South Great Wall

The great wall of South China

synonym

The South Great Wall generally refers to the South Great Wall of China

The South Great Wall, also known as the Miao border wall, is a military defense project in ancient China. In the 33rd year of Jiajing (1554) of the Ming Dynasty, a side wall of 70 Li was built. In the 43rd year of Wanli (1615), a side wall of more than 300 Li was built from wanghuiying to Zhenxi. In the third year of Tianqi (1622), a wall of more than 60 Li was built from Zhenxi to xiqueying. Miao border wall is more than 430 Li long. In the second year of Jiaqing (1797), 190 li of the side wall of Zhengan town was rebuilt. In 1936, the "reform movement" was launched in the Miao area, and the Hunan provincial government "abandoned the villages and promoted them to science", ending the "Miao defense and garrison administration" system in Western Hunan for more than 140 years. The sidewall system was abandoned.

The great wall of the south is one of the great ancient buildings in Chinese history. This section of the Great Wall is the product of the Ming and Qing Dynasties' pacification of the Miao people in the south. It contains the political, economic, military and cultural phenomena of that era, and constructs the spiritual essence of the governing method of that era. It is a fresh historical material for the study of the Ming and Qing Dynasties' conquest and rule of the remote minorities.

history

The southern Great Wall is also known as the Miao border wall. In order to consolidate their rule, the rulers of Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty suppressed the southern minorities, mainly the Miao nationality. In order to continue to rule, continue to suppress, came up with this wall garrison, divide the rule of poison. The Miao area in Western Hunan should be separated from the north and the south. This is a pass composed of flood control fort, watchtower, TUNKA, sentry post, battery, gate and gate box, so as to isolate and conquer the Miao people.

The great wall of the South was first built in 1554 and completed in 1622. It starts from tingziguan at the junction of Tongren in the South and ends at the magpie camp in Jishou in the north. The total length of the Great Wall is 382 Li. It is one of the great ancient buildings in Chinese history.

About 3000 years ago, the ancestors of Miao nationality lived in the "Jingchu" area in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. After the Tang and Song Dynasties, they gradually traced back from Dongting Lake to Jiangxi Province and reached western Hunan and eastern Guizhou, which are historically called "five streams". Because of the center of laer mountain, they are also called "laer mountain Miao". They lived close to the Han people. Most of the Miao people lived in deep mountains and wild forests. The Han people lived along the river and the plain where the river flowed. Folk Ballad: "the government occupies the city, the Han occupies the Ping, and the Miao family banishes them in the bantianyun." The continuous westward migration of Miao people and the continuous westward migration of Han people were carried out at the same time. The area of Fenghuang in Western Hunan became the border of Miao and Han culture.

In this area, the "living Miao" area and the "ripe Miao" area gradually formed. "Living Miao" refers to the Miao people who have not been "educated", the fields are not included in the taxes, and the people are not in the corvee; "ripe Miao" refers to the Miao people who are forced to accept the Sinicization, join the nationality, and have national registered permanent residence.

find

In late April 2000, in order to prepare to declare Phoenix as a national historical and cultural city, the Party committee and government of Fenghuang County specially invited more than 10 people, including Zhao Jinghui, an expert on ancient architecture from the Ministry of construction of China, Luo Zhewen, an expert group leader on ancient architecture from the State Administration of cultural relics, and vice president of the Great Wall society, to visit Fenghuang ancient city comprehensively. At that time, when the local entourage introduced the "Miao border wall", Luo Zhewen, who had been looking for the southern Great Wall for 50 years, was very interested in it, and climbed up the wall for specific investigation and research. At the end of April, experts concluded that the wall was the great wall of the south.

Luo Zhewen said that he has been engaged in the study of the Great Wall for 50 years. In the past, historians only knew that there was a great wall in the south of China from the records of historical documents, but many people had no evidence of its objective existence. In his opinion, there is no dispute that the great wall of Miao is an integral part of the great wall of China, and it should be included in the list of world cultural heritage like the great wall of the North - he further pointed out that it is only a matter of administrative procedures.

According to Professor Luo Zhewen, the Ming Great Wall in the north is also called the side wall, and the side walls of each military defense area have their own advantages and disadvantages. The "Chang town" in Beijing, which defends the Ming Tombs, is more than 200 kilometers long, which is similar to the side wall of "Zhengan town" (today's Fenghuang County) in Hunan Province. The Great Wall in Western Hunan not only has the same defense system as the Ming Great Wall in the north, but also has the same military structure and military system. Therefore, the Great Wall should be a part of the great wall of China.

