The Great Wall Of China
1.
General
The Great Wall of China is a series of fortifications made of stone, brick, tamped earth, wood, and other
materials, generally built along an east-to-west line across the historical
northern borders of China in part to protect the Chinese Empire
or its prototypical states against intrusions by various nomadic groups or
military incursions by various warlike peoples or forces. Several walls were
being built as early as the 7th century BC; these,
later joined together and made bigger and stronger, are now collectively
referred to as the Great Wall. Especially
famous is the wall built between 220–206 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. Little of that wall
remains. Since then, the Great Wall has on and off been rebuilt, maintained,
and enhanced; the majority of the existing wall was reconstructed during the Ming Dynasty.
Other
purposes of the Great Wall have included border controls, allowing the
imposition of duties on goods transported along the Silk Road, regulation or encouragement
of trade and the control of immigration and emigration. Furthermore, the
defensive characteristics of the Great Wall were enhanced by the construction
of watch towers, troop barracks, garrison stations, signaling capabilities through
the means of smoke or fire, and the fact that the path of the Great Wall also
served as a transportation corridor.
The
Great Wall stretches from Shanhaiguan in the east, to Lop Lake in the west, along an arc that roughly
delineates the southern edge of Inner
Mongolia. A comprehensive archaeological survey, using advanced technologies,
has concluded that the Ming walls measure 8,850 km (5,500 mi). This is made up of 6,259 km
(3,889 mi) sections of actual wall, 359 km (223 mi) of trenches
and 2,232 km (1,387 mi) of natural defensive barriers such as hills
and rivers. Another
archaeological survey found that the entire wall with all of its branches
measure out to be 21,196 km (13,171 mi).
1.
History
1)
Early Walls
Qin Shi
Huang conquered all opposing states and unified China in 221 BC,
establishing the Qin Dynasty. Intending to impose centralized rule and
prevent the resurgence of feudal lords, he ordered the destruction of the wall
sections that divided his empire along the former state borders. To position
the empire against the Xiongnu people from the north, he ordered the
building of new walls to connect the remaining fortifications along the
empire's northern frontier. Transporting the large quantity of materials
required for construction was difficult, so builders always tried to use local
resources. Stones from the mountains were used over mountain ranges, while rammed
earth was used for construction in the plains. There are no surviving
historical records indicating the exact length and course of the Qin Dynasty
walls. Most of the ancient walls have eroded away over the centuries, and very
few sections remain today. The human cost of the construction is unknown, but
it has been estimated by some authors that hundreds of thousands, if not
up to a million, workers died building the Qin wall. Later, The Han, Sui,
and The Northern dynasties all repaired, rebuilt, or expanded
sections of the Great Wall at great cost to defend themselves against northern
invaders. The Tang and Song Dynasties did not build
any walls in the region substantially. The Liao, Jin, and Yuan dynasties,
who ruled Northern China throughout most of the 10th–13th centuries,
constructed defensive walls in the 12th century, but those were located much to
the north of the Great Wall as we know it, within today's Inner and Outer
Mongolia.
2)
Ming era
The Great
Wall concept was revived again during the Ming Dynasty in the 14th
century, and following the Ming army's defeat by the Oirats in
theBattle of Tumu. The Ming had failed to gain a clear upper hand over the Manchurian and Mongolian tribes
after successive battles, and the long-drawn conflict was taking a toll on the
empire. The Ming adopted a new strategy to keep the nomadic tribes
out by constructing walls along the northern border of China. Acknowledging the
Mongol control established in the Ordos Desert, the wall followed the
desert's southern edge instead of incorporating the bend of the Yellow
River.
