Customer Reviews

The Terra Cotta Army: China's First Emperor and the Birth of a Nation

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I had opportunity to attend the Terra Cotta Army exhibit at the Bower Museum, Santa Ana, California. I purchased this book on Amazon where it was discounted. Let me first comment that it might help if you read this book first before seeing the exhibit. The photographs are excellent and show much of what you will see at the exhibit. Unfortunately the text is rather uneven. On the positive side the beginning of the book, Part one which covers the discovery of the ARMY reads well as does the current state of restoration which ends the book as Part three. However, the history lesson in Part two of the book is dull and lifeless and it was my impression that Mr. Man just dictated and rambled through this section. When he devotes several pages to the film THE EMPEROR AND THE ASSASSIN or uses lines referencing the reader to having seen OFFICER AND GENTELMAN you know you're in for tour guide writing 101. I did learn a lot, and recommend the book mainly as a tour guide introduction to the exhibit traveling the US this year. Otherwise, buy it for the photographs and read Parts one and three.

Author John Man, whose books are reflective of someone in love with history, has given readers a real treat, in his well written book "The Terra Cotta Army: China's First Emperor and the Birth of a Nation". He presents a close-up and almost personal look at something which has intrigued the world since its discovery in 1974.

Reading about the this historic discovery, with its life-size statues of warriors and horses, makes any armchair archaeologist feel like Indian Jones. It stirs the imagination of the reader. I consider any book a good read that allows me to continue my daydreaming about it long after having put the book down. This book will ignite that kind of inner adventure with readers!

I found the accompanying photos to be a wonderful addition to the written accounting. After reading this book, I would now love to go see the real thing. John Man has a way of making history seem like a novel. He captures the most important elements of the facts and uses just enough verbiage to give you a a full understanding without drowning you in data and details like so many historians and writers do. This is a fun to read book and not a text book!

This book , like all of John Man's books is a FIVE STAR Blockbuster! It is that good. Go buy a copy!

John Man has produced an excellent introduction to the Terra Cotta Army of China's first emperor in this excellent book entitled "The Terra Cotta Army." For those out there who have the opportunity to view some of these artifacts for the first time in 2010.

Man characterizes the 1974 discovery of the terra cotta army as the outstanding archeological discovery of the 20th century because it changed the perceptions of the short-lived, but important Qin dynasty and who is prepared to argue. Probably only the discovery of the Gnostic gospels or the tomb of Tutankhamun would come close to providing greater insight into the ancient world. The first Qin emperor was also the first emperor of China who unified the kingdoms of Qin, Zhao, Yan, Qi, Wei, Chu, and Han between 221-206 BC and established his capital on the Wei river in the city of Xianyang. Perhaps the greatest achievement of the Qin emperor was the unification of China, albeit a China which consisted of what would be the eastern third of modern China.

One real interesting narrative line n in the book is a discussion of the sources that are available on the Qin emperor. These are the histories of Sima Qian. These were written during the succeeding Han dynasty which really had no reason to promote the achievements of its predecessor. Sima Qian also appears to have used the Qin emperor (who was no sweetheart) as a means of expressing some of his anger at members of the Han dynasty (not an uncommon practice in the ancient world where literal truth always took a backseat to reader edification, Tacitus uses Tiberius to critique Domitian in the Annals). Along with the story of the Qin emperor and the machinations of the court, Man's exploration of Sima Qian, who is surely the Chinese Herodotus (though certainly not its Thucydides given his tendency to include the spiciest of stories no matter how improbable)

In addition to the history, Man also provides a great deal of information on how the artifacts were discovered (peasants digging a well), their excavation and the subsequent construction of a world class museum in Xianyang. The book includes pictures, many in color showing what the terra cotta army would have looked like when it was originally deposited in the Qin emperor's tomb. They were a riot of color just like most of the ancient world. All of these details add up to outstanding insights into this fascinating discovery.

I liked this book so much that when I discovered that Man had also written a book on China's other ancient landmark, the Great Wall, I immediately ordered it from Amazon. I am sure that if that book is only half as good as this one, it will be a delight.

