1974, when the noisy spring came to the foot of Mount Li again, the annual well-drilling project in xiyang village began. On this day, production captain Yang and vice captain came to the west cliff in the corner of persimmon garden in the southwest of the village. They looked at the Meiyukou of Lishan Mountain for a while, and then looked around the surrounding terrain. With the shovel head, a big circle was drawn on a thistle-covered ground to determine the wellhead position for the team to drill wells.
The next day, six young and middle-aged laborers led by Yang dug in the circle.
The project went smoothly at first, but I didn't expect to meet a soil layer as hard as stone two days later. After digging about 3 meters, a thick layer of red soil appeared. It is incredible that red soil suddenly appeared under the soil layer 3 meters deep. The farmer guessed, "Isn't this the brick kiln in the hands of our ancestors?"
On the fifth day, a more bizarre scene appeared. Yang Zhifa, who was waving a spade head, suddenly found a round pottery at the foot of the western wall of the shaft. "Ah, a crock!" He let out a cry of surprise.
What was finally dug up was not a crock at all, but a "crock master". In Mandarin, it means digging a ceramic idol.
The news that the idol was dug up in Xiyang Village spread like wildfire in Fiona Fang Village, and people came to watch it one after another. The young man jokingly said, "This really corresponds to the folk song 1958, which has been dug into the Crystal Hall of the Dragon King." The old man looked horizontally and vertically and said, "This must be eighteen arhats underground!" ……
Just as everyone was making a fuss about the newly unearthed "King of Wapen", a soil and water conservation officer named Fang Shumin from the commune came to check the drilling situation.
"You have been playing this well for so many days, why haven't you pumped water?" Asked the soil administrator.
"You see, we played such a trick." The cadre pointed to a small statue and showed it to him.
"Ah, what is this?" The soil guard also froze at first. But after carefully observing the site of drilling, I quickly told him: "This well can't be drilled for the time being."
"Look, these square bricks are exactly the same as the Qin bricks unearthed near the first imperial tomb!" This conservationist with a little archaeological knowledge first linked these terracotta figures with the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang, five miles away.
"May be a national treasure"
After receiving the phone call from the soil and water conservation officer, three comrades from the county cultural center immediately flew here. There is a 40-year-old man named Zhao who specializes in cultural relics. After carefully examining these "clay pot owners", he said decisively: "What clay pot owner is probably a national treasure!" Say that finish, he took out a stack of hemp paper with him, carefully wrapped all the well-preserved figurines' heads, bodies and legs and put them in the car. Then instruct the cadres and members to screen out all the red soil mixed with clay figurines at the wellhead with a rose screen, so that every piece of debris can be collected and sent to the county cultural center together with the crossbow arrow. When Zhao was sent back to the county, the members who were curious first and then happy could not help but ask, "Are these things from the Qin Dynasty?" Zhao said excitedly: "It's hard to say now. If it is the Qin Dynasty, it is hard to buy a thousand dollars! "
The next day, fragments filled with six cars of pottery figurines arrived at Lintong County Cultural Center. As a result, the restoration of the first batch of extremely large pottery figurines, which are rare in museums around the world, began in a corner of the showroom of this small cultural center, next to the famous Lishan Huaqing Pool.
Find the pieces together and glue them together with resin according to the original stubble. Even the girl's embroidery can't be more detailed than it. The young archaeologist groped around the clock and worked carefully. He will personally repair the cultural relics and find out the truth before reporting it in writing. In this way, the news of the discovery of this major cultural relic has been unknown to the outside world for more than two months.
The reporter's eyesight
During this period, Lin, a reporter working in China News Agency, went back to his hometown Lintong County to visit relatives. In this way, Zhao's bleak management and obscure repair work entered the reporter's sight.
"Ah, why didn't such a great discovery be reported?" The reporter looked at a preliminarily restored armor figurine and two small brown figurines and asked.
"Even if I don't fully understand it myself, how can I report it?" Young archaeologists also have a point.
On June 24, Lin Anan returned to Beijing after visiting relatives. The next day, the reporter couldn't restrain his inner excitement and wrote a report and handed it to the editorial department of People's Daily. This is the first internal written report on this amazing discovery. Journalists are not as meticulous and rigorous as archaeologists. According to his own intuition, he was directly named as "a group of Qin warrior pottery figurines appeared in the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor". He wrote:
Many warrior figures were unearthed near the mausoleum of Qin Shihuang at the foot of Lishan Mountain in Lintong County, Shaanxi Province. The pottery figurines are 1.68 meters tall, wearing military uniforms and holding weapons. They are shaped according to the real image of soldiers in the Qin Dynasty.
"Terracotta warriors and horses have been unearthed around the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor before, but they are all small kneeling figures. The first time I found them like this real person. What is particularly precious is that this is a group of warriors. Qin Shihuang unified China by force, but the military image of Qin Dynasty is not recorded in the history books. These warrior figures were accidentally discovered by local commune members while drilling wells in March and April this year. Inferred from the unearthed situation, there were houses built on the pottery figurines at that time. Later, it was burned by Xiang Yu, and the house collapsed and was buried for more than two thousand years. These cultural relics were cleared and excavated by Lintong County Cultural Center. So far, only a part has been cleared. Because of the summer harvest, the excavation work was abandoned halfway. ……"
Take prompt measures
As soon as this internal situation was announced, Chairman Mao, Premier Zhou and leading comrades of relevant departments of the central government quickly learned this important news. A few days later, the State Council Vice Premier Comrade Li Xiannian's personal instructions arrived in National Cultural Heritage Administration:
"It is suggested that the Cultural Bureau consult with the Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee and take prompt measures to properly protect this important cultural relic."
