the great wall(wàn lǐ cháng chéng)

the Great Wall

The Great Wall, also known as the Great Wall, is a military fortification in ancient China. It is a tall, solid and continuous wall used to limit the action of the enemy. The Great Wall is not a simple isolated wall, but a defense system with the wall as the main body and a large number of cities, barriers, pavilions and landmarks.

The history of the construction of the great wall can be traced back to the Western Zhou Dynasty, from which the famous allusion "Fenghuo opera Princes" happened in the capital of hojing (now Xi'an, Shaanxi). During the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, the countries fought for hegemony and defended each other. The construction of the Great Wall entered the first climax, but the length of the construction was relatively short at this time. After Qin destroyed the six states and unified the world, Qin Shihuang connected and repaired the great wall of the Warring States period, which became known as the Great Wall. The Ming Dynasty was the last dynasty to overhaul the Great Wall. Most of the Great Wall people see today was built at this time.

The Great Wall resources are mainly distributed in Hebei, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Shandong, Henan, Qinghai, Ningxia, Xinjiang and other 15 provinces. The length of Hebei Province is more than 2000 kilometers, and that of Shaanxi Province is 1838 kilometers. According to the results of the national survey of the Great Wall resources by the Department of cultural relics and surveying and mapping, the total length of the Great Wall in the Ming Dynasty is 8851.8 kilometers, and that in the Qin and Han Dynasties and early periods is more than 10000 kilometers, with a total length of more than 21000 kilometers.

On March 4, 1961, the Great Wall was announced by the State Council as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units. In December 1987, the Great Wall was listed as a world cultural heritage.

The origin of the name

For more than two thousand years, the construction of the Great Wall in different periods in China has been basically recorded, but the names used in the construction and recording of the Great Wall in different dynasties are different. Some of these different names are common to each other in the same historical period, and some have only been used in a certain historical period or region. the Great Wall the name of the Great Wall began in the spring and Autumn period and Warring States period, which is the most common name of the Great Wall. According to historical records of Chu family, "King Xuan of Qi built the Great Wall on the mountains, reaching the sea in the East and Jeju in the west, more than 1000 Li to prepare for Chu." Fangcheng, known as Fangcheng, was only used in the state of Chu in the spring and Autumn period. "Han geography" contains: "Ye, Chu Ye Gongyi, there is the Great Wall, No. Fangcheng." The appellations of "Qian", "changqian", "Chengqian" and "Qiang Qian" are basically common to each other, and almost all of them were used from the Warring States period to the Ming Dynasty. In the historical records of Qin Dynasty, when the Great Wall was built along Luoshui in the sixth year of Qin bamboo slips (409 BC), only the word "grabbing Luo" was used. According to the biography of Qidan in northern history: "Qidan violated the fortress, and Emperor Wen went to Pingzhou (today's Lulong County in Hebei Province) in the north to discuss the long cutting in the West." There are many places where the word "fortress" is used in historical books. Generally speaking, it has two meanings: one is to express the pass. Some of these passes are above the Great Wall, while others are far away from it. Another meaning is to express the Great Wall. For example, according to the biography of Xiongnu in historical records, "in the Han Dynasty, Henan Province was taken as the site to build Shuofang, and Mengtian's fortress in the Qin Dynasty was restored, because the river was solid." According to the biography of Wuhuan in the book of the later Han Dynasty, "the Great Wall was built in the Qin Dynasty, and the wall was blocked in the Han Dynasty." Great wall plug, Great Wall Pavilion barrier and great wall barrier plug this is a form of expression that the Great Wall is called the great wall together with the plug. This kind of appellation is also very common in historical books, such as: Sima Qian's biography of Mengtian in historical records: "Xingguan Mengtian built the Great Wall Pavilion for Qin Dynasty." According to the biography of Tang bin in the book of Jin, "the old territory was opened up, but the land was thousands of miles away, and the great wall of Qin Dynasty was restored." Du you's "Tongdian" recorded in ancient Jizhou: "Miyun county northeast to the great wall barrier 100 li." Moat and boundary moat are a form of great wall architecture. They usually refer to the excavation of deep and wide trenches with several feet in depth where it is not easy to build walls, and the excavated soil is piled on one side of the trench. Their defense function is the same as that of building walls. JIEHAO is a special word for the Great Wall in Jin Dynasty. Except for Jin, JIEHAO is not used to call the Great Wall. The Great Wall is called Bian, mainly in Ming Dynasty. In ancient China, the regions between the Central Plains and the northeast, North China, northwest, southwest, etc., as well as the regions among the ethnic minorities, were called border areas. In the Ming Dynasty, the Great Wall to be built in this area was called border wall or wall. For example, in the biography of Qi Jiguang in the history of the Ming Dynasty: "the border wall of Ji Town stretches for two thousand li." "The history of the Ming Dynasty, military records" contains: "please repair Xuan, big wall more than a thousand miles."

