The Acrobats

Before the Terracotta Army, very few sculptures had ever been created, and none were naturalistic.[9] Among the very few such depictions known in China before that date: four wooden figurines[10] from Liangdaicun (梁帶村) in Hancheng (韓城), Shaanxi, possibly dating to the 9th century BCE; two wooden human figurines of foreigners possibly representing sedan chair bearers from a Qin state tomb in Longxian (隴縣), Shaanxi, from about 700 BCE; and more numerous statuettes from around 5th century bronze musicians in a miniature house from Shaoxing (紹興) in Zhejiang; a 4th-century human-shaped lamp stand from Pingshan (平山) county royal tomb, Hebei.[11]

The Taerpo horserider is a Chinese Zhou dynasty period Warrior-State Qin terracotta figurine from a tomb in the Taerpo cemetery (塔兒坡墓) near Xianyang in Shaanxi Province, dated to the 4th-3rd century BCE. Another nearly-identical statuette is known, from the same tomb. Small holes in his hands suggest that he was originally holding reins in one hand, and a weapon in the other.[12] This is the earliest known representation of a cavalryman in China.[12]

According to Duan Qingbo, there is a possibility that these miniature human and horse shapes were already inspired by the Art of the steppes, as seen in objects such as the figurines of the Saka incense burners.[13]

• 
  Zhou dynasty statuettes, 4th-3rd century BCE
• 
  A statue of a man, dating from the State of Yue era
• 
  The Taerpo horserider, Qin state, 4th-3rd century BCE
• 
  Funerary statuettes of dancers, 475-221 BCE

The "Strongman" under restoration, another acrobat from pit K9901, and silhouettes of two more acrobats under restoration as of 2016. Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor Qin Shihuang, 210 BCE.[4]

The earliest note on this aspect was that of 20th century art historian German Hafner who, in 1986, was the first to speculate on a possible Hellenistic link to these sculptures due to the unusual display of naturalism relative to general Qin era sculpture: "the art of the terracotta army originated from Western contact, originated from knowledge of Alexander the Great and the splendor of Greek art".[8] This idea was also generally supported by Duan Qingbo, Director of the excavation team at the First Emperor’s necropolis from 1998 to 2008,[8] or by Professor Lukas Nickel of SOAS.[14][15] Duan Qingbo also noted the close similarity of the Terracoty Army with the Central Asian Khalchayan statuary, in style as well as in technique.[16] Li Xiuzhen, senior archaeologist from the Mausoleum Site Museum, acknowledged Western influence but insisted on Chinese authorship: "We now think the Terracotta Army, the acrobats and the bronze sculptures found on site were inspired by ancient Greek sculptures and art",[17] but although "the terracotta warriors may be inspired by Western culture, they were uniquely made by the Chinese" and "we found no Greek names on the backs of Terracotta Warriors, which supports my idea that there was no Greek artisan training the local sculptors".[18]

Others have argued that such speculations rest on flawed and old "Eurocentric" ideas that assumed other civilizations were incapable of sophisticated artistry and thus foreign artistry must be seen through Western traditions.[19] Darryl Wilkinson of Dartmouth College has instead argued that the Qin era display of sculptural naturalism, alongside that of the pre-Columbian Moche culture in Peru, indicate that “the Greeks did not invent naturalism” and that “naturalism is not the product of any one culture’s civilizational ‘genius.'"[20]

Various Hellenistic sources from Central Asia, more or less contemporary with the Qin Mausoleum have been suggested.[21] In the 4th and 3rd century BCE, Alexander the Great and its successors state the Seleucid Empire and the Greco-Bactrian kingdom are known to have ruled over large part of Central Asia as far as Sogdiana, at the doorstep of the Tarim Basin and China beyond. Alexander is known to have brought artists with him in his expeditions, such as Lysippos and Apelles. In the centuries after him, major Hellenistics cities developped in Central Asia, such as Ai-Khanoum and Takht-i Sangin. These cities, thriving with Hellenistic, could well have been the source of artistic influence over China, until the fall of Ai-Khanoum circa 135 BCE, to Saka and Yuezhi nomads.[21] Some of the Helenistic art of Central Asia persisted in the 1st century BCE, as seen in the statuary of Khalchayan, using clay-molding techniques and human-sized realism similar to those of the Qin Terracotta Army.[16][21]

• 
  Portrait of a man, Ai-Khanoum, 3rd-2nd century BC.[21]
• 
  Statue of Herakles from Ai-Khanoum, 3rd-2nd century BC.[21]
• 
  Clay and pigment head of a Greco-Bactrian ruler with diadem, Temple of the Oxus, Takht-i Sangin, 3rd-2nd century BC.[22][21]
• 
  Human-sized realistic clay and pigment terracotta statuary from Khalchayan, 1st century BCE.[16]

The Sakas (8th-2nd century BCE), are known to have been in contact with China and contributed to the transfer of horseriding and metal technologies.[23] They also may have contributed to the transfer of artistic realism from Central Asia. A naturalistic bronze statuette of a warrior was excavated north of the Tian Shan, which how far and wide Hellenistic styles travelled.[21][24][25] Could alternatively be a Greek hoplite.[26]

