In 221 bc the First Emperor of Qin unified the lands that would become the heart of a Chinese empire. Though forged by conquest, this vast domain depended for its political survival on a fundamental reshaping of Chinese culture. With this informative book, we are present at the creation of an ancient imperial order whose major features would endure for two millennia. The Qin and Han constitute the 'classical period' of Chinese history - a role played by the Greeks and Romans in the West. Mark Edward Lewis highlights the key challenges faced by the court officials and scholars who set about governing an empire of such scale and diversity of people. He traces the drastic measures taken to transcend, without eliminating, these regional differences: the invention of the emperor as the divine embodiment of the state; the establishment of a common script for communication and a state-sponsored canon for the propagation of Confucian ideals; the flourishing of the great families, whose domination of local society rested on wealth, landholding, and elaborate kinship structures; the demilitarization of the interior; and the impact of non-Chinese warrior-nomads in setting the boundaries of an emerging Chinese identity. The first of a six-volume series on the history of imperial China, "The Early Chinese Empires" illuminates many formative events in China's long history of imperialism - events whose residual influence can still be discerned today.

陆威仪（Mark Edward Lewis），1954年生，师从何炳棣，毕业于芝加哥大学。美国著名中国古代史专家，斯坦福大学Kwoh—Ting Li（李国鼎）中国文化讲座教授，。他的研究关注中国文明的不同方面，尤其擅长从政治和社会层面考察中国问题。著有“哈佛中国史”丛书中前三卷《早期中华帝国：秦与汉》、《分裂的帝国：南北朝》《世界性的帝国：唐朝》，以及《早期中国的写作与权威》《早期中国的空间构造》等。