The First Emperor
In 1974, Chinese peasants made the discovery of the century . . . Thousands of terracotta soldiers guarding the tomb of a tyrant.
Ying Zheng was born to rule the world, claiming descent from gods, crowned king while still a child. He was the product of a heartless, brutal regime devoted to domination, groomed from an early age to become the First Emperor of China after a century of scheming by his ancestors.
He faked a foreign threat to justify an invasion. He ruled a nation under twenty-four-hour surveillance. He ordered his interrogators to torture suspects. He boiled his critics alive. He buried dissenting scholars. He declared war on death itself.
Jonathan Clements uses modern archaeology and ancient texts to outline the First Emperor's career and the grand schemes that followed unification: the Great Wall that guarded his frontiers and the famous Terracotta Army that watches over his tomb.
This revised edition includes updates from a further decade of publications, archaeology and fictional adaptations, plus the author's encounter with Yang Zhifa, the man who discovered the Terracotta Army.
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Jonathan Clements is a columnist for the Wall Street Journal. He has written for Euromoney magazine in London and Forbes magazine in New York before joining the Journal, where he worked for eighteen years. He is the author of 48 and Counting and The Little Book of Main Street Money: 21 Simple Truths that Help Real People Make Real Money. Clements was born in London, England, graduated from Emmanuel College, and now lives in New York City.