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“Fabulous . . . an engaging account of Chinese history, with innumerable diversions into culture and daily life.” —China Review

Spanning more than two thousand years, from the first emperor, buried with his terra-cotta army in the third century B.C., to Puyi, the four-year-old last emperor, here is the entire history of China told through the stories of its all-powerful rulers. The emperors were an extraordinary group of men—and one woman, Wu Zetian—whose virtues and faults were magnified by their exalted position. Under able rulers, China’s frontiers expanded, dominating Central and Southeast Asia; under weak rulers the frontiers shrank, and for centuries the country was occupied by alien Mongols.