characteristic

The wall is about 3 meters high, 2 meters wide at the bottom, and 1 meter wide at the top. Most of the walls are built on steep ridges. The wall of Fucheng is 3 km long, 5 m high and 2.8 m wide. Along the north side of the wall, there are 76 British crenels with the same spacing. Each crenels is 0.7 m square and 2 m wide for human use. There is a square fort in the middle of the city wall. The highest point of the wall is 50 meters southwest of the fort. At 688 meters above sea level, there is a soldier's garrison command fort, 9 meters long from east to west and 3 meters wide from north to south, covering an area of 27 square meters. The footstones are all made of long thin chiseled bluestones, and the middle of each side has rectangular steps into the castle. The wall is made of square bluestone and the setting material is glutinous rice lime mortar. After more than 600 years of wind and rain erosion, the exposed part of the stone surface is all bluish black, different from the stone quality around the city wall. According to the research of experts, all the stone materials used for building the city wall were collected from the foot of the mountain, chiseled into stone, and then transported up the mountain one by one. The scale of the whole project is amazing.

scale

There are more than 1300 fortresses, Diaolou, TUNKA, sentry posts, battery and gate gates in the South Great Wall for garrison and defense. There are more than 800 in Fenghuang County alone. At that time, the number of garrisons was generally about 4000-5000, and at the most, it was about 7000. The wall is about 3 meters high, 2 meters wide at the bottom, and 1 meter wide at the top. Most of the walls are built on steep ridges. As a result, local place names are mostly named after fort, sentry post, card, Fort, blockhouse, pass and camp, such as tingzi pass, WuChao pass, alaguan pass, Jingbian pass, etc.

According to Yang Zhiyong, a cadre of the Propaganda Department of Fenghuang county Party committee, when he was a child, liaojiaqiao town had side walls and three gates in the East, West and south. Houses, reservoirs and canals were built from local materials and almost demolished in the 1980s. The same is true in other places, so the South Great Wall is mostly incomplete.

There are still 1 city (Fenghuang ancient city) as the command center of the whole military defense system (chief yamen), 2 ancient city sites (Qianzhou ancient city and Jiwei ancient city) as the sub command center, 10 ancient castles, 130 Tunpu, 47 blockhouses, 311 sentry posts, 4 Guanmen posts and 4 Yingpan villages, and 85 remnant earth rock side walls, totaling 13185 meters.

Xun fort, also known as the castle, 10, mostly located in important checkpoints, military fortresses, plays an important role in connecting the various Tunpu, coordinate military command. Generally, there are yamen, gunpowder Bureau and other organizations in the city. In the capital division, the general manager, outsourcing and other official positions. Take huangsiqiao as an example: the ancient castle of huangsiqiao is located 25 kilometers southwest of Zhengan City, at the border of Hunan and Guizhou, and is the throat of Hunan Guizhou corridor. During the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty, after the chief of Zhengan was stationed in wuzhaisi, the ancient city was called Fenghuang camp, and it was called huangsiqiao ancient city in the second year of the Republic of China.

The 130 fortresses in Tunpu refer to the fortresses specially built for the garrison of soldiers. Tunpu, also known as TUNKA, is smaller than Xunbao. Tunpu is built on the high ground of important mountain and pass. Its shape varies from mountain to mountain, including round shape, outer coffin shape, square shape and irregular shape. Its scale varies with its function, but its function of transmitting information is the same. The fortress is surrounded by stone walls, with 2-4 gates. The main street in the fortress is divided into 2 entrances and 3 entrances. The connected earth and stone structure buildings are built on the stone walls, which greatly increases the height of the peripheral defense. The three or even four storey closed "baojialou" is set up on demand, and some of them are also equipped with artillery. The whole ancient fortress is like an indestructible fortress. For example, linzhai, which is introduced by local people, is a fortress for storing grain in ancient times. The inscription on an ancient well in the east gate of the fortress records that " The eight immortals well in our forest village was created and built in the Wanli period of Ming Dynasty. It can be seen from this that the construction age of the ancient castle, the function of the internal facilities at that time, and the degree of its firmness have been preserved to this day.

There are 311 sentry posts, which are built on the spot with cyan limestone. The shape varies according to the mountain situation. Most of them are round, with one or two doors. The area is generally between 300-5000 square meters, and 20-70 military and civilian households are stationed according to their size. They are all located at important points and must be equipped with fort. In addition to transmitting information, the function of the lookout or gunhole on the surrounding walls is mainly to intercept foreign enemies, to coordinate the encirclement and reinforcement.

There are 770 blockhouses, which are specially used for defense and attack. According to the construction standard, it is generally divided into upper, middle and lower layers. The wall is made of stone. The sentry post is a watchtower specially used for patrol and lookout. Each block is divided into upper and lower floors. A total of 105 sentries have been set up in Miao District, and 85 in Fenghuang. A turret is a turret for large guns. For example, at the juncture of ganziping and Qianzhou, there are one, two and three battery, the outer ring of which is built with bluestone, and the inner one is rammed with clay.

The 311 post is a place for patrolling and looking out. It has a wide field of vision and is mostly built on the high platform near the wall.

The 39 block gate is a facility for strictly guarding the boundary of the side wall. It was built along the mountain and Lijian in the dangerous and important area. In the territory of Phoenix, the famous gates are tingzi pass, Jingjing pass, Tongluo pass, baomu pass and Jingbian pass

Chinese PinYin : Nan Zhang Cheng