The animals depicted in these sculptures are mostly domesticated livestock, Such as pigs, sheep, dogs and chickens, used by people in the Neolithic Age. The makers of the sculptures created them Out of interest after careful observation of life. The sculptures' meaning remains obscure, which adds to their mystery. The look of these pottery sculptures is in formal, simple, exaggerated and compact; they are unpolished, which reinforces the beauty of a free and innocent style. They laid a solid foundation for later more refined and larger sculptural creations.
Terracotta Warriors
In 1974, Vault 1 of the Terracotta Army of Emperor Qinshihuang was unearthed in Xiyang Village, Lintong County, Shaanxi Province. The terracotta warriors were arranged in a big, orderly arrayed combat formation. No written records of the Terracotta Warriors, considered the Eighth Wonder of the World, have been found.
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Horse Stepping on a Swallow
TheWestern Han Dynasty(206B.C.-A.D.23) was very powerful during Emperor Wudi's reign. To subdue the ethnic Xiongnu invaders, the emperor sent troops to fight against them. The commander of the emperor's troops, Huo Qubing, was a young man, who defeated the Xiongnu army six times in the Qilian Mountain area and made brilliant military achievements.
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Statues in Four Chinese Grottos
In 460, the Wuzhou mountain valley inDatong,Shanxi Province, was reverberating with the sound of iron hammers beating rocks. A monk was directing hundreds of thousands of workers to continue their labor, carving stones and rocks to begin creating the Yungang Grottos.
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The Giant Stone Buddha atLeshan
A 70-meter-high giant stone Buddha sits in the beautiful Leshan Mountain at the confluence of the Dadu, Qingyi and Minjiang rivers. Ten people together can sit in the Buddha's hair bun and the space between his ear and face can hold two standing people. Two people lying head to head and linking hands are shorter than his toe, and the crown of an ordinary person's head does not reach the top of his foot. The stone Buddha in his entirety can only be viewed from the other side of the river.
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Female Servant Sculptures in the JinTemple
At the foot of the xuanweng Mountain to the south west of Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, lies the famous Jin Temple with its great cypress tree dating from theZhou Dynasty, the Never Old Spring that has run for thousands of years, the Goddess Hall built in theNorthern Song Dynastyand the Xian Temple constructed in the Jin Dynasty. But it is the colored sculptures in the Goddess Temple that brought great fame to the Jin Temple.
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Lions at the Gate
The lion is known as the king of animals. The first lion was presented to China during the EasternHan Dynastyby a king from the Western Regions.
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