Great wall

History

If the term “Great wall” indicates today mainly the fortifications set up during the Ming dynasty, several walls built at the time of the preceding dynasties carried this title, the borders of China evolving/moving with time.

Traditionally, one divides the history of the construction of the Great wall into two parts:

one preceding the unification by the dynasty Qin (221 av. J. - C.) at the time of the Period of Springs and the Falls and the Period of the Kingdoms Combatants, where the various states and kingdoms which divided China set up ground walls at their borders;
one starting during the unification of the Qin dynasty, where the emperor Shi Huangdi begins construction from a large wall of “ten thousand miles length” at the northern border.

Period former to the Qin dynasty

Qin dynasty

See also: Dynasty Qin

In 221 av. J. - C., the lord of war Ying Zheng completes the unification of China and founds the Dynastie Qin of which he proclaims emperor under the name of reign of Shi Huangdi. He undertakes massive reforms then. Following the attacks of the tribes Xiongnu, to north, it sends the general Meng Tian so that this one pushes back Xiongnu, then undertakes the construction of a great wall beyond the Yellow Fleuve more effectively to protect the lately conquered territories.

However, the details of the construction of this wall are very known little about and the opinions of the historians differ as for what really achieved by Shi Huangdi and Meng Tian. There exists in only one primary education source reporting its construction (mainly two passages of the Shiji ), as some very short references in the later historical texts as the Livre of Han .

After the Qin dynasty had unified the Empire, the general Meng Tian was sent to north with: 300000 men to push back the cruel tribes. He conquered the Henan and built a Great wall while making use of the topographic advantages. He built fortresses with the processions. The wall started from Lintao to arrive at Liaodong on more dix-mille Li . It crossed the Yellow River to arrive at Yangshan. | Sima Qian, Shiji , Chapter 88: Meng Tian.

After Qin had conquered the six kingdoms, the emperor sent the general Meng Tian with: 100000 men in north to attack the barbarians. It captured Henan and built defenses around the Yellow River. It built forty-four cities strengthened to supervise the river and of the soldiers were put in garrison at the border. It used the mountains, cliffs, the torrents and the valleys. The wall started from Lintao to arrive at Liaodong on more dix-mille Li and crossed the Yellow River between Yangshan and Beijia. | Sima Qian, Shiji , Chapter 110: Xiongnu.

Apart from these two texts, there do not exist different accounts concerning the wall built by Meng Tian. Neither when it was built, nor his exact layout is thus known. This absence of information, and the fact that Sima Qian did not bring more information in its Shiji in spite of the apparent width of the work astonished many historians, and if archaeological research made it possible to exhume portions of the wall, they bring extra informations little. However, although no historical source confirms it, it is usually allowed that Meng Tian started from nothing to undertake the construction of the wall and probably connected and restored portions of the walls of the old Kingdoms Combatants.

However in spite of the debates between historians and the absence of historical accounts, the Great wall built by the Qin dynasty remains in imaginary popular Chinese a colossal work, fruit of the forced labor of thousands of convicts, soldiers, workmen and peasants, vision in particular reinforced by the emperor Shi Huangdi who remained depicts like a cruel monarch. It is of this time that date the nickname of “wall of ten thousand Li ” (either 5760 km being given the value of Li at the time of the Qin dynasty). It has been also for this time that one speaks truly about “Great wall”.

Han dynasty

See also: Dynasty Han

In 210 av. J. - C., the emperor Shi Huangdi dies and the Qin dynasty which it had founded survives to him only a few years. In 202 av. J. - C., Liu Bang, a former soldier in the country beginnings is made main from China and proclaims emperor under the name of temple of Gaozu. Weakened by its preceding war of succession against Xiang Yu, Gaozu gives up the maintenance of the Great wall of Qin, and when Xiongnu, from now on plain in confederation, are shown threatening and cross the border, rather than to adopt an offensive position by the use of walls like had made Shi Huangdi, Gaozu tries to buy peace by tributes and “harmonious unions”, or heqin , i.e. the offer of Chinese princesses to the Shanyu of Xiongnu. During a few decades, its successors will make in the same way. However the Great wall is not completely abandoned: under the emperor Wendi (180 with 157 av. J. - C.) a minister recommends the creation of Tuntian to the borders (kinds of military agrarian colonies) protected by small walls with an aim of colonizing the area and of obstructing the incursions of Xiongnu.

