China Introduction

The pits, then, contained the army protecting his realm in the afterlife. With this discovery, our understanding of how China was unified under one empire after a long period of warfare was advanced immeasurably.

​can be defined in two different ways.

​Geographically speaking, it can be defined as the eastern region of the Asian continent and

the countries located there, principally China, North and South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan.

​But historians also define East Asia as a broader cultural realm, and include countries that both shared close historical relations with China and were impacted by China’s political and legal institutions, and Confucian and Buddhist traditions.

​When defined in this way, Vietnam is also included. This chapter, however, as an introduction to the early history of East Asia, will focus on China, Korea, and Japan