WATCH AD-FREE: https://www.patreon.com/fallofcivilizations_podcast A city in ruins. A dynasty in tatters. An empire in ashes... This episode, we look at the remarkable story of the first empire of ancient China, the Han dynasty. With ancient Chinese poetry, songs and folk music, we look back at the first empire's rise, its remarkable technological advances, and its first, tentative attempts to make contact with the empires of the west. Finally, we look at all the reasons behind the first age of Imperial China's final, dramatic fall. ** Fall of Civilizations the book is now available to pre-order: linktr.ee/fallofcivilizations ** Support Fall of Civilizations on Patreon: http://patreon.com/fallofcivilizations_podcast Credits: Sound engineering by Thomas Ntinas Voice Actors: Claire Hynes Jake Barrett-Mills Shem Jacobs Alex Peattie Music by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: incompetech.com/ Title theme: Home At Last by John Bartmann. https://johnbartmann.com/ Illustration of Qin Shi Huang's tomb by Richard Holmgren: arcdoc.se