Chinese records seem to suggest to that the Qin Emperor built monumental bronze statues for his Palace, that replicated some large foreign statues or giants (大人 daren) encountered at the western end of the country, in Lintao, Gansu. These bronze statues, known as the Twelve Metal Colossi, remained very famous in ancient China and were the object of numerous commentaries, until they were lost around the 4th century CE. These records indicate that the Qin Emperor received from western regions a major impulse for the creation of monumental statuary, which may naturally have influenced the creation of the monumental statues of his Mausoleum.[27]

The first known record explains that he made 12 monumental bronze statues as one of the major endeavours of his reign:

Lintao

Xi'an

-210

GRECO
BACTRIANS

PAR-
THIA

Pazyryk
culture

SAKAS

Tagar
culture

Sagly
culture

Shule

Khotan

DONGHU

SABEANS

Ordos
culture

Dian
culture

JIN

YUEZHI

Subeshi

Wusun

SELEUCID
EMPIRE

MAURYA
EMPIRE

QIN
DYNASTY

XIONGNU

PTOLE-
MIES

MEROË

Scythians

Sarmatians

◁ ▷

Continental Asia in 210 BCE with main polities, and locations of Lintao and Xi'an (red dots )

收天下兵, 聚之咸陽, 銷以為鍾鐻金人十二, 重各千石, 置廷宮中. 一法度衡石丈尺. 車同軌. 書同文字.
He collected the weapons of All-Under-Heaven in Xianyang, and cast them into twelve bronze figures of the type of bell stands, each 1000 shi [about 70 tons] in weight, and displayed them in the palace. He unified the law, weights and measurements, standardized the axle width of carriages, and standardized the writing system.

— Shiji by the historian Sima Qian (c. 145–86 BC), after Liu An in the Huainanzi circa 139 BCE.[27]

According to a 3rd century commentary of the Hanshu, these statues, which were extant until the 6th century CE, were inscribed with the following explanatory inscription:

皇帝二十六年, 初兼天下, 改諸侯為郡縣, 一 法律, 同度量。大人來見臨洮, 其長五丈, 足跡六尺。
In the 26th Year of the Emperor, when he first brought together all-under-heaven, divided the principalities into provinces and districts, and unified the weights and measures, [these] giants appeared in Lintao [the Far West]. They were 5 zhang [11.5 meters] high and had feet 6 chi [1.38 meters] long.

— Yan Shigu (581–645 AD), quoting the Sanfu huangtu 三輔黃圖 (“Yellow Plans of the Metropolitan Area”, possibly third century CE) in his commentary to the Hanshu.[27]

These "giants" apparently had foreign clothes, and were replicated by Emperor Qin when he took them as a favorable omen after some victories:[27]

史記秦始皇帝二十六年, 有大人長五丈, 足履六尺, 皆夷狄服,凡十二人,見于臨洮. 天戒若曰, 勿大為夷狄之行, 將受其禍. 是歲始皇初并六國, 反喜以為瑞, 銷天下兵器, 作金人十二以象之.
In the 26th Year of the Emperor (221 BC) giants appeared that were 5 zhang tall and had feet of a size of 6 chi, all dressed in foreign ( yidi 夷狄) robes. There were 12 of them and they appeared in Lintao. A heavenly taboo once said that he who recklessly follows foreign models will encounter disaster. In the same year, however, the Emperor succeeded in subjecting the six states, so he reinterpreted the appearance as an auspicious sign. Therefore, he melted down the weapons of all-under-heaven and cast the twelve bronze men to represent those [the "giants" from Lintao].

— Ban Gu (32–92 CE), Hanshu.[27]

The naturalistic bronze animal from the Qin Shihuang Mausoleum may also have received Hellenistic influence.[4]

放寫其形, 鑄金人以象之.
He imitated their shapes and cast bronze figures to represent those.

— Gao You (168–212), in his commentary to the Huainanzi.[27]

The Twelve Metal Colossi were commented upon during several century, and relocated several times by the successive rulers of the country, until the Eastern Han tyrant Dong Zhuo (d. 192 CE) melted 10 of them to mint his debased bronze coinage. The last two statues were eventually melted down by Xuanzhao (357–385) of the Former Qin dynasty.[28]

Taken together, these accounts relate how Emperor Qin took for model 12 auspicious and foreign "big men" (大人, possibly a designation for large statues), to create twelve monumental bronze statues for his palace.[27] Coincidentally or not, the Greeks also had a practice of representing their twelve Olympian Gods, the Twelve Olympians, as sculpture in human form.[27] Diodorus Siculus recounts how Alexander, when he reached the easternmost point of his conquests in India established altars to the 12 Greek gods, he ideas being to make "a camp of heroic proportions and then leave to the natives evidence of men of huge stature, displaying the strength of giants".[27] Overall, the first Qin Emperor seems to have made monumental statues on the western model for his Palace, which provides an intriguing precedent for the monumental naturalistic statuary of his Mausoleum.[27]