Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair

Foreign visitors to Xi'an, China's former capital and currently the capital of Shaanxi Province (Administrative Region #15), sometimes report feeling underwhelmed after visiting the city's main attraction, the feted Terracotta Army. Located in the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, constructed about 2200 years ago, the throng of a few thousand uniquely carved statues cannot reasonably be labeled unimpressive. Similarly, the statistical estimates that accompany the display are staggering. You don't need a degree in Taylorism to know a whopping number of man-hours when you see it. No, the display's weakness lies in the lusterless milieu it inhabits. Unlike the majestic environs of old Xi'an, which draw on ancient Chinese architecture to cultivate a sense of the elusive and the recondite, the pits from which the statues have been excavated are merely mounds of dirt in an open-air chamber that feels something like a hangar. The statues stand erect but incomplete beside a motley assortment of ruins that didn't quite survive the trip. Qin Shi Huang, the emperor at whose command a few hundred thousand men are said to have labored to craft the army, wanted a legion to help him rebuild his empire in another world. Instead, they are a savage monument to extravagance in this one.