History of the Great Wall of China

Introduction

I foremost went to China last twelvemonth to analyze for a semester.The feeling I had when I arrived at that place, was something that can non be explained in words.I felt frightened because I was so little in such a large city.Day by twenty-four hours, I started to experience much more comfy, to go more familiar with the topographic points, the people and even with Chinese food.Back so, I did non recognize what this experience would intend to me. After analyzing a semester in a metropolis near Shanghai, I decided to travel to see Beijing, the great capital of China. There, I had the chance to see the Great Wall and I was impressed by its enormousness, hence my ground for taking this subject for my concluding paper.

Known as the ``7th admiration of the universe`` , the Great Wall, which stretches for over Chinese district of more than 7000 kilometres, is the largest edifice of the ancient military defence and it took longer to construct. This colossal wall began to lift in the ninth century. The people who dominated the cardinal fields, for illustration, the center and lower basin of the Yellow River, decided to support themselves from the onslaughts of the northern small town with a wall that joined the walls, the beacons and palaces located along the boundary line and from which they could watch the motions of the enemy. In the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States, between 700 and 221 BC, the feudal Godheads lived locked in eternal wars to accomplish hegemony. The most powerful Godheads defended each other with walls that rose landforms advantage of boundary line countries. After 221 BC, when Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty unified China, the bing walls were linked. The formidable defensive barrier therefore formed, traversing the mountains of the northern boundary line, served to drive the onslaughts of the mobile cultural groups mounted on horseback, from the Mongolian steppes. At that clip, the length of the Great Wall was good over 5000 stat mis. The Han Dynasty, replacement to the Qin, was lengthened to more than 10 1000 kilometres. Over the following 2000 old ages, the entire length of the different subdivisions of the Great Wall reached more than 50 1000 kilometres, plenty to circle the Earth length.

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Today when we talk about the Great Wall, we frequently refer to the constructed during the Ming Dynasty ( 1368-1644 ) .It starts at the Jiayu Pass in western Gansu Province, through 9 states, municipalities and independent parts, and ends on the Bankss of Yalu River in the northeasterly state of Liaoning. Its length is 7,300 kilometres, or 14 thousand Li, hence besides known as the Great Wall of 10,000 Li.

The wall, built with immense bricks, masonry, crushed rock and loess, has a tallness of about 10 metres. The breadth of the top between 4 and 5 metres, leting the coincident measure 4 equestrians and therefore facilitated the motion of combat units such as the conveyance of grain and arms. Inside the walls were stepss and corridors taking to the doors. The wall was punctuated by towers that were used to hive away arms and cereal for the remainder of the soldiers and as a safety in clip of war. It is besides used as beacons to warn of the presence of enemy fire or fume signals.

Of class, today the Great Wall no longer meets any military map. But its arresting architecture has won and continues to win the bosom of many people.

The beauty of the Great Wall is manifested in its stateliness, its strength, its illustriousness and its naturalness.

Seen from a distance, the high wall extends along the ridges of mountain ranges clearly following the silhouette of a elephantine winging firedrake, shut up position, the powerful entreaty of your fabulous study, formed by enforcing stairss, walls that appear to travel in sensed zigzag and steep ups and platforms.In one word, a comeliness.

To the historical and cultural value of the Great Wall we can add besides the touristry value. The Chinese frequently say: ``He who has non climbed the Great Wall is non a existent individual. '' Tourists, whether Chinese or aliens, are proud to hold gone to the Great Wall. The many caputs of province and authorities who have visited China are no exclusion. Several well-preserved subdivisions have become points of tourer involvement, which every twelvemonth attracts 1000s of visitants. Among the best known include Badaling Pass, Platform Shimatai, Mutianyu, Shanhaiguan Pass, besides known as First Measure of China, and Jiayuguan Pass, the western terminal of the Great Wall.

The Great Wall of China is an internationally recognizable icon and is a permeant metaphor used to specify modern China’s national character, political attitude. Is a set of monumental semisynthetic constructions that has stood the trial of clip, much like the centuries’ old Chinese civilization. It has besides come to incarnate the rich history of the Chinese people, declarative mood of their strength and ability as a state. This Wall has come to stand for quintessential Chinese attributes in modern-day society and it is cardinal to how China defines itself. However, there is no individual ‘Great Wall’ . It is a set of walls, as I said before, built periodically over 1000s of old ages by different dynasties for changing intents.

