Why the Xi'an Terracotta Warriors have no helmets?

Answer 1

Conjectures may be put forth according to this phenomenon, some are listed below. * At that time the common Chinese soldiers didn't have helmets, only the generals had. ----- Prior to Qin Dynasty, fully armored soldiers had already appeared in battles. In terms of Qin's national power, there is no constraint to the supply of helmets. * The Terracotta Warriors suffered a severe damage around 205-202 BC by the rebellion forces led by Xiang Yu. Nearly all the weapons of the Terracotta Warriors were robbed (the weapons are all real, not models) while some were burned. Some Terracotta Warriors even had their head cut off. ----- This historical event may be true, however, as we know the armors of these warriors are parts of terracotta statues. So should the helmets be, they wouldn't be taken off. Actually, Qin's infantry didn't have helmets because of their fighting method and custom, which is deeply affected by Qin's law legislated by Shang Yang (商鞅) through his political reform (商鞅变法). In this law, high value was put on battle merits embodied by enemies' heads got from battlefields. Thus, prize and promotion were linked with the quantity of heads. Head cutting was the top priority in these soldiers' mind. So they should always run fast, heavy armors became useless burdens, helmets were also discarded. In addition, Qin's deadly weapons and bravery of its soldiers make protection a trivial problem.