Standing Archer Warrior

The archer warrior figurines in a standing position are called standing archer warriors. This is because the form of their bodies and limbs resembles a standing archery pose. Standing archer figurines are dynamic realistic, and are relatively rare and outstanding works in the history of ancient Chinese sculpture. The head is turned slightly sideways, the mouth is taut, the energy is puffed up, and the seriousness of the expression echoes each other and the action is lifelike. Their attire and posture are basically the same, all of them are lightly armored infantry figurines without armor, with accurate modeling and realistic images.

A total of 173 standing archer figurines have been found in the Terracotta Army pits. Only one of them was found in the 11th overpass of Pit 1, and the remaining 172 were found in the eastern crossbow unit of Terracotta Warriors Pit 2. The standing archer figurines are lightly armed infantry figurines. They wear a bun on their head, a battle robe, a leather belt around their waist, and short boots on their feet. The whole outfit appears to be light and flexible, and they are all over 1.8 meters tall. The right foot of the standing figurine stands horizontally, while the left foot takes a half step forward diagonally, with both feet slightly in the shape of a “ding”. The left leg is slightly arched forward, the right leg is taut behind; the left arm is raised in front, slightly angled downward, palm extended, tiger mouth forward; the right arm is bent, raised to the chest, palm extended, palm facing downward; the figurine head and body are slightly turned to the left, gazing at the left front, looking alert. Terracotta figurines of this stance and gestures should be holding a crossbow to fire the preparatory action.

According to the essentials of archery movements described in “Wu Yue Chun Qiu“, they happen to be basically the same as those of the standing archery figurines in the Terracotta Warriors and Horses pit. These crossbow figurines allow us to understand that the shooting skills of crossbow soldiers had developed to a fairly high level in the era of Qin Shi Huang, and various movements had formed a set of standardized patterns. When shaping the figure of the standing shooting figurines, the Qin artisans intercepted the momentary movements of the soldier holding the crossbow and drawing the bow during practice, so that we can’t help but think of the association of opening the bow and holding the crossbow and shooting hard.

The shape of terracotta warriors is generally vertical in the center, balanced and symmetrical on the left and right, with small movements and lacking a sense of melody in the curves. This standing shooting figurine has a slightly sideways turn of the head, a taut mouth, a pep talk, and a serious and earnest look, which echoes the movements and is lifelike. It reflects that the art of Chinese sculpture more than two thousand years ago had reached a high level.