It is mainly under the reign of the emperor Wudi, length of more than fifty years, that the construction of the Great wall takes a considerable rise. In 134 av. J. - C. the status quo between the Chinese and Xiongnu is broken after the Fiasco of Mayi. Contrary to its ancestors, Wudi decides to take a frankly offensive attitude against Xiongnu and launches in 129 av. J. - C. the first forwarding, followed by many others. Wudi makes restore and to connect portions of the wall of the Qin dynasty and then extends it to the fur to measurement of its campaigns through what will become the Silk route. In 119 av. J. - C., Xiongnu are pushed back through the Gobi Desert in Inner Mongolia, and a new section of the wall, long of almost 400 km there is built and draws up itself there still nowadays.

As for the wall of the Qin dynasty, the raw material depends then on the availabilities of the grounds while the layout and the site of the turns of guets, garrisons and passages are selected according to the natural strategic advantages offered by the configuration of the areas. The section built in the Gobi Desert is in particular remarkable for the use of stones present in local sands: by filtering sand, the workmen obtain gravel. The walls are then built by alternating the packed layers of gravel and reed, then were covered with clay in order to be at the same time protected from erosion and difficult to climb.

Forts are built beside the walls, even directly integrated into the walls and a system of smoke markers makes it possible to prevent of an attack xiongnu. In order to guarantee the speed of the arrival of the reinforcements, the army makes mainly use of light cavalry. The Great wall also crosses important trade route, allowing the control of the imports. Over approximately twenty years, Wudi will have prolonged the Great wall on nearly thousand kilometers. Towards 90 av. J. - C., the offensives xiongnu are done increasingly rare and lasting approximately a century and half the construction of the wall is seen slowed down.

In 9 after J. - C., the Han dynasty is eclipsed by transitory the Dynastie Xin before being restored in 23 by the emperor Geng Shidi. This one must face civil wars and when the emperor Guang Wudi goes up on the throne two years later, its army is weakened too much to contain Xiongnu effectively. It orders the construction of four new walls to slow down their projection and to protect the capital. Finally, towards 48, Xiongnu know internal dissensions and are divided into two groups: Xiongnu septentrional and Xiongnu Southerners. Xiongnu Southerners make plug between their counterparts of north and China shows itself relatively laid out to coexist with the latter what puts a hiatus at the construction of new walls.

Towards the end of the Han dynasty, the empire must face the many ones rebelled and civil wars, in particular the rebellion of the Yellow Turbans (184 - 205) and even if the lords of war of north like Yuan Shao or CAD CAD must occasionally face let us rebel of Xiongnu, the state of the empire forces more to concentrate on the internal conflicts. CAD CAD however manage to rejoin Xiongnu Southerners with him all while dividing them into five groups assembled the ones against the others and thus less inclined to rebel against him, decreasing by there largely the utility of the Great wall. Finally into 220, with died of CAD CAD, China is divided into Three Kingdoms separated by natural barriers and being made the war continuously, making the construction and the maintenance of great walls not very relevant. It is not before the end of the Dynastie Wei of North, about the 6th century which a new Great wall appears the project to build, however this project will never be put at execution, and of all the rival kingdoms of the time, only IQ builds walls.

Jin dynasty

Ming dynasty

Qing dynasty

Geography

The Great wall is located in China, in north. It leaves the border with the coast to the north of Beijing and goes until the Gobi Desert .

Structure

The Great wall is longest human construction in the world.

She traverses approximately: 6400 kilometers. Studies by satellite showed that many segments, an overall length of approximately: 1000 kilometers, were nowadays hidden under ground.

Its width varies between 5 and 7 meters on average and its height between 5 and 17 meters. It is punctuated turns of guet and bastions over all its length. It is impressive on the thousands of kilometers close to Beijing, the capital. It is reduced elsewhere and resembled imposing raised ground certain places.

Others

One lends to the Great wall the reputation to be the largest cemetery of the world. Approximately 10 million workmen died during work. They were not buried in the wall itself but in its immediate surroundings.
During the Cultural revolution, the rebels and the red Gardes was caught some with the monuments and the places of worship: several bricks of the Great wall of China were removed to build pigsties.
on July 7th, 2007, the wall was indicated like one of the Seven new wonders of the world by a nonofficial organization and related to commercial (NewOpenWorld Foundation).

In the video games

In the second episode of Tomb Raider, Lara Croft carries out a mission on the Great wall.

Gallery photographs

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