An ancient story etched in Chinese folklore since the beginning of civilisation as we know it may finally be decoded following a ‘mindblowing’ discovery in the historic city of Xi’an.
For nearly 2,000 years, the myth of Prince Gao – son to the brutal first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang – has been carried down the generations, carved into legend in the surviving epic saga of historian Sima Qian, himself writing around 85 BCE.
Now, the discovery of a 16-tonne coffin in an expansive burial chamber near the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang and his terracotta warriors could bring the myth to life.
Experts believe the tomb may belong to the forgotten prince, and the treasures inside could help piece together fragments of an ancient story of how one of the world’s first states rose and fell.
Fifty years since the discovery of the famed terracotta warriors, built in their hundreds to protect the Qin strongman in the afterlife, British-Chinese filmmakers have received unprecedented access to explore the ongoing work to excavate the chamber.
Here, they learn of the ongoing race to carefully uncover and preserve record of our collective history before it is lost to time and exposure.
A depiction of Qin Shi Huang, the merciless first emperor of China, dated c.1850
A terracotta warrior, one of thousands stationed to ‘guard’ the ancient tomb of Qin Shi Huang
2,200-year-old terracotta relics in Xi’an, still almost perfectly preserved until the modern day
Archaeologists uncover a terracotta warrior during a pit excavation at the complex in 2012
At the bottom of a tomb in central China, 16 metres deep and 109 metres long, a coffin sealed for millennia continues to puzzle archaeologists.
The scale of the site is enormous, and its significance has stirred sentiments that experts may soon uncover verifiable evidence to support a myth until now handed down through ancient texts.
‘Every time I go down I still feel amazed,’ said dig leader Jiang Wenxiao, as reported by The Times.
The tomb was discovered a little over a decade ago, but has come into focus with the anticipated Netflix documentary Mysteries of the Terracotta Warriors.
Sima Qian wrote the Shiji with his father, chronicling a 2,000-year period of Chinese history
In a tiny enclave of central China, the famous warriors and the tomb together straddle the colossal resting place of China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang.
It took more than 7,000 workers to construct the 22sq-mile mausoleum over a period of 38 years. Their craftmanship is evidenced by the lasting preservation of their work.
But within a year of the mausoleum’s completion in 208 BCE, Qin Shi Huang died and the great Qin Dynasty fell into bitter civil war. The capital was destroyed and the citizens of the empire ultimately divided between 18 separate kingdoms.
Today, we still turn to myths pᴀssed down through the generations to get a sense of life in the ancient world. Soon after the collapse of the Qin Dynasty, early historians began keeping records of fantastical tales of great leaders, dramatic battles and local legends.
The myth of Prince Gao, the son of China’s merciless first emperor, was written into history by the great storyteller Sima Qian, a product of the imperial Han Dynasty that followed the early Qin Dynasty.
From Sima Qian’s monumental history, the Shiji, the early Chinese learned about the short-lived Qin Dynasty – and carried the story of an isolated prince requesting his own death as his empire fell into disarray.
It was a complicated period in Chinese history, the bringing together of early states after centuries of bloodshed between warring factions emerging and being toppled by tribes quicker to evolve.
The 2,200-year-old terracotta army is seen at the Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum on July 15, 2005 in Xi’an
After conquering all of his rivals to unify China, Qin Shi Huang briefly sat atop the pile, presiding over a vast empire with an iron fist and carving out the first tentative shapes of what Chinese administration could look like.
Among his most notable achievements was the Great Wall of China, connecting walls built from the 7th century BCE into a powerful border protecting the empire from nomadic invaders.
Qin had four princes ready to succeed him – Prince Gao, Prince Fusu, Prince Huhai and Prince Jianglu – but the dynasty would collapse immediately after his death.
After just 14 years, the fledgling state was thrown into a devastating civil war brought on by heavy resistance from forgotten classes.
Brought to life in the popular video game Civilization VI, Qin Shi Huang has been presented in the modern age as a tyrant. Myth and artefact gives us a lifelike idea of what he was like
Prince Huhai, the youngest, took up the mantle upon his father’s death and purged the courts of his siblings.
According to the legend – one of very few surviving to the modern day – Prince Gao wanted desperately to flee the new terror, but feared as much the repercussions his family would have to endure.
So the story goes, Gao said he regretted not following his father into the afterlife and asked to die and be buried in the necropolis built for his father.
Seizing a straightforward solution to his problem, the rising Prince Huhai accepted the deal, even offering 100,000 bronze coins for his burial.
The mausoleum, due 21 miles (35km) northeast of Xi’an – the former eastern edge of the historic Silk Roads – was built more than two millennia ago in 246BCE.
Officials unearthed more than 220 more terracotta warriors during their third dig, 2009-2022
Owing to its scale and the care with which it was built, it survives today with thousands of terracotta statues still preserved in hundreds of nearby pits.
When archaeologists uncovered the tomb of the emperor, they feared it could still be filled with boobytraps designed to deter unwanted visitors. Sima Qian claimed the mausoleum was ‘filled with rare artefacts and wonderful treasure’. To protect this, he wrote, ‘craftsmen were ordered to make crossbows and arrows primed to shoot at anyone who enters the tomb’.
‘Mercury was used to simulate the hundred rivers, the Yangtze and Yellow River, and the great sea, and set to flow mechanically,’ he went on.
‘Above were representations of the heavenly constellations, bellow, the features of the land. Candles were made from the fat of “man fish”, which is calculated to burn and not extinguish for a long time.’
Today, tourists still travel to the city to see the lifelike statues of fierce warriors, horses, chariots and weapons – a rare insight into the lives and priorities of those living millennia ago.
The preservation of such relics has helped historians gather huge detail on the life of China’s first emperor, with many books being written about his transformation of a region embroiled in warfare into the semblance of a modern state.
The Great Wall of China consists of numerous walls built from the 7th century. Qin Shia Huang connected a number of the existing walls in the 3rd century BCE, to be refined by successors
As American political scientist Francis Fukuyama framed it, the period saw the transformation of China for a series of tribes into modern states complete with organised armies, mechanisms for tax collection and new philosophies on the purpose and reach of government.
The historical record provides not only a window into the ancient world, then, but context to help understand the present.
Chinese archaeologists excavate terracotta warriors at the secluded ‘number two pit’ of the tomb of China’s first emperor