Unlike the
earlier fortifications, the Ming construction was stronger and more elaborate
due to the use of bricks and stone instead of rammed earth. Up to 25,000
watchtowers are estimated to have been constructed on the wall. As Mongol
raids continued periodically over the years, the Ming devoted considerable
resources to repair and reinforce the walls. Sections near the Ming capital of
Beijing were especially strong. Qi Jiguang between 1567 and 1570 also
repaired and reinforced the wall, faced sections of the ram-earth wall with
bricks and constructed 1,200 watchtowers from Shanhaiguan Pass to Changping to
warn of approaching Mongol raiders. During the 1440s–1460s, the Ming also
built a so-called "Liaodong Wall". Similar in function to the Great
Wall (whose extension, in a sense, it was), but more basic in construction, the
Liaodong Wall enclosed the agricultural heartland of the Liaodong province,
protecting it against potential incursions by Jurched-Mongol Oriyanghan from
the northwest and the Jianzhou Jurchens from the north. While stones
and tiles were used in some parts of the Liaodong Wall, most of it was in fact
simply an earth dike with moats on both sides.
Towards the
end of the Ming Dynasty, the Great Wall helped defend the empire against the Manchu invasions
that began around 1600. Even after the loss of all of Liaodong, the Ming
army held the heavily fortified Shanhaiguan pass, preventing the
Manchus from conquering the Chinese heartland. The Manchus were finally able to
cross the Great Wall in 1644, after Beijing had already fallen to Li
Zicheng's rebels. Before this time, the Manchus had crossed the Great Wall
multiple times to raid, but this time it was for conquest. The gates at
Shanhaiguan were opened by the commanding Ming general Wu Sangui on
May 25 who formed an alliance with the Manchus, hoping to use the Manchus to
expel the rebels from Beijing. The Manchus quickly seized Beijing, and
defeated both the rebel-founded Shun Dynasty and the remaining
Ming resistance, establishing the Qing Dynasty rule over all of
China.
Under Qing
rule, China's borders extended beyond the walls and Mongolia was
annexed into the empire, so constructions on the Great Wall were discontinued.
On the other hand, the so-calledWillow Palisade, following a line similar to
that of the Ming Liaodong Wall, was constructed by the Qing rulers in
Manchuria. Its purpose, however, was not defense but rather migration control.
1)
Foreign appreciation of the Wall
Early Arabs
had heard about China's Great Wall during earlier periods of China's history as
early as the 14th century. They associated it with Dhul-Qarnayn's Gog
and Magog wall of the Qur'an, as the North African traveler Ibn
Battuta heard from the local Muslim communities in Guangzhou around
1346.
Soon after
Europeans reached the Ming China in the early 16th century, accounts of the
Great Wall started to circulate in Europe, even though no European was to see
it with his own eyes for another century. Possibly one of the earliest
descriptions of the wall, and its significance for the defense of the country
against the "Tartars" (i.e. Mongols), may be the one contained in the
ThirdDécada of João de Barros' Asia (published
1563). Other early accounts in Western sources include those of Gaspar
da Cruz, Bento de Goes, Matteo Ricci, and Bishop Juan González
de Mendoza. In 1559, in his work "A Treatise of China and the
Adjoyning Regions," Gaspar da Cruz offers an early discussion of the Great
Wall. Perhaps the first recorded instance of a European actually entering
China via the Great Wall came in 1605, when the Portuguese Jesuit brother Bento
de Góis reached the northwestern Jiayu Pass from India. Early
European accounts were mostly modest and empirical, closely mirroring
contemporary Chinese understanding of the Wall, although later they slid
into hyperbole, including the erroneous but ubiquitous claim that the Ming
Walls were the same ones that were built by Qin Shi Huang in the 3rd century
BC.
When China
opened its borders to foreign visitors after its defeat in the Opium Wars,
the Great Wall became a main attraction for tourists. The travelogues of the
later 19th century further enhanced the reputation and the mythology of the
Great Wall, such that in the 20th century, a persistent misconception
exists about the Great Wall of China being visible from the Moon or even Mars.
3.
Legend Story
Greatwall or that we are familiar
with Chinese walls are in Negri Chinese bamboo curtain has an interesting
legend is Squline loh. This time I will share a variety of stories about the legend of
the Chinese Wall.
