Editing Terracotta Army (section)

===Precedents and legacy===
{{multiple image
|image1 = Funerary figurines from the mausoleum of Lu Wu, Prince of Liang.jpg
|caption1 = Han dynasty funerary terracotta from the mausoleum of the Prince of Liang.
|image2= Han Terracotta Warriors, Pit 1, Han Tomb of Liu Wu, King of Chu (10082899994).jpg
|caption2 = Han dynasty terracotta warriors of the Tomb of Liu Wu, King of Chu.}}
Only very few figurines are known from before the time of the terracotta army, so that the humanistic and animalistic style may have appeared dramatically new to their contemporaries.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nickel |first1=Lukas |date=October 2013 |title=The First Emperor and sculpture in China |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X13000487 |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies |language=en |volume=76 |issue=3 |pages=416–418 |doi=10.1017/S0041977X13000487 |issn=0041-977X |quote=From the centuries immediately preceding the Qin Dynasty again we know of only a few depictions of the human figure (...) figures of people and animals were very rare exceptions to the conventional imagery of the Zhou period (...) Depictions of the human figure were not a common part of the representational canon in China before the Qin Dynasty (...) In von Falkenhausen's words, "nothing in the archaeological record prepares one for the size, scale, and technically accomplished execution of the First Emperor's terracotta soldiers". For his contemporaries, the First Emperor's sculptures must have been something dramatically new.}}</ref> In extant archaeology, only rare and very small terracotta warrior figurines are known from the end of the [[Zhou dynasty]] in 4th-3rd century BCE, such as the ''[[Taerpo horserider]]'', the first known representation of a cavalryman in China, from a military tomb in the Taerpo cemetery near [[Xianyang]] ([[Qin (state)|Qin state]] of the [[Warring States period]]).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nickel |first1=Lukas |date=October 2013 |title=The First Emperor and sculpture in China |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X13000487 |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies |language=en |volume=76 |issue=3 |pages=416–418 |doi=10.1017/S0041977X13000487 |issn=0041-977X |quote=In addition, there are the statuettes of two horse riders which came to light in a late fourth-century bc tomb in Taerpo 塔兒坡, Xianyang, Shaanxi, which are believed to be the earliest depiction of riders in China....}}</ref><ref name="MK">{{cite journal |last1=Khayutina |first1=Maria |date=Autumn 2013 |title=From wooden attendants to terracotta warriors |url=https://www.iias.asia/sites/iias/files/nwl_article/2019-05/IIAS_NL65_1213.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Bernisches Historisches Museum the Newsletter |volume=65 |page=2, Fig.4 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231022115230/https://www.iias.asia/sites/iias/files/nwl_article/2019-05/IIAS_NL65_1213.pdf |archive-date=22 October 2023 |access-date=22 October 2023 |quote=Other noteworthy terracotta figurines were found in 1995 in a 4th-3rd century BCE tomb in the Taerpo cemetery near Xianyang in Shaanxi Province, where the last Qin capital of the same name was located from 350 to 207 BCE. These are the earliest representations of cavalrymen in China discovered up to this day. One of this pair can now be seen at the exhibition in Bern (Fig. 4). A small, ca. 23 cm tall, figurine represents a man sitting on a settled horse. He stretches out his left hand, whereas his right hand points downwards. Holes pierced through both his fists suggest that he originally held the reins of his horse in one hand and a weapon in the other. The rider wears a short jacket, trousers and boots – elements of the typical outfit of the inhabitants of the Central Asian steppes. Trousers were first introduced in the early Chinese state of Zhao during the late 4th century BCE, as the Chinese started to learn horse riding from their nomadic neighbours. The state of Qin should have adopted the nomadic clothes about the same time. But the figurine from Taerpo also has some other features that may point to its foreign identity: a hood-like headgear with a flat wide crown framing his face and a high, pointed nose.}} Also in {{cite book |last1=Khayutina |first1=Maria |title=Qin: the eternal emperor and his terracotta warriors |date=2013 |publisher=Neue Zürcher Zeitung |isbn=978-3-03823-838-6 |edition=1. Aufl |location=Zürich |page=cat. no. 314}}</ref> The rider wears [[Central Asian]], [[Saka|Scythian]]-style clothing,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Qingbo |first1=Duan |date=January 2023 |title=Sino-Western Cultural Exchange as Seen through the Archaeology of the First Emperor's Necropolis |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/3F6506262A9ED57C9DC3827EEAA6B230/S2059163222000251a.pdf/sino-western-cultural-exchange-as-seen-through-the-archaeology-of-the-first-emperors-necropolis.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Journal of Chinese History |volume=7 |issue=1 |page=26 Fig.1, 27 |doi=10.1017/jch.2022.25 |s2cid=251690411 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231022115226/https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/3F6506262A9ED57C9DC3827EEAA6B230/S2059163222000251a.pdf/sino-western-cultural-exchange-as-seen-through-the-archaeology-of-the-first-emperors-necropolis.pdf |archive-date=22 October 2023 |access-date=22 October 2023 |quote=In terms of formal characteristics and style of dress and adornment, the closest parallels to the Warring States-period Qin figurines are found in the Scythian culture. Wang Hui 王輝 has examined the exchanges between the cultures of the Yellow River valley and the Scythian culture of the steppe. During a 2007 exhibition on the Scythians in Berlin, there was a bronze hood on display labeled a "Kazakh military cap." This bronze hood and the clothing of the nomads in kneeling posture [also depicted in the exhibition] are very similar in form to those of the terracotta figurines from the late Warring States Qin-period tomb at the Taerpo site (see Figure 1). The style of the Scythian bronze horse figures and the saddle, bridle, and other accessories on their bodies are nearly identical to those seen on the Warring States-period Qin figurines and a similar type of artifact from the Ordos region, and they all date to the fifth to third centuries BCE.}}</ref> and his high pointed nose suggests he is a foreigner,<ref name="MK" /> but these early statuettes have been argued to lack the naturalistic and realistic quality of the Qin terracota army.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nickel |first1=Lukas |date=October 2013 |title=The First Emperor and sculpture in China |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X13000487 |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies |language=en |volume=76 |issue=3 |pages=416–421 |doi=10.1017/S0041977X13000487 |issn=0041-977X |quote=}}</ref>

The terracotta army left a legacy however, as funeral terracotta armies are known from later dynasties, although in a less stern and militaristic style, and with much smaller statuettes, such as the [[Western Han]] [[Yangjiawan terracotta army]] (195 BCE) or [[Yangling terracotta army]] (141 BCE).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chong |first1=Alan |url=https://www.academia.edu/55217857 |title=Terracotta Warriors: The First Emperor and His Legacy |date=1 January 2011 |publisher=Asian Civilisations Museum |access-date=22 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231221093005/https://www.academia.edu/55217857 |archive-date=21 December 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> The human-sized monumental style of the Qin emperor has thus been observed by scholars to be a relatively short-lived artistic phase which would not reappear until the 4-6th centuries CE with the onset of monumental [[Buddhist sculpture]] in China.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Qingbo |first1=Duan |author-link=Duan Qingbo |title=Persian and Greek Participation in the making of China's First Empire (Video timing: 45:00-47:00) |date=9 April 2019 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=ASy32tcsYbk&ab_channel=ChinaOnscreen |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231027041415/https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=ASy32tcsYbk&ab_channel=ChinaOnscreen |archive-date=27 October 2023 |access-date=25 October 2023 |publisher=Video of 2018 conference at UCLA |language=en}}</ref>