National Cultural Heritage Administration's leading cadres and staff, who are still ignorant of this important discovery, seem to have a sense of "dereliction of duty" after seeing this instruction. They quickly picked up the microphone and contacted the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Management Association. I am afraid that the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Management Association is also at a loss! Then, on July 6th, Chen Zhide, director of National Cultural Heritage Administration Cultural Management Office, took important instructions from Vice Premier Li Xiannian and flew directly to Xi 'an.
After Chen Zhide and others arrived in Xi, they were on pins and needles. After talking with the relevant leading comrades of Shaanxi Provincial Committee, I came to the scene the next day accompanied by the comrades of the Provincial Cultural Management Committee. After a small-scale excavation, a group of warriors stood in the pit. The experts were surprised beyond description as soon as they arrived at the scene. Although they often travel across oceans and have extensive knowledge and experience of cultural relics, they are too excited to know what to say when they stand in front of these "clay giants".
In this investigation, it was officially confirmed that the Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee appointed comrades with excavation experience to form an archaeological task force to continue to carefully clean up and excavate the site. According to this decision, on July 15, an archaeological team of Qin figurines, composed of Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Management Association and Archaeological Research Institute, came to xiyang village. From this day on, a magnificent page in the history of international archaeology was opened.
The eighth miracle
The official excavation of the Terracotta Warriors first shocked the whole country. Artists with sketchpads came, and they were glad that the discovery of Qin figurines filled the gap in the art history of Qin Dynasty. The old marshal and general are here. They laughed at Wu Gou, saying that the discovery of Terracotta Warriors and Horses provided the most authentic information and scenes for studying the art of war, weapons and military arrays in ancient China. Experienced metallurgists came. They put their hands on Qin Jian and exclaimed that China's ancient metallurgy was absolutely superb and unparalleled. Some scholars and experts who have always worshipped ancient Greek sculpture came and changed their conventional views. They believe that the meticulous plastic arts of Qin figurines are the earliest and most brilliant chapter in the history of world sculpture. The wind soon crossed the national border and spread to some friendly countries. Many foreign guests who come to Xi put forward a point: I hope to see the Terracotta Warriors, so that my trip to China will be in glad you came. Many foreign friends call visiting the Terracotta Warriors and Horses their "peak project" to visit China. Foreign friends who were lucky enough to visit the Terracotta Warriors shouted: "China is great!" "China is great!"
1978 In September, Mr. Chirac, the former French Prime Minister and mayor of Paris, who had a profound study and attainments in history, faced the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of the Qin Dynasty, as if he were a world away, he said, "It turns out that there are seven wonders of the world. I saw the Qin terracotta warriors today, and I want to say that this is the eighth miracle. " He gestured again and made a powerful supplement: "And the Qin figurines should be among the best!"
In the past seven years, around the eighth wonder of the world, foreign friends have taken photos, painted pictures, written interviews, written academic articles, written historical documents and movie scripts, and written an outline of feature films based on the excavation of Qin figurines, and volunteered to come to the excavation site to ask their sons to study archaeology, and they are willing to contribute their advanced science and technology to the restoration of Qin figurines. ..... We have to let Qin's soldiers and horses meet with some European countries and people there to thank the people of these countries for their yearning for Qin figurines.
Miracle, miracle, this is indeed a miracle! Only the excavated pit 1 has an area of 14260 square meters. In the rectangular pits in the west and east of this building, there are more than 6,400 terracotta warriors and horses as big as real horses. Its formation is a large-scale military array with 2 10 as the pioneer, 38 columns as the main body, and 3 queues as flanks and guards. Pit 2, just north of it, covers an area of 6,000 square meters after preliminary drilling and trial excavation, in which it is estimated that there are more than 1000 terracotta warriors and horses (including crossbowmen, chariots and cavalry) as mixed arms. After drilling and trial excavation, 68 terracotta warriors and horses with military figures as the main body were found in the No.3 pit. Judging from the whole layout, pit 3 is undoubtedly the headquarters of this underground body guard. Interestingly, there are 1 terracotta warriors and horses pits to the north of these three pits. After drilling, the pit is empty. Perhaps because of a sudden disaster in the building, the prisoners evacuated hastily and failed to put the Terracotta Warriors inside as planned, forming the "empty city plan".
Standing on the shore of xiyang village, overlooking the huge pit of terracotta warriors and horses and the magnificent military array, how can we not be "amazing"! At the same time, we can't help but marvel at the rich ideas and magnificent verve of Reese and Zhang Han who were in charge of designing and building this great underground civil engineering at that time! The whole 7,000-odd warrior figurines, with different costumes, different expressions, colorful bodies (many colors fall off after being unearthed) and spears in their hands, make people want to see the ancient artists and working people, and what arduous labor and creative wisdom they have paid for it! Undoubtedly, when all the terracotta warriors and horses are unearthed, restored and sorted out in the future, we will see the side of Qin Jun's lineup more than 2,000 years ago. Imagine, when we are in the time and space of the 20th century, to review an ancient army ready to go in the 2nd century BC, isn't it an exciting miracle and spectacle?
People should remember the time when this miracle was discovered: AD1March 29th, 974. People should also thank the discoverers of this miracle: China ordinary farmers Yang Zhifa, Yang, Yang, Yang, Yang Xinman and Wang Puzhi.