Sign-In
Cart
The Emperor Who Burned History: How China's First Emperor Tried to Erase the Past - and Built an Eternal Monument to Himself Instead
Paperback
Series: The Lost Archive
Currently unavailable to order
Please enter your email and a message will be sent to you when this product becomes available on our website.
ISBN13: 9798193149590
Publisher: Independently Published
Pages: 60
Weight: 0.19
Height: 0.16 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Publisher: Independently Published
Pages: 60
Weight: 0.19
Height: 0.16 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
The man remembered for trying to destroy China's entire written history also built himself a tomb so vast, so elaborate, and so guarded by mercury that no one has fully opened it in over two thousand years.
In 213 BC, Qin Shi Huang - the ruler who had just unified China for the first time in history - ordered the destruction of a carefully targeted class of historical and philosophical texts. The following year, hundreds of people were reportedly executed. The story became legend: a tyrant who tried to erase the past itself. But the real story is stranger, and more interesting, than the legend. Inside this book, you'll discover:- Why the man who ordered the burning may have unintentionally preserved the very texts he targeted
- The single historian, writing over a century later, whose account shaped everything the world believes about this event
- The twist almost no one tells you: the fire usually blamed for finishing the job may not have been Qin Shi Huang's at all
- What the Terracotta Army - discovered by accident in 1974 - actually reveals about the scale of the Qin state
- Why modern scientists, armed with 21st-century tools, still won't open the emperor's own sealed tomb
- How to separate what the ancient sources claim from what archaeology can actually prove This is the first volume in The Lost Archive, a series uncovering the true history behind humanity's great acts of destruction, suppression, and disappearance - the books that were burned, the records that vanished, and the truths that outlived the people who tried to erase them. The emperor wanted permanence. He got almost none of the kind he was after. His dynasty collapsed within years. His political system didn't survive one generation. But the tomb did. The story did. Find out what actually happened - and what we still don't know.
Also from
Hillman, Jonathan C.
Judas: TRAITOR OR HERO?: The Gospel That Split the Scholars and Rewrote History's Most Hated Man
Hillman, Jonathan C.
Paperback
$11.99
The Gospel They Buried: The Secret Sayings of Jesus the Church Tried to Erase
Hillman, Jonathan C.
Paperback
$11.99
Buried Worlds: A Fast History of Lost Civilizations and the Search for a Vanished Past
Hillman, Jonathan C.
Paperback
$13.19
Also in
Chinese History
Hostage on the Yangtze: Britain, China, and the Amethyst Crisis of 1949
Murfett, Malcolm H.
Hardcover
$9.99
China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power
Kristof, Nicholas D.
Wudunn, Sheryl
Paperback
From $8.99
The Elements of Power: A Story of War, Technology, and the Dirtiest Supply Chain on Earth
Niarchos, Nicolas
Hardcover
$28.80
The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet
Liu, Yi-Ling
Hardcover
$27.00
The Next China Is Still China: An Insider's Playbook for Winning in the New Era
Leung, Nick
Ngai, Joe
Hardcover
$30.40
When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail
Dolin, Eric Jay
Paperback
$31.99
The Shortest History of China: From the Ancient Dynasties to a Modern Superpower - A Retelling for Our Times
Jaivin, Linda
Paperback
$16.10
The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties That Helped Create Modern China
Kaufman, Jonathan
Paperback
$17.10
A Brief History of China: Dynasty, Revolution and Transformation: From the Middle Kingdom to the People's Republic
Clements, Jonathan
Paperback
$16.14
Why Ancient Chinese Political Thought Matters: Four Dialogues on China's Past, Present, and Future
Bell, Daniel a.
Hardcover
$41.93
The Party's Interests Come First: The Life of XI Zhongxun, Father of XI Jinping
Torigian, Joseph
Hardcover
$72.50
Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War
Platt, Stephen R.
Paperback
$18.00
Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-62
Dikötter, Frank
Paperback
$19.00
From Frontier Policy to Foreign Policy: The Question of India and the Transformation of Geopolitics in Qing China
Mosca, Matthew
Paperback
$50.75
Beyond the Pass: Economy, Ethnicity, and Empire in Qing Central Asia, 1759-1864
Millward, James A.
