Although they existed more than a millennium apart, the great civilizations of New Kingdom Egypt (ca. 1548–1086 BCE) and Han dynasty China (206 BCE–220 CE) shared intriguing similarities. ...Both were centered around major, flood-prone rivers—the Nile and the Yellow River—and established complex hydraulic systems to manage their power. Both spread their territories across vast empires that were controlled through warfare and diplomacy and underwent periods of radical reform led by charismatic rulers—the “heretic king” Akhenaten and the vilified reformer Wang Mang. Universal justice was dispensed through courts, and each empire was administered by bureaucracies staffed by highly trained scribes who held special status. Egypt and China each developed elaborate conceptions of an afterlife world and created games of fate that facilitated access to these realms. This groundbreaking volume offers an innovative comparison of these two civilizations. Through a combination of textual, art historical, and archaeological analyses, Ancient Egypt and Early China reveals shared structural traits of each civilization as well as distinctive features.
"The First Emperor of China (259-210 BCE) is recognized as one of the pivotal figures in world history, alongside other great conquerors and political innovators such as Alexander the Great, Genghis ...Khan, and Julius Caesar. His accomplishments are undeniable, including the conquest of the six other warring states of China, his creation of the imperial bureaucratic system that endured for 2,000 years, and his unification of Chinese culture through the promotion of a single coinage, unified weights and measures, and one writing system. Since his dynasty was cut off a few short years after his death, concrete information on the critical period in Chinese history he occupied has been lacking until recent decades. Only a single, biased historical account, written a century after his death, narrates his biography. In the last forty years, however, archaeologists have revealed not only the lavish burial pits associated with his tomb, but also
