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Emperor's Eternal Armies

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The film Emperor's Eternal Armies is a great documentary to understand the beginning of China and its society. The film mainly focuses on the first two emperors of China, Qin Shihuangdi and Jingdi, who seemed to have very different ideas from one another. The film introduces archeological finds discovered in Xian and it took a deeper look at their tombs and examined the purpose of them in reference to many opinions from archeologist. Looking at the two tombs and comparing them suggests the two different ideas about how to govern. Qin Shihuangdi is the first emperor of China who ruled from 221 BCE to 210 BCE. In 221 B.C.E. Qin Shihuangdi conquered and unified all seven states which were fighting each other for control of most of Eastern Asia, and proclaimed himself first emperor of the country. One of his major achievements is construction of the Great Wall. He ordered to build the Great Wall in order to consolidate the vast territory and to protect his country from the northern tribes. Millions of people in China got involved in the construction of the Great Wall. The main labor force were soldiers, peasants, and criminals, who worked to death and were buried inside the wall. The Great Wall was not the only his major project; he also began preparation for death by construction on his tomb. He actually paid more time and attention to the preparation of the tomb that took 38 years to finish and a third of the entire national budget. The number of …show more content…

It is obvious that Qin Shihuangdi was trying to demonstrate his power and his control over all the people by building a huge terra-cotta army. On the other hand, Jingdi was trying to show that he was the moral, clever, and liberal ruler who looked after the welfare of his people with the whole scale down version of his

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