Detail: This lecture is in Mandarin with English translation.
Archaeological investigations over the last two decades have revealed that the terracotta army is just a small component of an underground world envisioned by the First Emperor. It is suggested that Qin Shihuang built China’s largest tomb complex to re-create a world system that he wished to continue from the real world that he unified and brought under his control. Since the Qin empire was overthrown within a short 15 years after the unification, understanding his world system is difficult. Nevertheless with new evidence to date, archaeologists are beginning to be able to visualize his underground world as it probably was conceived by the First Emperor himself.

Speaker:
Dr. Duan Qingpo is a professor of archaeology at Northwest University in Xi’an, and has been the chief archaeologist investigating the First Emperor's tomb complex during the past two decades. The archaeological team under his direction has been responsible for the most recent major archaeological discoveries at this site, such as the stone armour pit, the civil official pit, the acrobat pit, and many others. Dr. Duan is the first to have proposed the theory that the tomb complex was constructed in accordance with the Emperor’s revolutionary desire to build an underground world as a duplicate of the actual political system he established. His archaeological research has effectively changed our understanding of the First Emperor’s view of the afterlife. Among his extensive publications are 6 books including recent archaeological reports on the Tomb Complex excavations, and more than 30 major academic articles, and he has given talks on his research in Japan, Korea, Germany, the USA, and the UK. Currently, he is leading a multi-year research project on China’s Great Wall.