By Jonathan Lim
In deference to my ancestors, I will shortly be painting a Ch'in Chinese army. Yes, you guessed it - I was inspired by the terracotta army near Xi'an (pronounced Shee-Aan) which was set up to guard the emperor Qin (pronounced Tshin) as he lay in state in his magnificent mausoleum. The mausoleum, by the way, has never been opened by archaeologists even though its location has always been known. According to Sima Qian (pronounced Serma Chen) the mausoleum was set up with a great model of the Chinese Empire, made of dirt, with mercury rivers flowing into mercury oceans, and with the ceiling dressed in glittering jewels which looked like the stars of the Chinese sky. Imagine digging that up!
But enough history. The terracotta army was a 1-1 scale army made of ceramic in fine detail and painted in realistic colours. Although the colours have mainly flaked off, there still remains enough to reconstruct the uniform of Qin Shihuang-di's (Tshin Sheehuang-dee) royal army.
Crossbowman: These could be either armoured or unarmoured. They wore armour made of brown thick leather squares, neatly cut and tied together with red material. The armour extended over the shoulders too. The tunic was light oriental green with red sleeve-borders. The trousers were blue with white garters. The men wore a scarf that was red. They had a topknot bound with red material.
Officer : There were about 5 of these in the terracotta army. They had an elaborate wine-red cap. The armour was also brown leather but the upper half was covered in grey cloth. Over the shoulders were odd yellow flaps of material with oriental patterns on it. The armour was also bordered with white material with crisscrossing red patterns on it. The scarf was large and pink, with the two ends free. They wore two tunics; the inner, visible at the sleeves and hem, coloured red; and the outer, under the armour, was wine red. Trousers were green.
Soldiers: Many wore armour, some didn't. They dressed like the crossbowmen, but some had wine red trousers and some white bordered armour.
Cavalryman: These wore shorter armour, wider at the bottom, but dressed much like crossbowmen. They had no shoulder armour. They wore white trousers and a wine red cap.
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Last Updated: March 10, 1999
Comments, questions and additions welcome. Send them to Chris Brantley at brant@erols.com.