modern media, especially modern western media, loves the idea of qin shi huang’s terracotta army coming to life and obeying his every command. but really that isn’t a very pretty ending for a man who burned the heavens in effigy and heaped the ashes into an artificial divine title and artificial pills of immortality. it would be more fitting, i think, for his ghost to still be running around his mausoleum, shaking his clay soldiers by the shoulders, shaking his own corpse, unable to understand why they won’t wake up
i agree with this 20000% it would be the ultimate karmic punishment for a self-important man who put himself above everyone else for his own vainglorious pursuits. put that mercury-eating clown in the ghost town. let him wander his own empty, gemstone-lined streets for the rest of time, locked in a prison of his own making, paved by his own crimes.
but also…it would be extremely funny if the soldiers did come to life…but not in the way qin shi huang expects. they’ve had 2000 years to reflect on their situation and decide they’re Mad As Hell, and Not Gonna Take It. while the emperor might be a ghost, his face lost to history, his un-openable tomb buried under a mountain, locked in the past and unable to move past his own failings in life, his pawns on the other hand are able to live on in the minds and hearts of people. in a way, they’ve taken on a life of their own, and are able to develop their own agency. they may be locked in time and space, but they have been able to see the world, because the world has come to see them.
monty python and the holy pill of immortality (spoiler: it’s mercury)
wait! even better! they come to life and fucking LIU BANG ends up taking charge of them. oh man, several ye olde chinese people would shoot out of their tombs ragescreaming if that happened! it’s perfect!
re: the terracotta warriors coming to life and obeying qin shi huang’s every command shows a very shallow understanding of history. the qin dynasty was overthrown within 15 years of it’s founding. numerous peasant rebellions sprung up the picosecond qin shi huang kicked the bucket. a peasant (liu bang) ended up taking the throne. everyone was absolutely SICK to death of qsh and his tyrannical rule. the terracotta army represented a tiny crumb of that despotism, the majority of workers would have been forced laborers from conquered states. builders were killed upon the tomb’s completion to keep the location secret. having people blindly obey qsh’s every whim would have been antithetical to how history really played out
amhrancas 