In March 1974, in a dusty village outside Xi'an, China, a farmer named Yang Zhifa and two of his neighbors set out to dig a well. A brutal drought was killing their crops, and they needed water — nothing more, nothing less. About four meters down, Yang's shovel cracked against something hard. He figured it was a rock. He was wrong.
0%
Tricksters & Folk Tales·1/3·1′
The place
Terracotta Army
The Farmer Who Found an Empire
How digging a well uncovered the greatest archaeological find in history
1974 AD — Modern discoveryTerracotta Army
Moral of the Story
“The greatest discoveries often come not from seeking, but from the humble act of meeting a simple need.”
Characters
Y
Yang Zhifa — the farmer who changed historyY
Yang Quanyi and Yang Peiyan — fellow villagersY
Yuan Zhongyi — the archaeologist who led excavationSource
Yang Zhifa interviews, Shaanxi Provincial Institute reports, "The Terracotta Warriors" by John Man