The Historical Context of Qin’s Open-Door Policy For over a century before the reign of Ying Zheng (later Qin Shi […]
A Kingdom at the Crossroads In 246 BCE, the Qin state stood poised between greatness and paranoia. Under the young […]
The Water Paradox of Ancient China For millennia, water had been both the lifeblood and the scourge of Chinese civilization. […]
The Fall of a Powerful Chancellor In 235 BCE, Lü Buwei, the once-mighty chancellor of Qin, died by suicide after […]
The Rise of a Merchant-Statesman In the turbulent Warring States period, few figures embodied the dramatic social mobility of the […]
A Fateful Night in Xianyang Under the cover of darkness, a black-sailed boat slipped away from Xianyang, traveling west against […]
The Tumultuous Prelude to Power In the ninth year of King Ying Zheng’s nominal reign (238 BCE), the Qin state […]
The Gathering Storm: Political Turmoil in Qin In the waning years of the Warring States period, the Qin state stood […]
A Kingdom Divided: The Political Landscape of Late Warring States Qin In the ninth year of his reign, as spring’s […]
The Shifting Power Dynamics in Qin In the waning years of the Warring States period, the state of Qin stood […]
A Kingdom in Flux: The Early Reign of Ying Zheng In 247 BCE, a thirteen-year-old boy ascended the throne of […]
The Rise of a Queen in Turbulent Times In the rugged northwest frontier of the Qin state, two ancient palaces […]
The Political Landscape of Late Warring States Qin In the turbulent final decades of China’s Warring States period (475-221 BCE), […]
The Historical Backdrop of Qin’s Capital Xianyang For over a century since its establishment, Xianyang—Qin’s imposing capital—had sprawled exclusively along […]
The Intellectual Oasis of Xunzi’s Lushan Academy In the waning years of the Warring States period, as political turmoil engulfed […]
The Wandering Scholar Who Shaped an Era On a sunlit morning in the rugged hills of Chu, an elderly man […]
The Journey Begins: A Scholar’s Pilgrimage The young Meng Tian had never known exhaustion like this before. After crossing the […]
A Kingdom Frozen in Uncertainty The winter of 247 BCE descended upon Qin with unnatural fury. Even before the heavy […]
The Ailing King and a Kingdom in Peril In the damp chill of late autumn, the Qin capital of Xianyang […]
The Unprecedented Royal Examination In the spring of ancient Qin, an extraordinary event unfolded in the capital of Xianyang—a public […]
A Kingdom in Peril: The Sudden Illness of King Ying Yiren In the early spring of 238 BCE, the Qin […]
The Weight of a Winter Mission As snow blanketed the roads outside Xianyang, the carriage of Wang Wan, a special […]
