Qin and Han: the empire

China's first emperor was buried with an army of thousands of clay soldiers, and the Han dynasty laid the foundations of Chinese culture for four hundred years.

Qin Shi Huangdi unified China in 221 BC and standardised its script, weights and measures, and coinage. His tomb complex near Xi'an contains the Terracotta Army: more than 7,000 life-size soldiers, each with an individual face.

The Han dynasty, 206 BC–AD 220, was as powerful as the Roman Empire. The Silk Road linked China with Central Asia and the Mediterranean, and Confucianism became the state ideology.

Han art is known through its tombs: wall paintings, reliefs on stone slabs, lacquerware, bronze horses and clay models of houses and farmsteads – everything the deceased would need in the afterlife.

• The Terracotta Army up close
• Tombs as whole worlds
• Lacquer, silk and the roads west
• Reliefs, mirrors and myths
• Writing and paper
• Close reading: the Mawangdui silk banner
• Palaces, roof tiles and walls
• Horses, warriors and the flying horse
• Buddhism reaches China