Welcome

Welcome to this course The First Emperor—Birth of China's Imperial System. We hope this self-learning course will be a rewarding and exciting experience for you.

This course is to make you familiar with a variety of perspective and approaches to ancient Chinese history, aspects of the foundation of the Chinese Imperial system, knowledge about one of the most famous historical figure in China, the most relevant sources which can inform us about this period, historiographical problems implied in understanding and interpreting Chinese history, as well as the complex process of reception and reinvention of the figure of the First Emperor throughout the century and more importantly, contemporary China.

In order to meet these diverse aims and cover all these topics, the course has been designed in a collaborative effort among colleagues from Chinese Studies, Film and Cultural Studies, History and History of Arts. You can find out more about the contributors in the Course Contributors section. Students from all these subject areas are invited to participate in the course and we believe the transdisciplinary input to this course will benefit the learning experience of students in all subjects.