Tyrant or national hero? An interdisciplinary exploration of China’s First Emperor
Ying Zheng, founder of the Qin empire, is recognized as a pivotal figure in world history, alongside other notable conquerors such as Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, and Julius Caesar. His accomplishments include conquest of the warring states of ancient China, creation of an imperial system that endured for two millennia, and unification of Chinese culture through the promotion of a single writing system.
Only one biased historical account, written a century after his death in 210 BCE, narrates his biography. Recently, however, archaeologists have revealed the lavish pits associated with his tomb and documents that demonstrate how his dynasty functioned. Debates about the First Emperor have raged since shortly after his demise, making him an ideological slate upon which politicians, revolutionaries, poets, painters, archaeologists, and movie directors have written their own biases, fears, and fantasies.
This book is neither a standard biography nor a dynastic history. Rather, it looks historically at interpretations of the First Emperor in history, literature, archaeology, and popular culture as a way to understand the interpreters as much as the subject of their interpretation.
Circa l’autore
Anthony J. Barbieri-Low is professor of Chinese history at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of Artisans in Early Imperial China (University of Washington Press, 2007) and Ancient Egypt and Early China: State, Society, and Culture (University of Washington Press, 2021); and coauthor of Law, State, and Society in Early Imperial China: Study and Translation of the Legal Texts from Zhangjiashan Tomb no. 247 (Brill, 2015) and Recarving China’s Past: Art, Architecture, and Archaeology of the “Wu Family Shrines” (Yale University Press, 2005).
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