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The Terra Cotta Army: China's First Emperor and the Birth of a Nation. By John Man. Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo, 2008. ISBN 978-0-306-81744-1. Maps. Photographs. Illustrations. Appendixes. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. 288. $26.00.
The unification of China in 221 BCE by king Ying Zheng of Qin (known to posterity as Qin Shi Huangdi, the First Emperor) ranks as one of the most momentous events not only in Chinese history but also in world history. The story of Qin's meteoric rise and even more sudden collapse has been told many times, most notably by Sima Qian, China's first and greatest historian, at the beginning of the first century BCE. A new twist was added to the story in 1974, when farmers digging a well near the First Emperor's burial mound at Lintong, Shaanxi, uncovered an army of life-sized terra cotta warriors deployed, presumably, to protect their master in the afterlife and...