Monuments to Self

I haven't written anything about the Rod Blagojevich scandal in Illinois; Governor Blagojevich has been accused--and has been recorded on tape--of trying to sell Barack Obama's Senate seat. Well, I lived in Louisiana for four years, and Illinois has nothing on Louisiana when it comes to political corruption. However, watching Roland Burris grin like the Cheshire cat while the corrupt and nationally reviled Blagojevich appointed him to the vacate seat, I was a little disturbed. Why would Burris want to hitch his wagon to that falling star? Oh, yeah....ego and ambition. A former Attorney General of Illinois, Burris has run unsuccessfully in the past for mayor of Chicago, for Senator of the state of Illinois, and for governor of Illinois. This appointment helps him achieve one of those failed goals. And Burris has already prepared a crypt that will announce his achievements in the afterlife. Politico includes a picture of that crypt on its website under the title "Monument to Me."

Roland Burris's monument to self pales significantly, however, in contrast to monuments built by ancient rulers. Yesterday we got a glimpse of a truly monumental ego in an exhibit at Atlanta's High Musuem of Art: the First Emperor of China's terracotta army. The First Emperor of China, from the state of Qin (hence his name, Qin Shi Huang), united China and ushered in emperial China, which lasted until 1912. History records that he began the work on his mausoleum when he first ascended the throne at thirteen years of age: now, that's a mighty confident teenager. According to the museum's audio guide, the mausoleum covers 22 acres, and 700,000 convicted criminals worked to create this sanctuary for the emperor's afterlife. Not only did the tomb include a terracotta army of beautifully crafted soldiers and horses; the area was transformed into a paradise of mercury rivers, with lifelike wildlife (ducks and cranes were included in the exhibit).

The exhibit was very fascinating, and the detail of the art work on the terracotta soldiers included (six or seven) were exquisite, with faces reflecting the diversity of the Chinese. Qin Shi Huang, however, seemed not to have been a popular ruler: all that preparation for the afterlife took too much money in the form of taxes. And he was a book-burner, too. He had hundreds of followers of Confucius massacred. Nice guy. But he created a pretty tomb which was vandalized not long after he died--and then buried and forgotten for two thousand years.

Percy Bysshe Shelley, of course, said it best:

Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

The son who ascended to the throne after Qin Shi Huang died was soon overthrown, and the Han dynasty began.