New Tales of the Terracotta Warriors Heep Yunn Primary School, Ma, Jeslyn – 11

he Terracotta Warriors were discovered on 29 March 1974 to the east of Xi’an in province by farmers digging a water well. It is approximately 1.6 km east of Qin Emperor’s T tomb, which is located at Mount Li (Lishan), a region with underground springs and watercourses. Of course, these are facts that we all know. What you are reading next, is how the Terracotta Warriors came to this world in the first place. – the First Emperor of China was known for his desire to find the Elixir of Life. He had sent men everywhere, searching for something that could give him immortality. Once he sent a man named Xu Fu, a Zhifu islander, with ships carrying hundreds of young men and women in search of the mystical mountain named Mount Penglai. They were ordered to find a thousand years old magician whom Qin Shi Huang had, supposedly, met in his travels and had invited the Emperor to seek him there. These people never returned, knowing that if they went back without the promised elixir, they would be executed. It is said that they reached Japan and colonized it, but that is another story now. Some had even said that the real reason the emperor burnt books and executed schoolars was to punish those who had failed to bring him the real elixirs. One day, his soilders brought him an old man. Word had been said that this old man had extrordinary powers. Qin Shi Huang threatened this old man that if he would not grant him and his best army (including the horses and the chariots! He needed them to last forever too) immortality, he would kill his family. The old man agreed, but he was actually planning on how to kill this cruel king. The old man said he knew where the Spring of Immortality was and would bring the Emperor there. The Emperor, being the calculating person he was, kept the trip a secret. The old man brought them to Mount Li (Lishan), a region with lots of underwater springs and watercourses. He told the army to dip themselves into a few specific springs, and the king into another one. Eagerly, they all dipped themselves into the springs, washed the horses and dumped the chariots in. Within a few minutes, the magical water began to do their work. The whole army, including the horses and the chariots began to turn into terracotta. The Emperor was angry but terrified. He was alone. As the old man watched the king twisted in agony, dying, he said, ‘There is nothing as a Spring of Immortality. I may not be able to kill your army too, but at least they will last a good long time underground.’ It turned out that the old man had a lot of subordinates. The old man used his magic to turn one of his men to look like the Emperor, and went back to the palace. He pretended to make a army of clay and ‘employed’ a lot of men – who all worked for the old man. The fake king buried the real army underground, claiming it was for his protection when he died. He also built a tomb on Mount Li, with traps and everything. The old man could see the future. When he knew it was time for another dynasty, he told the fake king to pretend and go on a trip, which led to the ‘death’ of Qin Shi Huang. When they needed to bury the body, the old man’s men placed the real king’s body back and let the people put him inside the tomb. A lot of people thought that the traps were to keep people out, but the real reason was actually to keep the king in. The old man knew the springs were not stable. He already ensured that the king dipped into the water at the right time of magic. With all the traps, even if he did wake up, or discovered by someone, the king would not be able to get out, or it will be thousand years away. The was simply a plan to leave the Emperor unprotected at the springs.