I have been browsing through the book “The Terra Cotta Army: China’s First Emperor and the Birth of a Nation." Surprisingly (at least to me), it says that the warriors were fired and lacquered, though it didn't say anything about extant molds that were used to form the original army. Is this accurate, were the warriors lacquered and fired?
Here's some paraphrased bits about the production of the army:
Why were there so many terra cotta soldiers (roughly 8000)? No army could be called an army unless it was a wan, 10,000 strong (wan really means “large” and not literally 10,000) (128). Attaining this sense of realism also drove Qin Shihuang to arm the infantry, archers, and charioteers.
What were the soldiers made of? Thankfully, he didn’t choose human sacrifices, and, instead, opted for clay. Clay is cheap (could you imagine a bronze, jade, or gold army?) and wouldn’t deplete the military’s strength (such as using humans). Also, clay was easy to manipulate and quickly produced. (129)
How was the army manufactured? There are no historical sources, i.e. Sima Qian, that account for the production, but many elements needed for an assembly-line like production were already in place: clay (beds were all over northern China), furnaces (bronze production was well established and used molds for interchangeable parts), artistry, and laborers.
Since history is silent on this subject, the author of “Beyond the Grave,” visited a modern, replica terra cotta army ceramics factory, which claims to use the original techniques. First, the artist takes the raw clay and pummel it to get the bubbles out, then they squeeze it into the right molds (analysis of the warriors reveals some 80 different molds). The Qin sculptors did not use molds to make the heavy legs, or many of the torsos. Instead, they rolled clay into long, thin cylinders, coiling these on top of each other and then smoothing out the dents and bumps, the same way as potters make a pot freehand (143). Once assembled, the clat is hardened for a few days (in a sunless, windless environment), and, finally, the artist takes the molds off and makes the finishing touches, such as using a stylus to define the hair. The clay soldier is then fired in a coal-fired kiln dug into cliffs. The firing takes a week on low temperatures to ensure regular heating, then a couple of days at high temperatures, up to 1000 Celcius. The whole process takes about 20 days (140). The height of the rank-and-file soldiers range between 1.66 meters and 1.87 meters, with an average of 1.77 meters (5’10.5”). Officers were taller, averaging 1.9 meters, while a general is 1.96 meters.
Hairstyle was also of importance. Most infantrymen had the top-knot on the right. Those without top-knots presumably wore helmets. Officers, cavalrymen and charioteers favored flat knots on the back of the head. Facial hair is attributed to beauty and status. Beards could be worn as side-whiskers, three-drop beards, half-shaved, divided, full (one warrior has a beard down to his chest) or residual. Mustaches could be upturned crescents, down-turned, arrow-headed or flat. (147 – 148)
Lastly, the warriors were painted. The warriors were lacquered to serve as a foundation layer for the paint. Each statue would have been sealed using the sap from up to 25 trees (Chistina Thieme’s “East Asian Lacquer). The colors used were red (cinnabar from a cinnabar mine 200 KM south of Xian owned by the Widow Qing), white, green, black, brown, blue, and purple (Han Purple, made from barium, copper, quartz, and lead melted together at 900 – 1100C, was the most extravagant).
The author asked the plant manager “why are the heads done separately?”“Because when you make a life-size warrior, you have 1.8 meters of clay, so you have to consider how to keep it balanced. It was the same 2,000 years ago. There are three ways. One is to make a base, which is what some of them have. Another way is to make them kneeling, like the kneeling archers. The third way is to make sure the legs are heavy and the rest of the body is light, so you give them solid legs and a hollow chest. That’s how most of them are made.”
“And if the statue has a hollow chest, what happens when you put it in the kiln with the head on?”
“The air expands and it would blow up. So we leave a big hole for the neck and add the head afterwards.” (133 – 134)
Also, here's some things kenneth mentioned on the
Qin Shi Huang's tomb thread:
QUOTE
The process is now better understood, the # people working on the buried army, the names of supervisors (such as found inscribed on some of the figures) and the construction of the figures now has decades of analysis. The teams of artisans that made them were quite small & specialised with expert overseers. The output in figures per year has been calculated (the work unfinished when QSH died).
There are actually only a limited variety of head types, base templates, from which final minor adjustments were made to give the individual appearances such as the way the hair was shaped or the particular facial hair.
Think of a really refined version of the 'Mr Potato head' toy, but with world class artists making different additional features. After the many hundreds & hundreds of reconstructions made from fragments the assembly line manufacturing is not so mysterious as it was 20 years ago even though it is still rightfully impressive. The idea they were modelled on real soldiers who gave portrait sittings was entirely speculation in the early days when there was a lot of excitement over their realism, but they have been studied quite closely and for a long time now so more up-to-date books will describe the construction in more realistic terms.
Naturally it does not lessen the impact or realism of the figures if we don't have to accept thousands of soldiers lined up to be immortalised but it does go to show how many myths about the buried armies die hard.
Source: Man, John. 2008. “The Terra Cotta Army: China’s First Emperor and the Birth of a Nation.” Decopo Press, Cambridge
