"It was 22 centuries ago." "China had been at war for 500 years." "It seemed as if it would never end." "When they weren't fighting each other." "the warrior kings of the seven states were busy with the choas and corruption inside their own borders." "No one was safe." "To the west in the capitol city of Shenyang revolution was in the air." "The politicians were playing a dangerous game." "The prime minister was leading a conspiracy against the new king." "Tian xia zi da tai xian neng gai dong yi ge zi." "Yi zi zhi gian jing." "He had announced his chanllenge by putting up posters on the city gates demanding the king change his policies." "It was a big mistake." "The prime minister had seriously underestimated the young king for this was the man who was destined to become the prince of heaven a man who would change his world forever." "This was the mighty Chin." "Sha!" "The rebellion was crushed the leaders taken alive... but not for long." ""Lao Ai..." ""tu mo bu gui" ""xing bing pan luan, zui nie..."" "Chin's response to the palace revolt would be quick and public- something everyone would understand." "The prime minister after being forced to watch the execution was offered an easier way out" ""Jun he gong yu qing" ""fang wen jing hou shi shi wan hu" ""jun he qing yu qing" ""hao cheng zhong fu" ""qin wan zi jiu qing jun zi chu."" "There was now no doubt who was ruling the kingdom of Chin." "With the rebellion crushed at home." "Chin's army could now concentrate on taking over the other kingdoms." "Die, ge, gai chi fan la." "The army was the one way to escape the drudgery of the farm." "If a young man fought well and survived he would be rewarded." "Zou ba." "Chi fan la." "It was a remptation few could resist" "Xiao mei, Er-Lao jiu tuo gel ni la." "Ge, ni jiu fand xin de zou ba." "Gai-Er!" "Gai-Er!" "By the thousands, farm boys would be drawn to dreams of glory, drawn to the armies and there was none mightier than the army of Chin." "Chin's generals knew the value of a well-trained army." "Many of them had spent their entire lives learning the arts of war." "They were more than princes on horseback." "They were professional soldiers." "They had taken untrained peasants and farm boys and turned them into the greatest fighting force the world had ever known." "Wo men yao jian da jiang qun." "Ni men shi gan shen mo de?" "Lao ye, wo men yao tou jun." "O. Ni men hui gan shen mo?" "Na gong lai." "Hao." "Ru wu yan lian." "Xie da jiang jun." "In a time before gunpowder a regiment of archers was a powerful weapon." "La jian!" "Young luan!" "Fang!" "Fang jian!" "Fang jian!" "It would take ten more years of war but Chin was relentless." "He conquered Han, Wei and Chou." "After a long campaign he finally crushed the kingdom of Chu." "But in the land of Yen, they had a plan a plan which even today the schoolchildren of China can recite by heart" "Jing Qin, zhu ni ma dao cheng gong." "It was to be a last desperate attempt to stop Chin from winning it all." "It would take one brave man, a man named Jin Ke... a man destined for death." "His job was to get close enough to Chin to assassinate him." "Jin Ke jin dian!" "Whether he was successful or not for Jin Ke, it would mean, of course, certain death." "He brought with him a special gift and a scroll pledging allegiance." "Tian guo shi zhe Jin Ke jin dian." "Jin Ke jin dian!" "Feng shan pan jiang fan yi si shou ji." "Qing da wang yan kan." "The gift, for Chin's amusement was the head of a treacherous general." "Da wang wei de tai zi zan pai wei chen jin feng shan jian dou kan zi tu wei ta wang ming zhi." "The scroll was to contain as even bigger surprise." "Even in the face of death no one was allowed on the King's dais without permission." "Wei fu ba jian!" "Wei fu ba jian!" "Chin, enraged, sent his vast army into Yen." "After five centuries of war five centuries of death" "Chin would have his empire." "But oh, the cost" "Oh, the cost" "For the archer who had fought so bravely:" "A promotion." "Yi yong guan san qun wo ti shen ni wei bai fu da." "They made him an officer." "Xia, da jiang jun." "To record his greatness for all time" "Chin declared himself Chin Shih Huang" "First Emperor of China." "Wang shui!" "Wang shui!" "Wang wang shui!" "The new empire, said Chin, would last 10,000 generations." "He believed he was the most powerful ruler the world had ever known." "For he was convinced no civilized world existed outside his empire." "The most beautiful women of China were brought to his court" "His favorite he made Empress." "There had never been a coronation like it" "Di xia, yi tong tian xia gong gai san huang wu di xi hai qian shou qi song mu huang wang shou wu jiang wan shou wu jiang!" "All:" "Wan shou wu jiang!" "The archer, now a captain of the palace quard knew that even the handmaidens of the palace were the personal property of the mighty Emperor." "Chin's control was total." "He owned everything." "He owned everybody." "As part of the coronation" "Chin declared an end to war." "He had the bronze weapons taken from his enemies and from the peasants." "He melted them down to make 12 huge statues proclaiming peace for all time." "In a country which had lived with wars for over 500 years" "It was time for celebration." "Chin knew it would take more to create an empire than just defeating the other kingdoms." "He moved now to unite them with a series of reforms." "To emphasize their importance he would stamp these new laws with the rarely used royal seal." "This emphasized that these were no ordinary edicts- these were decrees from Heaven." "Each of the different kingdoms had used their own system for weights and measures." "Chin's decrees now