Number Ten has been sending a steady stream of visitors to the British Museum to see its exhibition of the First Emperor of China and his terracotta army. Quite right, too: the show is simply stunning, one of the wonders of our time, and an experience you dare not miss (see Andrew Lambirth’s review here and go here to book tickets).
Rudy Giuliani was at the exhibition last week, no doubt planning his own terracotta Delta Force should he become President. And I have no doubt that Gordon Brown, who opened the show, has found much to admire in Qin Shihuangdi (r.221-210 BC), the mighty emperor who wanted to rule for “ten thousand generations”, “The Great Sage” who “brilliantly spread culture and grace, Enlightening them through rightness and principle…And there was none who was not respectful and submissive.”
That’s what they call a “moral compass” in Kirkcaldy.
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