Qin Shi Huang: his name endures today not just in every "Made in China" label on the imports flooding western markets, but more significantly in China's strong political and economic presence on the world stage. Emperor of Stone: Qin and the Terra Cotta Armies takes a detailed look at Qin's major accomplishments, achievements whose long shadow through time continue to shape China today. But the book does more. It is impossible to understand Qin without a sense of the culture into which he was born, so I have also described the shifting and evolving landscape--from the practical optism of Confucius in the perfectibility of man, through the "mandate of Heaven" and on to the legalist views of Li sI--that ultimately shaped his thinking and brought about the Great Wall,the terra cotta warriors...and his own ruin. - from Amzon