The Warrior Emperor and China’s Terracotta Army – Toronto

From June 26 until December 2010 January 2, 2011, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), will play host to the largest collection of artifacts from the Warrior Emperor that has ever been displayed in North America and I got a chance to view the collection yesterday while on my trip to Toronto.

Qi Shi Haung (or Ying Zheng as his common name), was a very powerful and ambitious leader, and was the First Emperor of China and reigned from 248 BC to 221 BC during the Warring States Period.

Beginning in 246 BC, the Emperor who was only 13 at the time, began building his own tomb with 700,000 laborers. He commanded that they create warriors for his afterlife, and that no two warriors were to be the same. Not only were there warriors made, but there was also animals, including horses, pigs, lambs, and other items required to sustain himself in the afterlife. The heights vary from 6 – 6.5 ft and based on the head gear you can tell which position they hold, from regular warrior to general.

The tomb was discovered in 1974 by some local farmers near Xi’an China, and the ROM has the honour of being the first city in Canada to host some of the collection that was found.

The ROM did a great job of telling the story of the Emperor and displaying the collection of 250 artifacts, taking you from some of the bronze items, including wine vessels and other ornaments, to some weapons that were used. The prize of the collection are 10 life-size terracotta figures from the pits of Xi’an. These include a couple of horses, two generals (only 9 were ever discovered), an archer (which still has some of the paint on him), to a horseman and civic officer. The detail of each figure is amazing from the hair, the armour they wore, right down to the sole of the shoe. I only wish I was able to take some photos to be able to show you. The following image I found on Wikipedia and looks similar to one of the status that is on display showing the details of the statue all the way to the sole of the shoe.

Admission is $31 and it includes general admission to the ROM as well as a timed visit to the featured display located on level B2 of the museum.

This is the first stop of the tour with stops still scheduled for the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Calgary’s Glenbow Museum and Victoria’s Royal BC Museum later next year. (UPDATE: Thanks to Cecilia Bunn from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, looks like the exhibit will not be traveling past Montreal due to the enforcement of Chinese official of not allowing the Terracotta Warriors to travel outside of China for over a year)

Updated: Thanks to Josh Terry of the Royal Ontario Museum for letting me post the following photos from the exhibit themselves. All photos are © Shananxi Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau and the Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Centre, People’s Republic of China, 2009.