The general was discovered in the ground next to his chariot, clad in a double-layered gown with armor on the chest and feathers on his head. His left palm spread out in front of his waist, possibly to steady the handle of a sword that had since been broken off.
Whether the statue, unearthed in 1974 in the Chinese city of Xi'an, was modeled after a specific person or just a generic type is up to guessing. He was found along with more than 8,000 other life-size terra cotta figures when a farmer, drilling a well, inadvertently hit upon a treasure trove near the tomb of the first emperor of China.
Whatever his true identity, he's the new center of attention – in replica form, anyway – on the main floor of the Huntington Beach Central Library.
The city's Chamber of Commerce, which went on a series of trips to China over the last decade, received a replica of the statue as a gift early this year from Citslinc International, a Monterey Park-based agency that sponsors tourism between the United States and China. The chamber gifted it in turn to the library, and after several months of installation, the Terra Cotta Warrior, as he's known, went on display in July.