introduced a universal standard and sent inspectors into the markets to make sure they were being used." "To speed up transportation, he had the roads widened so that six horses could pass at the same time." "He built new irrigation systems." "He issued new coins which could be used anywhere in the empire." "He even stopped the confusion of the various written languages by introducing simplified characters." "Ci wei zao." "Yen." "Huang di ming chen xia..." "From now on this would be the new word for "horse."" "Ma." "Ma." "Ma." "Ma." "For the first time in a century the country was learning to live with peace." "The archer had found a wife." "A serving girl at the palace became a gift from his emperor." "Yi bai tian di!" "Er bai fu lao!" "Fu qi dui bai." "But it was all too good to last" "Chin had insisted that his law be the only law but there were books throught the empire which promoted freedom of thought" "Chin had a solution for that" "He burned the books." "The burning of the books enraged the intellectuals of the day." "Chin also had a solution for them." "He buried 460 of them alive." "The criticism stopped." "The various kingdoms had built a series of walls for defense." "Chin now ordered that the northern wall should be connected into one great wall to keep the Mongol raiders out" "Meng tian da jiang jun..." "Chen zai." "Wo gel ni wu shi wan jian shou jia shan ni er shi wan shu bing... ni ba Chang Cheng... gei wo nian jie chi lai." "Wo pai Tai Zi Fu Su dai tou jian gong." "Chen chun zi." "Zun ming." "His general and his eldest son were sent to supervise construction." "This would be the foundation of the Great Wall of China." "5,000 kilometers long it would employ 700,000 people just a portion of Chin's mighty legacy and there would be more." "It was the custom for all kings to have elaborate burial sites and for the first emperor it would have to be a grave unlike any other." "Zhe shi shan ban sheng." "Mmm." "He was planning a huge palace tomb inside a manmade mountain and stretching out before it, underground a life-sized replica of his royal guard." "You yi ge gui se di?" "You." "Huge terra-cotta factories were put to work building the clay army- an army which would be joining their emperor on his journey to glory." "Zhe jiu shi." "Bu cuo ma, a?" "Zou." "Nei bian kan kan." "Shi." "To make the journey easier they would bring bronze works of art and weapons." "They would bring jewels and gifts." "The tomb and the army would remind the gods that they were now dealing with the first emperor of China." "In all, it would take 36 years to build countless slaves working so Chin could live comfortably forever in Heaven." "Soon, even that would not be enough." "Chin decided that he wanted to live forever on Earth." "After all, if anyone could be immortal why shouldn't it be the most important man the world had ever seen?" "He became obsessed with immortality." "He commissioned his alchemists to create a formula which would allow him to do battle with death- his only remaining enemy." "Di xia, qing." "They made him special pills containing mercury." "These would eventually kill him." "Chin was now 50 years old." "His 270 palaces were filled with riches." "He had 3,000 concubines." "He had been in complete control for ten years but it was not enough." "He had still not eonquered death." "If there was a recipe for immortality perhaps he would find it somewhere in his vast empire." "Perhaps somewhere out there he would find the secret of everlasting life." "But even for the first emperor, that was not to be." "Di xia." "Di xia." "Di xia?" "Chin had 24 sons but it was the 18th, Hu Hai, who forged a new will and proclaimed himself emperor." "Whoever controlled the royal seal controlled the decrees from heaven." "Chin's original will had named the oldest son heir but it would come to nothing." "The forged will ordered the eldest son to commit suicide." "Such was the power of Chin that he did so immediately and without question." "The wars would soon start all over again." "Chin had unified China, but his dynasty which was to have lasted for 10,000 generations would crumble within 36 months of his death." "As the centruies passed, Chin's might faded into history." "The man-made mountain which served as his tomb became overgrown." "Other emperors, other tombs would soon dot the landscape of China." "The secrets of Chin's great burial site were lost in myth, in legend and in dust" "It took 22 centuries for those secrets to finally emerge from that dust" "In 1974, some farmers digging a new well in the shadow of a strange hill collided with history." "Kuai dian." "Wan la." "Ya, shang le hao dong xi la." "For at the bottom of that simple well stood the army of the mighty Chin" "Still leading their emperor into eternity." "In one pit alone, there are 7,000 terra-cotta chariots horses, foot soldiers and archers." "Chin's tomb has remained unopened but the pits at the bottom of that well have brought a regiment of historians, restorers and archivists who will now spend many new lifetimes with the army of the emperor." "Zhe shi Jiang Liu Yong." "Bi wo gao zhe mo duo." "Shi." "Da men zheng zai xiu fu." "Ni men gong zuo liang hen da." "Shi." "Deng quan bu xiu fu da jiang zheng dong quan shi jie." "Although he died all those lifetimes ago this archer is now strangely connected to the artist who draws him." "They have a lot in common." "Both of them, down through the centuries are somehow still in the service of that mighty emperor united here so that the Prince of Heaven may live forever." "Perhaps his empire has lasted for 10,000 generations after all." "That would not be a surprise to Chin, the first emperor."