By Nichole Poblete

UC Santa Barbara history professor Anthony Barbieri has published his fifth book, The Many Lives of the First Emperor of China. Rather than focusing on the titular figure’s life in the form of a biography, Barbieri composed the book as an adventure through time, investigating interpretations of First Emperor Ying Zheng by different persons and groups — from Confucian scholars to the Maoist government, to writers and video game developers. From primary sources to novels and digital media, the book unites the past and the present day, exploring perceptions of the man as both hero and villain.

UCSB History professor Anthony Barbieri and his fifth book, The Many Lives of the First Emperor of China.

Barbieri’s early education was dominated by the history of Western civilization, but the world beyond the classroom expanded his view, he says. Growing up in the San Francisco area, Barbieri ventured into Chinatown, where the cuisine, tradition, and art of China surrounded him, sparking the curiosity that led to his decades-long career.

In April 1978, when he was a youth, National Geographic published its cover story “China’s Incredible Find: The First Emperor’s Army.” The pictures and the stories about the First Emperor became ingrained in his memory - a memory that four decades later led to a 2022 lecture on this topic and to a book. He spoke about that in a recent interview.

The April 1978 issue of National Geographic that inspired UC Santa Barbara historian Anthony Barbieri.

What inspired you to research the First Emperor and the various interpretations of him?

The First Emperor becomes, for some people, a great hero. For the Confucian scholar throughout Chinese history, he is the great villain. He is the one that massacred their forefathers, destroyed their texts, and promoted an amoral ideology of state. But for other people, like Chinese nationalists or Chairman Mao in the 20th century, he was a hero.

I am fascinated by how the same person could become both hero and villain at different times. So, I started collecting all of these different stories, legends, accounts, movies, and documentaries about the First Emperor. Then, I created an undergraduate seminar where we watch these movies, we play video games, we do all these things related to the First Emperor. Then we interpret, not the First Emperor, but the people doing the interpreting. We ask, “Why do they say this or that about him?”

What are the interpretations that have stuck with you the most?

A short story written in Japanese-occupied Shanghai in 1941. The person who wrote it was under censorship, so he could not criticize the Japanese directly. He used the First Emperor as an allegory, to tell the story about the First Emperor and the Island of the Immortals, which was actually a code word for Japan. The story is about the Japanese promise of modernization and how Chinese patriots need to stand up and resist the Japanese. But it is told as an allegory, with a story of the First Emperor, to escape the censors.

You've probably seen posters around campus criticizing the current president of China. There was a protest in China where someone unfurled a banner on a bridge and it was immediately taken down. The person was arrested, and the story is spread around.

There’s criticism of the Chinese leader on Chinese social media, but they get around it by using allegories, using puns, or rhyming words. There are many different ways to get around harsh censorship, and this use of allegories is still used in China today to criticize their leaders.

Three pop culture examples about the First Emperor that are explored in UCSB historian Anthony Barbieri’s book and lectures. Copyright Sanctuary Woods, Universal Pictures, and LucasArts respectively.

What was the best part and what was the worst part in the process of writing your book?

The best part of the process was travel. It was going to China, examining the First Emperor’s tomb and various sites, and talking to Chinese scholars. The most painful part of the process is always the writing, because that’s when you close the door to new discoveries and new things.

The exploration is the most fun part and of course, playing the video games. I’m not that great at gaming, so my son and I would play them together and he would help me through the hard parts.

What would you like students interested in history to take away from your book?

For some, it might be depressing. But it's the opening paragraph where I basically say that even though ancient history is real, we have no idea what really happened, and we can never know that it's actually unknowable and irretrievable. So, what we have are not panes of glass, but lenses. They're all refracted and bent and diffused through biased interpreters.

That's what I would want history students to come away with. To drop that wishful thinking that at some point we can get to the truth of a certain person or a certain event, because it's all going to be filtered through interpretation.

Nichole Poblete is a fourth-year History major at UCSB. She conducted this interview for her Writing Program course Digital Journalism.