{"product_id":"life-and-afterlife-in-ancient-china-by-jessica-rawson-9780141994512","title":"Life and Afterlife in Ancient China","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn epic new history of Ancient China told through the prism of a dozen extraordinary tombs. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe three millennia up to the establishment of the first imperial Qin dynasty in 221 BC cemented many of the distinctive elements of Chinese civilisation still in place today: an extraordinarily challenging geography and environment, formidable infrastructure, a society based on the strict hierarchy of the family, a shared written script of characters, a cuisine founded on rice and millet, a material culture of ceramics, bronze, silk and jade, and a unique concept of the universe, in which ancestors continue to exist alongside the living. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eRecords of these early achievements, and their diverse and unexpected expressions, often lie not in written history, but in how people marked the end of their lives: their dwellings for the afterlife. Tombs, and the treasures within them, are almost the only artefacts to survive from Ancient China; their scale and sophistication rivals their equivalents in Ancient Egypt. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eJessica Rawson, one of the most eminent Western scholars of China, explores twelve grand tombs - each from a specific historical moment and place - showing how they reveal wider political, dynastic and cultural developments, culminating in the lavish ambition of the First Emperor's monument, guarded by his army of terracotta warriors. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBeautifully illustrated and drawing on the latest archaeological discoveries, \"Life and Afterlife in Ancient China\" illuminates a constellation of beliefs about life and death very different from our own and provides a remarkable new perspective on one of the oldest civilisations in the world.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Jessica Rawson","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56426025288053,"sku":"9780141994512","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0812\/4075\/2426\/files\/9780141994512.jpg?v=1764699943","url":"https:\/\/sherlockandpages.com\/products\/life-and-afterlife-in-ancient-china-by-jessica-rawson-9780141994512","provider":"Sherlock \u0026 Pages","version":"1.0","type":"link"}