书城外语HistoryofChina
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第11章 The Qin Mausoleum and......(1)

The Qin Mausoleum and the Terracotta Warriors:the Rise and Fall of theQin Empire

The mausoleum of the Qin Emperor is located at the foot of Li Mountains east of Lintong town,around30 kilometers from the city of Xi’an.Qin Emperor Ying Zheng is a hero of great talent and bold vision.During the war between the seven states,he developed economy and military forces internally,while advocating inter-states alliance externally.After bloody conquests,Qin(221–206 BC)destroyed the other six states and established a unified and centralized empire.

H e u n i f i e d t h e l a w s y s t e m,the measure system,the coin system,and the language.He organized road construction and established the county system,which contributedto the unification and economic development of C h i n a.O n t h e o t h e r h a n d,he was extremely dominating and violent.He regarded thep e o p l e a s o f n o i m p o r t a n c e and the state as his own wealth.He extorted excessive taxes andlevies,carried out severe criminal penalty laws,led excessively luxuriouslife,not to mention that he burned books and buriedscholars.During his reign,the governance is already under great danger as the people suffer from misery and conflicts intensified.After his death,his fatuous and weak son succeeded the throne and became the puppet of the guile and atrocious eunuchs.The political and economic situation was getting geopardized.Finally,the uprising of Chen Sheng and Wu Guang broke out and it led to many responses from the opposing forces.The short-lived dynasty was thus overthrown.The Qin mausoleum began to construct when the Emperor was13 years old.The Prime Minister Li Si organized the planning and designing.General Zhang Han supervised the engineering process,which took 38 years.The project exceeded all of the rulers’mausoleums in scale and luxury.The population of Qin was around 20 million,and720 thousand men underwent the servitude of building the mausoleum.

The height of the Qin Mausoleum is 43 meters,with the base perimeter of more than 1,700 meters.There are two layers of clay city wall.The interior city is in square shape with a perimeter of 3,890 meters.There are two doors on the north side and one door for each of the other three sides.The exterior city is in the shape of rectangle with a perimeter of 6,294 meters.There is a door oneach side.The mausoleum is located at the south of thecemetery.