More Than Rows of Terracotta Soldiers

I confess that I knew very little about the terracotta soldiers until I read The Terracotta Army. They were just an impressive array of workmanship uncovered somewhere in China. I had gone to see a couple of them on display at the Melbourne Town Hall years ago. I was impressed, but admittedly a little more impressed that that's where The Beatles waved to swarming streets of screaming teenagers in an earlier time.

John Man brings them as much to life as is possible in a book. Alternating between the present and the past, in a style of writing that wouldn't be amiss in a historical movie, with frequent flash-backs. He seems to have a strong sense of both visual and haptic presence. Olfactory as well, as you scent the packed earth of the pits, and the fine clays brought to the terracotta factory. The photographic colour plates are stunning, and he took many photos that didn't make it into the book. And there were touching moments when he felt some of the objects themselves.

John Man doesn't just tell the reader what happened or what might have happened. He takes the reader through some interesting thought experiments, based on available manufacturing techniques of the times, materials, availability of workmen in sufficient numbers, and the intriguing manufacturing techniques of a modern maker of terracotta soldiers not far from the originals. The numbers and scenarios are of course estimates and probabilities. But following through his thinking processes makes it dead interesting.

He cites a few times the works of Joseph Needham which reminds me of another wonderful work of history Bomb, Book and Compass: Joseph Needham and the Great Secrets of China. by Simon Winchester which I heartily recommend.

I spent a month in China last October, and did only a brief tour of major attractions such as The Great Wall. John Man's works (and I'll be reading his The Great Wall: The Extraordinary Story of China's Wonder of the World when I can) turn tourist attractions into pilgrimages into the past, and also into the future as he describes some of the plans for further excavations and what archeologists might find.

As I was walking up the very steep inclines of The Great Wall, I wondered what it would have been like as a soldier back then. I'm looking forward to finding out.