Author: Zhuang, Yijie

China

Published on 18 January 2024 by Michael O’Mara Books Ltd in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 272 pages, Black and white illustrations throughout
128 x 198 x 24 | 244g

Spend 24 hours with the ancient Chinese. The year is AD 17. The Han dynasty is in power and we are in and around Changan, the capital and one of the most developed regions of the empire, which is enjoying a prolonged economic and cultural pinnacle.

There are extraordinary palaces, military bases and city walls. Households are benefitting from the invention of numerous agricultural technologies and an unprecedented level of craft production, which includes ceramics, bronzes, iron objects and many other elaborate goods.

This is an age that is both vibrant and innovative but also riven with conflict and contradictions. For as successful as the empire is, the reality is that life for the ordinary inhabi