Paperback
$50.75
Collected Writings of Chairman Mao: Volume 3 - On Policy, Practice and Contradiction
Zedong, Mao
Tse-Tung, Mao
Paperback
$18.95
China Whisperers: The Voices That Have Shaped America's Views of Its Chief Geopolitical Rival
Kaplan, Robert D.
Hardcover
$30.40
Kingdom of Characters (Pulitzer Prize Finalist): The Language Revolution That Made China Modern
Tsu, Jing
Paperback
$17.10
The Story of China: The Epic History of a World Power from the Middle Kingdom to Mao and the China Dream
Wood, Michael
Paperback
$24.70
Red Star Over the Pacific, Third Edition: China's Rise and the Challenge to U.S. Maritime Strategy
Yoshihara, Toshi
Holmes, James R.
Paperback
$37.95
The Man Awakened from Dreams: One Man's Life in a North China Village, 1857-1942
Harrison, Henrietta
Paperback
$24.00
The Struggle for Taiwan: A History of America, China, and the Island Caught Between
Khan, Sulmaan Wasif
Hardcover
$30.40
Why Taiwan Matters: A Short History of a Small Island That Will Dictate Our Future
Brown, Kerry
Hardcover
$28.50
Breaking the Chains: Gender, Context, and the Politics of Writing in Modern China
Limin, Dong
Paperback
$56.00
21 Claves Para Entender China En El Siglo XXI / 21 Keys to Understanding China in the 21st Century
Díaz Marro, Adrián
Paperback
$21.80
Foundations of Chinese Civilization: The Yellow Emperor to the Han Dynasty (2697 BCE - 220 CE)
Liu, Jing
Paperback
$14.20
A Dragon's Head and a Serpent's Tail: Ming China and the First Great East Asian War, 1592-1598 Volume 20
Swope, Kenneth M.
Paperback
$37.43
The Art of Shaolin Kung Fu: The Secrets of Kung Fu for Self-Defense, Health, and Enlightenment
Kit, Wong Kiew
Paperback
$18.95
Last Boat Out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao's Revolution
Zia, Helen
Paperback
$22.80
This World in a Teacup: Credit, Taste, and Power in the U.S.-China Tea Trade, 1784-1911
Du, Dan
Hardcover
$98.00
我所认识的顾准（吴敬琏作序）
徐方
Paperback
$28.79
激流者: 陆海空抗战老兵口述历史合集
赖恩典
Paperback
$83.74
The Scythian Empire: Central Eurasia and the Birth of the Classical Age from Persia to China
Beckwith, Christopher I.
Paperback
$31.19
Storming the Heavens - Peasants and Revolution in China, 1925-1949 - Viewed through a Marxist Lens
Clegg, Jenny
Paperback
$46.55
China's Military Modernization: Assessing China's Weapons and Strategic Reach in the Early 21st Century
Boufesis, Alexandros
Paperback
$28.45
The Art of War for Language Learners: A Bilingual Chinese-English Modern Edition of China's Greatest Classic: Sun Tzu's The Art of War (孙ड
Robson, Huw
Ling, Ling
Tzu, Sun
Paperback
$26.24
A Geek in China: Discovering the Land of Bullet Trains, Alibaba and Dim Sum
Christensen, Matthew B.
Paperback
$7.59
The Fox Spirit, the Stone Maiden, and Other Transgender Histories from Late Imperial China
Sommer, Matthew H.
Paperback
$52.50
For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History
Rose, Sarah
Paperback
$17.10
The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom
Winchester, Simon
Paperback
From $9.99
Everything Under the Heavens: How the Past Helps Shape China's Push for Global Power
French, Howard W.
Paperback
$20.00
The Transpacific Chinese Diaspora: Migration Networks from China to Canada and Beyond, 1788-1898
Chen, Zhongping
Hardcover
$101.50
Pinay Guerrilleras: The Unsung Heroics of Filipina Resistance Fighters During the Pacific War
Salinas, Stacey
Paperback
$15.00
顶残: 中国市场和产权的构造及逻辑
吴思
Paperback
$24.99
心路: 平凡不平淡的人生
林慕荆
Paperback
$32.49