Xi'an's
subterranean terracotta
army is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin
Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. It is a form of funerary art buried with
the emperor in 210 - 209 BCE and whose purpose was to protect the emperor in
his afterlife. The three pits held more than
8,000 life-sized soldiers, mostly infantrymen. No two soldiers are alike but could roughly be classified into seven
distinctive (personality) types of superbly sculpted faces: (i) the 国-shaped facial structure which is characterised by a
rectangle face with high cheekbones, a wide forehead and cheek, (ii) the 用-shaped
facial structure which is marked by an oblong face with flat cheeks and chin;
(iii) the 目-shaped facial structure which is basically a narrow and
long face with very fine/small features; (iv) the 田-shaped
facial structure which consists of a nearly square-shaped face; (v) the 甲-shaped
facial structure which has a wide top and narrow bottom, like the shape of a
melon seed; (vi) the 由-shaped facial structure which is
characterised by a rather long face with a narrow forehead and wide chin
and (vii) the 申-shaped
facial structure with wide cheekbones and narrow ends.
Street portrait photographs of Xi'an's toughies and smarties in Matt Hahnewald's
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