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According to the professor that's likely when the ruler also started production on the massive army that was installed below ground.
As life-size works didn't exist in China prior to the emperor's collection, outside influence is suspected.
First. the most recent is having just tested through a history course this Fall which had a heavy focus on both the Chinese and Greek cultures of this time period, among others. The only resemblance I see between Greek art of the time and the Warriors is they're both bipedal humanoid figures in relief. The similarity ends there, I believe.
IkNOwSTuff
Ignorance denied!!!!
I had no idea the 1st Chinese emperor was a contemporary of Alexander, I thought the Emp was much earlier. Considering the swath Alex cut across that part of the world its not surprising the Emperor emulated some of the Hellenistic culture.
I was a bit skeptical when I saw the title as Greece to China is a fair distance, especially back then but considering Greek culture was basically on their doorstep it does make sense and it explains the break with the norm.
It would be hard to believe in a taboo when a culture that ignores it is kicking the ass of everyone around you.
Interesting stuff as always Slayer
S&F
SLAYER69
reply to post by Thorneblood
True unless the statues were cast by the Greeks close to Ancient China's territory and placed in place as a warning? Who knows, I think there maybe something to this.
DonVoigt
Wouldn't it be great if we could know the true history of mankind, without the whole, history is written by the winners thing. I read in the thread that Chinese historians may very well know about this, but hid this. I could see that hiding this would be important to China's cultural heritage, but the reality is that truth and fact in learning history is more important to mankind as a whole than maintaining cultural heritage, even when it is negative history, like slavery. I think maintaining truth and fact in historical data would be a very important factor in the wellness of mankind, as a whole, rather than omitting the embarrassing and shameful parts.
Thorneblood
Lintao was part of the Silk Road, would it really make sense to transport 12 giant statues over 4000 miles on what i can only assume is rather #ty terrain? India I could see, but not Greece. I wish the statues built before the palace had survived in some form.
edit on 13-12-2013 by Thorneblood because: (no reason given)
Krazysh0t
reply to post by peter vlar
Wait so your theory is that a bunch of Chinese emissaries went to Athens or somewhere in Greece, witnessed some statues, then went back to China, told the emperor about them, who in turn commissioned his sculptors to make 8000 statues using techniques unheard of during that time and the only thing the sculptors had to go on to learn these techniques were the memories of the emissaries? Call me crazy, but trying to remember details of some art piece (especially as a non-artist) months after seeing it so that your own artists can duplicate the techniques would require some fantastical memory.edit on 13-12-2013 by Krazysh0t because: (no reason given)
It just seems to make more sense that it was learned from outside the empire and was considered such an embarrassment, that after the first emperor died, they sealed the technique with the 8000 statues and just left it at that.