Chinese emperors entombed living retainers and armies to continue ruling after death

Evidence

Chinese nobles, following the proverb “Treat death as life,” had their servants, artisans, concubines, and soldiers buried alive with them when they died. This tradition continued through the reign of Qin Shihuangdi (from 221 to 210 B.C.), the first emperor of unified China and the builder of the Great Wall. Qin was fiercely devoted to living forever and ruling eternally, and toward this end, he diligently planned and erected a great tomb. Constructed under a mountain-sized mound, the giant underground palace complex took thirty-six years and seven hundred thousand men to build. More merciful than earlier nobles, Qin was buried with an entire army of life-sized terra-cotta warriors and horses to protect him in the thereafter. — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 343

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Supports the On Sacrifice article’s theme of death rituals stabilizing stratified societies — Qin buried an army and staff to run the next world, an aristocratic-centric impulse.
• XREF: Terra-cotta warriors resonate with the reader’s work on grave goods and ritual-scale infrastructure (living root bridges, tombs).
• SHARE: An Egyptology or Chinese-history friend would appreciate the 36-year / 700,000-man labor detail of the tomb complex.