Layout of Terra-Cotta Army
There are a total of four underground pits found and named Pit 1, Pit 2, Pit 3 and Pit 4 
according to the unearthed sequence. 
Pit 4 has not been excavated and keeps empty. 
The other three pits were built with similar underground earth-and-wood structure but differed in layout.
There are five sloping passages with clear trail of wheels on it around the pit. 
The terracotta figures were placed into the pottery-bricks-paved pit through the passage, 
then filled with rammed-earth.
The pit was covered with a wood roof that was composed of huge and solid rafters, 
then covered by layers of fiber mats and earth.

The three pits are actually a real military formation 
which fully reflect the profound military strategy of the Qin Dynasty. 
Pit 1 and Pit 2 are the attacking troops with different function that obey Pit 3’s order as their headquarter.
The layout of these three pits shaped like a flying goose, called “Goose Formation”. 
Pit 1, consists of a large amount of infantry and battle chariots, and is the three times bigger than Pit 2. 
Pit 2 is the formation lined with archery, cavalry and battle chariots. 

The Immortal Armour of China’s Jade Burial Suits

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The Jade burial suits are hand-crafted jade suits from the Han Dynasty of China, used for the ceremonial burials of China’s elite and members of the ruling class.

The Chinese developed a fascination with Jade as early as 6000 BC during the Neolithic period, producing ritual and ornamental tools or weapons as symbols of political power and religious authority.

Because of its hardness, durability, and subtle translucent colours, jade became associated with Chinese conceptions of the soul, protective qualities, and immortality in the ‘essence’ of stone (yu zhi, shi zhi jing ye).

The Han thought that each person had a two-part soul: the spirit-soul (hun) which journeyed to the afterlife paradise of immortals (xian), and the body-soul (po) which remained in its grave or tomb on earth and was only reunited with the spirit-soul through a ritual ceremony. The early Han rulers came to believe that jade would preserve the physical body and the souls attached to it in death, with various burials being found with large and small jade bi discs placed around the deceased.

This developed into the practice of being buried in ornate jade burial suits, completely encasing the deceased in thousands of pieces of cut and polished jade sewn together with thread, believing that the suit ensured the body would remain immortal. It is estimated that it would require hundreds of craftsmen more than 10 years to polish the jade plates required for a single suit, emphasising the power and wealth of the deceased.

The type of thread used was dependent on status. An emperor’s jade suit was threaded with gold, whilst lessor royals and high-ranked nobility with silver, sons and daughters of the lessor with copper, and lowly ranked aristocrats with silk.

It is believed that the practice ceased during the reign of the first emperor of the state of Wei in the Three Kingdoms period (AD 220-280), in fear of tomb robbers who would burn the suits in order to retrieve the gold or silver thread. 

A total of 20 known jade burial suits have been discovered in China to date.

Ref: heritagedaily.com