coat of lacquer. That's insane. It's insane that the sky 0:20:58.440 --> 0:21:01.119 would have had an assembly line of seven thousand of 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:04.760 these things built and unpainted. But he didn't. He went 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:08.480 even more detailed and apparently also I learned from that documentary. 0:21:08.520 --> 0:21:13.400 At the time, lacquer was an extremely expensive um product 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:16.640 and he was using it on his terra cottas soldiers. 0:21:16.760 --> 0:21:20.200 It still ain't cheap, uh, and that they there wasn't 0:21:20.240 --> 0:21:24.639 just the soldiers, there were also um some uh, there 0:21:24.720 --> 0:21:28.040 was a strong man in another room and some what 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:31.480 do you call him? That circus performers, Yeah, acrobats. And 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:33.160 I looked up the strong man and he was noted 0:21:33.160 --> 0:21:36.080 for the detail of his biceps. And he had a gut, 0:21:36.119 --> 0:21:39.359 he did, he had a gut and some guns, gutting guns. 0:21:39.400 --> 0:21:43.040 He's missing his head, right, Yeah, I didn't see a head. Yeah, 0:21:43.240 --> 0:21:46.520 but yeah, he's got he's a big boy. He's like um, 0:21:46.520 --> 0:21:49.200 he was built like Andre the Giant. Yeah, kind of 0:21:49.840 --> 0:21:51.880 all right, you want to take another little rest here, 0:21:52.640 --> 0:21:55.720 We'll take a quick nap and then I'll I'll let 0:21:55.800 --> 0:21:59.159 you awake very gently. Alright you well, we'll finish up 0:22:22.280 --> 0:22:26.000 what cup buddy? Huh, it's time to finish the terracout army? 0:22:26.080 --> 0:22:30.680 Oh man, Oh, I got crusted in my eyes, look 0:22:30.680 --> 0:22:34.840 at you. Okay, I'm back, Chuck. Okay. So Jean wasn't 0:22:34.840 --> 0:22:38.280 the only ruler to do this, right, No, he wasn't. 0:22:39.400 --> 0:22:41.800 Who else did it well? Do you remember in our 0:22:41.800 --> 0:22:45.199 Pyramids episode, although if it hasn't come out yet, no 0:22:45.200 --> 0:22:48.840 one will know what I'm talking about, but you will eventually. Um, 0:22:49.000 --> 0:22:52.440 we talked about how the Pyramid of Cufu was the 0:22:52.560 --> 0:22:56.760 pinnacle of pyramid building in dynastic Egypt, and then the 0:22:56.840 --> 0:23:01.800 pyramids got smaller because the rulers um cred I guess 0:23:01.800 --> 0:23:04.120 went down as people started to worship the sun instead. 0:23:04.520 --> 0:23:07.159 Great point that I had never considered. Very similar thing 0:23:07.280 --> 0:23:11.240 happened in China as people as the well. The Ching 0:23:11.359 --> 0:23:14.960 dynasty only lasted for another four years after chen or 0:23:15.160 --> 0:23:19.480 huangdi Um died, and then the Han dynasty started, and 0:23:19.560 --> 0:23:25.280 the Hans apparently had much um easier hand with their subjects, 0:23:25.920 --> 0:23:28.440 and so as a result, even though they had terracotta 0:23:28.560 --> 0:23:31.000 armies buried with them, they were like a third to 0:23:31.200 --> 0:23:35.240 a sixth of the size of cheens terracatta army, and 0:23:35.280 --> 0:23:38.520 they take that as a sign that this um might 0:23:39.000 --> 0:23:45.280 empower over people. UM had diminished tremendously. Yeah. I think 0:23:45.320 --> 0:23:50.000 it was symbolic of a kinder um regime UM and 0:23:50.160 --> 0:23:54.520 one that was not also booby trapped with like very 0:23:54.600 --> 0:23:57.359 much like Raiders of the Lost Arc apparently Cheens to 0:23:57.520 --> 0:24:01.639 them or the whole complex booby trapped with like blow 0:24:01.960 --> 0:24:07.040 darts and stuff ready to go. And also we did 0:24:07.119 --> 0:24:09.200 we um. One of the reasons why this thing was 0:24:09.240 --> 0:24:12.840 booby trapped was to prevent looters. Because remember there's a 0:24:12.960 --> 0:24:15.320 historian that was that came along not too long after. 0:24:15.359 --> 0:24:17.760 He's a part of the early Han dynasty. From what 0:24:17.840 --> 0:24:23.160 I understand, the name as Sema kion Um and Seema 0:24:23.280 --> 0:24:27.879 kion is the one who first described cheens mausoleum. And 0:24:27.920 --> 0:24:30.280 one of the things he described is that um on 0:24:30.359 --> 0:24:33.600 the ceiling was a constellation made of pearls and gems, 0:24:34.320 --> 0:24:38.640 mountains had been chiseled out of gold, and that um 0:24:38.720 --> 0:24:41.480 that Cheen's tomb itself was surrounded by a river of 0:24:41.560 --> 0:24:45.520 mercury because remember again they since they said that um 0:24:45.560 --> 0:24:50.160 it bestowed immortality. And from what I understand, a lot 0:24:50.160 --> 0:24:54.280 of what Sima Kian was talking about a writing has 0:24:54.320 --> 0:24:57.919 been proven correct. So UM, and they've also found that 0:24:57.960 --> 0:25:01.840 in the soil around che tomb where they think he's buried, 0:25:02.080 --> 0:25:06.840 there's higher than unusually high mercury levels, like super high. Yeah, 0:25:07.400 --> 0:25:10.680 so they think like, yeah, these crazy people buried him 0:25:10.680 --> 0:25:13.240 around a river of mercury, and who knows if there's 0:25:13.240 --> 0:25:17.440