Famous legend is 孟姜女 哭 倒 长城 (KU Mèngjiāngnǚ Dao Changcheng) which means 孟姜女 (Mèngjiāngnǚ) crying in the wall of china.
In the Qin Dynasty, there lived a beautiful woman and she kindly 孟姜女 (Mèngjiāngnǚ). When it was in the yard doing homework, he suddenly saw a man, 孟姜女 (Mèngjiāngnǚ) wanted to scream but the man banned .
The man named 范 喜 浪 (fànxǐlàng) he is working wall of china maker vague. They fell in love and eventually married.
On the night of their wedding, chinese walls officers arrest 范 喜 浪 (fànxǐlàng) to return to work. 孟姜女 (Mèngjiāngnǚ) since then mengangis and decided to look for her husband to cina. The distance between the wall and the wall of china 孟姜女 (Mèngjiāngnǚ) which makes the trip much 孟姜女 (Mèngjiāngnǚ) is not easy.
Arriving at the wall of china, 孟姜女 (Mèngjiāngnǚ) searched but did not see her husband. 孟姜女 (Mèngjiāngnǚ) asked another worker the worker finally said that her husband had died and was buried in a layer of brick wall of china as an amplifier.
孟姜女 (Mèngjiāngnǚ) crying three days and three nights until eventually the Jade Emperor was sorry to see it, then he split chinese wall and exit the husband's corpse. That what may make her husband can not come back to life, 孟姜女 (Mèngjiāngnǚ) was living with her husband in the end the wall of china.
孟姜女 story (Mèngjiāngnǚ) is very famous especially when talking about the Wall China. Wall in mandarin chinese known as 万里长城 (Wànlǐ Changcheng) is very large and has a length of 8851.8 kilometers.
Chinese Wall is spending hundreds of years to make it. The Qin ruling that future uses tens of thousands of workers
, 孟姜女 (Mèngjiāngnǚ) and husband living at the time of the chinese wall government. The construction lasted through several dynasties until finally completed.
Famous legend is 孟姜女 哭 倒 长城 (KU Mèngjiāngnǚ Dao Changcheng) which means 孟姜女 (Mèngjiāngnǚ) crying in the wall of china.
In the Qin Dynasty, there lived a beautiful woman and she kindly 孟姜女 (Mèngjiāngnǚ). When it was in the yard doing homework, he suddenly saw a man, 孟姜女 (Mèngjiāngnǚ) wanted to scream but the man banned .
The man named 范 喜 浪 (fànxǐlàng) he is working wall of china maker vague. They fell in love and eventually married.
On the night of their wedding, chinese walls officers arrest 范 喜 浪 (fànxǐlàng) to return to work. 孟姜女 (Mèngjiāngnǚ) since then mengangis and decided to look for her husband to cina. The distance between the wall and the wall of china 孟姜女 (Mèngjiāngnǚ) which makes the trip much 孟姜女 (Mèngjiāngnǚ) is not easy.
Arriving at the wall of china, 孟姜女 (Mèngjiāngnǚ) searched but did not see her husband. 孟姜女 (Mèngjiāngnǚ) asked another worker the worker finally said that her husband had died and was buried in a layer of brick wall of china as an amplifier.
孟姜女 (Mèngjiāngnǚ) crying three days and three nights until eventually the Jade Emperor was sorry to see it, then he split chinese wall and exit the husband's corpse. That what may make her husband can not come back to life, 孟姜女 (Mèngjiāngnǚ) was living with her husband in the end the wall of china.
孟姜女 story (Mèngjiāngnǚ) is very famous especially when talking about the Wall China. Wall in mandarin chinese known as 万里长城 (Wànlǐ Changcheng) is very large and has a length of 8851.8 kilometers.
Chinese Wall is spending hundreds of years to make it. The Qin ruling that future uses tens of thousands of workers
, 孟姜女 (Mèngjiāngnǚ) and husband living at the time of the chinese wall government. The construction lasted through several dynasties until finally completed.
