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The Rise of the Qin Dynasty: A Story of Imperial Power
How Qin grew from a western frontier state into China's first empire (221-206 BCE), from Duke Xiao and Shang Yang to the First Emperor and the collapse.
Persia and Asia
The First Emperor, his buried army and the walls of the north.
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How Qin grew from a western frontier state into China's first empire (221-206 BCE), from Duke Xiao and Shang Yang to the First Emperor and the collapse.
How farmers digging a well near Xi'an in 1974 struck buried clay soldiers, and how Chinese archaeologists first excavated Pit 1 and found Pits 2 and 3.
How the Terracotta Army figures were built from moulded and hand-modelled parts, finished one by one and painted, and what this says about Qin workshops.
What the Terracotta Army figures and bronze weapons reveal about Qin battle formations, crossbows, chariots, cavalry and the organisation of the army.
How Qin reforms in script, weights, measures, coinage, cart gauge and roads helped bind the first empire together, and where those reforms had limits.
What remains unopened at the First Emperor's tomb: the burial chamber, the reported mercury readings, what Sima Qian wrote, and why excavation is held back.
How the Great Wall was built, from rammed earth and reed layers to Ming brick, and why it is a series of walls from many dynasties, not a single structure.
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