Cover art for Life and Afterlife in Ancient China
Published
Penguin, October 2025
ISBN
9780141994512
Format
Softcover, 560 pages
Dimensions
19.8cm × 12.9cm × 2.5cm

Life and Afterlife in Ancient China

Not yet released
Due October 7, 2025.
Fast $7.95 flat-rate shipping!
Only pay $7.95 per order within Australia, including end-to-end parcel tracking.
100% encrypted and secure
We adhere to industry best practice and never store credit card details.
Talk to real people
Contact us seven days a week – our staff are here to help.

An epic new history of Ancient China told through the prism of a dozen extraordinary tombs

The three millennia up to the establishment of the first imperial Qin dynasty in 221 BC cemented many of the distinctive elements of Chinese civilisation still in place today. Records of these early achievements, and their diverse and unexpected expressions, often lie not in written history but in the ways people marked the end of their lives.

Jessica Rawson here explores twelve grand tombs - each from a specific historical moment and place - showing how they reveal wider political, dynastic and cultural developments, culminating in the lavish ambition of the First Emperor's monument, guarded by his army of terracotta warriors. Drawing on the latest archaeological discoveries, Life and Afterlife in Ancient China illuminates a constellation of beliefs about life and death very different from our own and provides a remarkable new perspective on one of the oldest civilisations in the world.

Related books