Historical evolution

overview

The Great Wall is an ancient defense project with the longest construction time and the largest engineering quantity in China and the world. It has been continuously constructed for more than 2000 years since the Western Zhou Dynasty. It is distributed in the vast land of northern and central China, with a total length of more than 50000 kilometers. Since the first emperor of Qin Dynasty, almost all the dynasties that ruled the Central Plains had to build the Great Wall. The Great Wall was built in more than ten dynasties, including Han, Jin, Northern Wei, Eastern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Qi, Northern Zhou, Sui, Tang, song, Liao, Jin, yuan, Ming and Qing. From the perspective of the ruling nationalities who built the Great Wall, in addition to the Han nationality, many dynasties ruled by several nationalities also built the Great Wall, and more than those ruled by the Han nationality. During the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, although large-scale construction of the Great Wall was stopped, it was also built in some places later. It can be said that from the spring and Autumn period to the Qing Dynasty, the construction of the Great Wall has not stopped for more than 2000 years. according to historical documents, more than 20 vassal states and feudal dynasties have built the Great Wall. If you add up the Great Wall built in each era, it is more than 100000 Li. The length of the Great Wall built in the Qin, Han and Ming Dynasties is more than 10000 Li. there are traces of the ancient Great Wall and beacon towers in Xinjiang, Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Hebei, Beijing, Tianjin, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Henan, Shandong, Hubei, Hunan and other provinces, cities and autonomous regions.

Pre Qin Dynasty

The history of the construction of the great wall can be traced back to the Western Zhou Dynasty. In order to defend against the attack of the nomadic people in the north, the Zhou dynasty built a series of castles to defend themselves. In the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, in order to fight for hegemony and defend each other, countries built the Great Wall on the border according to their own defense needs. The earliest building was the "Chu Fangcheng" in the 7th century B.C., and then Qi, Han, Wei, Zhao, Yan, Qin, Zhongshan and other vassal states successively built the "Great Wall of mutual defense" to defend themselves. Among them, Qin, Zhao and Yan were adjacent to Xiongnu, a powerful nomadic people in the north. They built the great wall of mutual defense between the princes, and at the same time built the "Great Wall of rejecting Hu" in the north. After that, almost all the monarchs in the past dynasties strengthened and rebuilt it. At that time, the characteristics of the great wall were different in East, South, West and north directions, and its length was short, ranging from several hundred kilometers to 1000-2000 kilometers. In order to distinguish it from the Great Wall built by the first emperor of Qin Dynasty, historians call it "the Great Wall before Qin Dynasty". the pre Qin great wall can be roughly divided into the North Great Wall and the South Great Wall according to the defense objects. During the Warring States period, China was transformed from a slave society to a feudal society. The exchange and integration of Zhuxia culture with Qin, Chu, Wu and Yue cultures showed an increasingly strong trend of unification. At that time, Wei, Zhao, Han, Chu, Qi, Qin and Yan, who carried out feudal reform, were strong. After that, they carried out annexation war and sought to unify the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River by force. At the same time, the minorities in the north, especially the Huns, also became powerful and plundered the northern border of Qin, Zhao and Yan. Because they were good at riding and shooting, good at field operations, and took sudden attacks, they showed a strong combat effectiveness. Before the middle of the Warring States period, the fighting forces of Qin, Zhao and Yan were mainly infantry and chariots, and they were slow, so it was difficult to resist the attack and plunder of Xiongnu. This not only seriously threatened the lives and property of the people in the northern part of the three countries, seriously damaged the production, but also greatly affected the cause of the reunification of the three countries. In view of this passive situation, the three countries successively carried out the military system reform and built the Great Wall in the north. In the sixth year (332 BC) and the tenth year (328 BC) of King Huiwen of Qin Dynasty, the state of Qin defeated the state of Wei and seized weixihe county (now Luohe River Basin) and Shangjun county (now northeast Shaanxi). In the 13th year of King Huiwen of Qin Dynasty (325 BC), King Huiwen ordered Zhang Yi to build a county fortress to prevent Lin Hu and Lou from invading the south. Then he attacked Yiqu and made it submit. To King Zhao of Qin Dynasty, he destroyed Yiqu and set up Beidi county. The northern border of Qin state was connected with Xiongnu. In order to prevent the Huns from plundering to the south, King Zhao ordered to build the Great Wall on the northern border of Longxi, Beidi and Shangjun, and sent troops to garrison it. (2) in the 26th year of King Wuling of Zhao Dynasty (300 BC), Zhao state broke through Zhongshan, reaching Yan and Dai in the North (today's northwest of the mountain), and then extending to Yunzhong and Jiuyuan in the Northwest (today's Inner Mongolia Helingeer County to Wujiahe area). The Great Wall was ordered to be built from Yinshan (today's Daqingshan and Wulat mountains in Inner Mongolia) to Dahe (today's Wujia River in Inner Mongolia), and Daijun, Yanmen Jun and Yunzhong Jun were set up to prevent the Xiongnu from plundering southward. 3. The state of Yan is adjacent to Donghu in the north, often plundering the northern part of the state of Yan in the south. After he ascended the throne, King Yanzhao was angry and wanted general Qin Kai to lead his army to attack Donghu, but Donghu was more than a thousand li away. He also "went to Liaodong to attack Korea" and reached Sushui (today's Qingchuan River). After the stability of the rear area, the state of Yan also began to build the Great Wall, from Kangbao County in Hebei and Taipusi Banner in Inner Mongolia to Xiangping, and set up Shanggu, Yuyang, youbeiping, Liaoxi and Liaodong counties to resist Donghu. The South Great Wall is mainly represented by the states of Chu, Qi, Wei, Han and Zhongshan. Its main purpose is to resist the attacks of other vassal states. Great wall of Chu: the great wall of Chu was built 30 years ago,

Chinese PinYin : wàn lǐ cháng chéng