with Denise Gold, Archaeologist and Historian
Date: Thursday, May 22
Time: 2:00 P.M.
Qin (pronounced “Ch’in”) 260-210 B.C., united the feudal warring states of early China and gave his name to the Chinese nation. He was born into treachery and scandal to a beautiful, wayward concubine, and via court intrigue, became king of Qin at 14. Qin Shi Huangdi was both a reformer and a tyrant and, by the age of 20 began to carve out an empire. A fierce
military leader and a clever diplomat, he expanded his lands and pulled China together piece by piece. To protect his holdings, he joined pre-existing walls together to form the Great Wall of China. Qin gave his empire a single currency, a standardized system of weights and measures, and a common written language. But he was also a brutal dictator who sought to control
the minds of his people by killing scholars and burning books. To serve him in the afterlife and enhance his legacy, the king built a gigantic tomb that contained thousands of clay soldiers, modeled after his own armed forces. Forgotten for more than 2,000 years, the terra cotta army is now considered the Eighth Wonder of the World.