ANCIENT MYSTERIES :.

SOLVED: THE WARRIORS' CODE

  Posted Jan 28.03

'The first indication that the Terracotta Army might contain a secret message came when the archaeologists noted that the shape of the soldiers' faces corresponded with just ten characters in the 10,516-long Chinese alphabet.

On a cold day in early spring, three young farmers drilled their field to sink a well. The next moment all that remained of them was their steaming breath on the icy air as the earth seemed to swallow them up -- breath that was rapidly blotted out as a cloud of dust rose in the air.'

When the men reappeared, they talked excitedly of falling into an ancient passageway which collapsed around them. As the dust and debris of their fall settles, they found themselves staring at a lifesize army of terracotta soldiers.

They had scrambled out of this mysterious underground 'barracks' by using their wooden buckets and drilling equipment. Within hours of them recounting this story, archaeologists had arrived from a nearby Chinese town and sealed the site. The fame of the Terracotta Army, discovered in 1974, soon spread, and today it is one of the world's most famous tourist attractions. But the purpose behind the burial in 220 BC of more than 8,000 intricately carved pottery figures has always been a mystery.

Now, a new book by Maurice Cotterell, who is already known for his works on earlier civilisations, claims the figures encode some extraordinary secrets that provide the key to the riddle of human existence.

They can eplain how the different signs of the zodiac influence our lives, suggests Cotterell; they hold the key to the prediction of disease epidemics and times of well-being; and they show that the level of scientific understanding in ancient civilisations was far more sophisticated than previously realised.

The order in which the warriors' ranks are drawn up, their facial expressions, hairstyles and hand arrangements, even the number of rivets in their clay armour, havea significance apparent only to those with the knowledge to crack the hidden code.

According to Cotterell, their message is bound up with Mankind's quest for the path to enlightenment, and was left behind by Qin Shi Huangdi, China's first Emperor, the man responsible for these lifelike models.

For Shi Huangdi believed, like other ancient civilisations, that a human being was half-god (soul), half-devil (body).

Only those who succeeded in purifying their souls through sacrifice, self-discipline and love for others could escape an endless cycle of death and rebirth. And only when the physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual aspects of the body were in harmony could such purification begin.

The key to achieving such equilibrium lay in the clues encoded in the battle lines of the Terracotta Army -- a farewell message from the emperor to future generations.

Though many dismiss Cotterell's evidence as speculative, this is a tantalising theory.

The story begins when Shi Huangdi, builder of the Great Wall of China, ascended the throne in 246 BC at the age of 13. From that moment, he began preparing the incredible mausoleum that would house his body after death.

According to legend, he decreed that his corpse would be clothed in jade, cast adrift on a sea of mercury within a pyramid and protected by an everlasting army.

From a record written by the near-contemporary professional historian Sima Qian, we learn that its construction took 700,000 of his ruthlessly-conscripted subjects, prisoners-of-war and slaves 11 years to complete.

It is not surprising: the entire underground complex covers four square miles -- a subterranean city complete with palace, protective walls and even a cemetery.

The mausoleum in which the Emperor himself lay was a pyramid-shaped mound of earth 249ft high and enclosed by two perimeter walls.

Contemporary historians describe the tomb, as yet unexcavated, as an underground palace, secluded, bejewelled and surrounded by a scale model of the Chinese empire, complete with mountains, valleys and a circulating river system and lakes of mercury.

Its ceiling was inlaid with pearls and precious gems in star patterns. Lamps, fed by tanks of whale oil, illuminated the twinkling 'stars', their reflections flickering on the silvery surfaces of the quicksilver lakes.

In the centre of the biggest lake lay a large sarcophagus. Inside were further sarcophagi, the last one containing the body of the Emporer, clad in a suit made of thousands of pieces of jade stitched together with gold thread.

Beside him lay the bodies of several childless concubines, sacrificed to pleasure him in the after-life.

This jewel-filled treasure house was protected from entry by a series of Indiana Jones-style booby traps. Concealed tripwires set off bronze-tipped bolts fired from strategically-placed crossbows -- still active and glittering, as the archaeological team discovered -- with the concealed pits and self-closing doors as further protection.

Most chilling of all was the discovery that all knowledge of the tomb, its treasures and the weaponry that protected it had been preserved at the cost of many human lives. Some workmen never escaped the complex, finding themselves trapped between sets of self-closing double doors.

Just under a mile from the outer of the mausoleum's two walls lie the four pits containing the terracotta warriors -- more than 8,000 troops and chariots.

Each image, made of clay 3in thick, weighs more than half a ton. Originally painted in yellows, purples and greens, the soldiers today carry only faint traces of pigment.

The soldiers were big, about 5ft 11in tall. Some carried real bows and arrows, others spears still sharp and shining like the swords held by their generals. The horses that drew the chariots were depicted holding their heads high, preparing to rush forward.

The first indication that the Terracotta Army might contain a secret message came when the archaeologists noted that the shape of the soldiers' faces corresponded with just ten characters in the 10,516-long Chinese alphabet. According to Cotterell, these characters were used by Shi Huangdi to spell out messages.

By translating these characters, Cotterell believes he managed to unravel their meanings.

One character, for example, means 'focus the eye', another signifies 'a tunnel, covered corridor or passageway,' and a third means 'the sun'.

Thus, the first set of warriors he looked at provided the following message: 'Focus the eye on the soldiers in the covered tunnels. Read the meaning of the national (Chinese) characters differently; use the mind to understand the story which spans from the beginning of time until now; a story about the Sun and God.'

Apart from the alphabet code, Cotterell claims to have discovered four other codes in the Emperor's tomb -- all based on numbers and measurements taken from natural astrological phenomena.

He believes they reveal an extraordinary depth of knowledge (both scientific and mythical) that existed in ancient Chinese society -- an intelligence shared with other great civilisations. Each aspect of the Terracotta Army, from their numbers, to the ranks in which they were drawn up, can therefore, he maintains, be decoded to allow us access to this knowledge.

Many of the coded numbers link up to mystical figures. The numbers nine and six have particular importance-- 999 represents heaven while 666 is evil or hell.

Other codes are based on sequences linked to the cycles of the sun's revolution.

At the time, around 200BC, the solar pattern was understood only by the intelligent classes and so the codes were unintelligable to those who were not worthy of them.

Even the elaborate hairstyles worn by the soldiers contain secret codes. The coils in their plaits often add up to either six or nine.....