A Lively History of Qin

After the popularity of television dramas such as The Qin Empire and The Legend of Mi Yue, many readers became interested in the history of the pre-Qin period, yet found the voluminous histories impossible to approach. A Lively History of Qin is an introductory reader made for exactly such readers. Its strength lies in combining lightness with reliability. Light in form: four chapters divided by four rulers, each chapter cut into dozens of stories of about six hundred characters, so that one section can be read on the commute or in ten minutes before bed without losing the thread. Reliable in attitude: though an amateur history enthusiast, the author has read basic sources such as Records of the Grand Historian and Strategies of the Warring States more than once, and his accounts of figures' words and deeds, the causes and effects of battles, and diplomatic maneuvering are broadly grounded, with no arbitrary embellishment for the sake of a good story. More interesting still is the author's insistence on getting things right. Beyond telling stories, he lays out the doubts in the sources: the same event told differently in different chapters, a figure's dates and deeds contradicting each other, a widely circulated idiom actually coming from a later novel. The author does not rush to judgment but lists the possibilities for readers to weigh themselves. This approach may not satisfy everyone, but it trains the discernment needed for reading history. If there is a regret, it is that many conclusions in the book are personal inferences and may not hold up academically; readers who wish to dig deeper must still return to primary sources and scholarly monographs. But as a book that opens the door, it does the job quite well.