John Man has written a highly useful, journalistic commentary on these famous ancient clay statues--from 230-221 BC, located in an imperial burial mound near the ancient Chinese capital of Xian. I was able to read the entire book on the flight back from China to San Francisco. Don't expect a brilliant scholarly tome, just an accessible survey by an intelligent, well-informed commentator. With that caveat, the book really helped with several questions that bothered me after a tour of the Terracotta Warriors site. There is a dramatic story of their discovery in 1974 by humble farmers digging a well, and one of the farmers sits in the gift shop autographing the main book on the subject. It's a full time job; we saw this just as Man describes it, including a sign saying "No Photos." Many millions of tourists, mostly Chinese, visit the site each year; they swarm around the viewing platform to see the life-size clay statues, which have realistic-idealized, handsome faces. The inert soldiers were equipped with working weapons presumably to protect the deceased emperor in the afterlife. The darkened room with the reconstructed chariots is even more crowded, with camera flashes and cellphone lights going off in the dark, loud talking, and determined jostling to see the elegant umbrella-covered chariots from the time of the "First Emperor" Qin. Just what is going on here? Man puts this overwhelming and puzzling tourist experience in context, without any pretense to final answers. My first question was "Why 1974?": when the Cultural Revolution was destroying cultural heritage, why was this site revered enough to develop as a tourist attraction? I did not want to pester my guide with this political question. Man wondered as well and has some ideas worth thinking about. Mao wrote poems praising Emperor Qin, known for brilliant engineering feats such as early work on the Great Wall, for brilliant military feats, such as uniting the 7 warring states, and for utter brutality, such as burning not just books but scholars as well. What better prototype for Mao's brand of brutal success. While precious ornate Manchu monuments were callously destroyed in the 1970s by Mao's Red Guards, these stalwart clay images served both an aesthetic and a political purpose and probably were saved for that reason. Today the political emphasis seems to be shifting from Qin himself, who may still be buried there someplace in the half-way excavated mound, to the grandeur of the ordinary rank and file soldiers. Clearly the Chinese tourists were thrilled to see some kind of personal validation in those attractive faces. Apparently the statues were intended to stand on guard for eternity but were not intended in 221 BC to be seen by humans at all. Qin's empire rapidly fell apart after his death, and within a few years the roof in the mound collapsed, and all (but one clay soldier) were smashed. The pieces consigned to underground oblivion. There are several theories as to the destruction of the statues: The video suggests a popular uprising against the memory of a tyrant. Man suspects that marauding warlord tomb robbers, looking for working weapons, set the roofing poles on fire with their torches. Now the magnificent fragments are being reassembled in public as part of the exhibit under a huge train station-like protective roof, the rebuilt figures on view for decades (some since 1979) have now had a longer reassembled existence than they did in their original state that lasted just a few years. Man describes a whole new industry to make replicas in all sizes. Even full size images sell well. The subtext here has national significance for a re-emergent China. Nearly every tourist experience we had in China emphasized the importance of building stability and putting the pieces of Chinese history and culture back together, this time permanently. Another aspect of the discovery story that puzzled me was how could this enormous burial mound, clearly a human construction as seen in a 1914 photo in Man's book, be lost for 2,000 years? It was "discovered" rather like America was discovered by Columbus. Man clarifies this one right away. There were people who knew about it, and several statues had been extracted and placed in museums over the years. The political context had to be right to begin archeological work. Our guide told us there were mercury oceans in the mound. I wondered what that was all about. It seems there is just one ancient account of the burial, written about a century after the fact. Man critically reviews this manuscript by Sima Qian, who was probably writing the history of the Qin emperor and his inept successors to settle indirectly some more recent scores of his own. Sima Qian does not mention the terracotta warriors, but he does describe in detail a recreation of the world with quick silver rivers and oceans. Archeologists have done some probes that found unusually high levels of mercury in the unexcavated portion of the site. There is a general expectation that the future will reveal even greater marvels here. That is another metaphor for modern China being mined from this ancient cultural site. Man's book is well worth reading if you are interested in modern China's uses of the past. Don't expect a polished and finished explanation of the Terracotta Army, because the story isn't over yet.

John Man's book is a fun read. I purchased the book for my library to better understand The Terra Cotta Army and China's First Emperor (one of many books on China now in my library). Nonetheless this book was an essential read prior to my recent visit to the High Museum in Atlanta, GA to soak-up The Terra Cotta Army display. The book enhanced my initial impressions and understanding. It was worth every penny for the factual knowledge it imparted.

The book provided geographic insight to the site of the First Emporor's tomb in Xian and the surrounding facilities. One of the more interesting aspects of the book was the account of the modern reproduction of the army in such a way as to give the book reader an cleaver idea of how the ancient Chinese may have produced such a wonder thousnads of years ago! The feat of the Terra Cotta Army production in ancient times combined with the vast unknown treasurers still to be explored are certainly mind-boggling! This book makes one think.

Bottomline: Good book, fun read, provided insight.

Great topic, but horribly delivered as a meandering history and pseudo-travelogue.

Too much China, and not enough Terra Cotta Warriors