The Great Wall, crystallisation of wisdom, difficult work, blood and perspiration of 1000000s of workers in ancient China, has worthily survived over a thousand old ages of vicissitudes. Her ageless Martial and timeless entreaty have become a symbol of the spirit of the Chinese state. Since 1987, the Great Wall is considered a universe heritage.

Chapter one

The history of The Great Wall

Year of building

The history of the Great Wall began in 221 BC during the Qin dynasty when were foremost built 5,000 stat mis in two phases from four to six old ages ( 214-210 B.C ) . During the 2nd phase, the wall was built along the Yellow and the Tao River, at the same time being built 44 metropoliss and established 44 administrative units.The population brought in these metropoliss had provided the care and the enlargement of the wall.During the Han Dynasty, its length reached 10,000 kilometers.Only few subdivisions of the impressive building of Han Dynasty had been kept until today.The new subdivision of the Great Wall dates from the Ming Dynasty, and in 270 old ages, the emperors opened 50 topographic points in which people had the chance to work.The wall, during the Ming Dynasty, crossed nine states and independent parts by mensurating 8851.8 kilometer and holding the best proficient and military qualities. From the full length over 6,000 stat mis were built by Ming emperor’s people.

Types of wall building

To construct, , the 7th admiration of the world’’ , the Chinese have used five types of wall building.

The first 1 was rammed Earth, an old building technique, used in the loess tableland from Datong to Jiayuguan and in Inner Mongolia. In kernel, the rammed Earth was prevailing.Other types used were adobe, rock, brick and drop.

It is said that a fifth of China 's population at some point participated in its building. It is besides said that the Great Wall of China is the largest graveyard in the universe, because during its building more than 10 million workers died and were buried at that place. If were taken all the bricks that were used to construct the Great Wall of China during the Ming Dynasty, the Chinese could construct a high wall that can give five bends to Earth.

The chief trouble was that, to accomplish a strategic advantage, they had to took advantage of the terrain ( bring forthing accidents ) , and in the tops of the mountains were localized munitions that could keep a good surveillance of the land, and at that place was where soldiers lived and where they had commissariats and armaments.

The stuffs they used were different and depended on what could be used in each country they built. The Qin and Han was built chiefly with dirt, clay, reeds, wood and rocks. The Ming, 15 centuries subsequently, used clay bricks and carven rocks. In some subdivisions of the Wall, to attest the quality of the bricks, each maker imprinted his seal on them, and the day of the month of bringing. Rock pavers were cut and shipped from distant preies, some of them came to weigh a ton and were up to 3 metres.

The Ming built in two phases: foremost raised two walls and so the infinite between them was filled. The base was wider than the top. Then were built garrisons and crenelations where guns were placed. To forestall eroding by rain, a whole drainage system was devised.

The boring work, the hapless diet, the whether, and the enemies that continually kept coming, affected the workers. It is estimated that Ming took advantage of 100 workers.

The nomads attacked and broke the defences in many parts of the Wall, but he had already fulfilled the undertaking of directing the dismay to the topographic point where the ground forces was placed.

They had a system of fume signals in detailing the onslaught and how many enemies were destroyed. Later, the Ming, in add-on to smoke signals, had used a codification for guns to give the dismay.

The wall has a tallness between seven and 10 metres. Its base steps about seven metres and six upper manus. The floors were paved utilizing a mixture of rock and howitzer, supported by tree short pantss rollers arranged in several beds. At regular intervals terraced towers were built and this thing allowed the guards made aˆ‹aˆ‹ optical signals which offered them a great communicating that stretched for stat mis. A wall is interrupted at some points so they can hold defence points, to which the soldiers could withdraw if necessary. Each tower has alone and hard stepss to entree in order to confound the enemy.

The barracks and administrative centres were located at greater distances. In add-on to its defensive map, the Great Wall played an instrumental function as a mean of communicating and commercialism opening the doors of China to the Western universe.The celebrated `` Silk Road `` passed trough China, and merchandisers from the Persian Gulf and the Eastern Mediterranean who traveled to the E could non make their finishs without traveling through the wall.

The stuffs used are those available around the edifice. Near Beijing was used limestone and was besides used granite or fired brick.That made the wall really immune to impacts of siege arms.

Defense

The Great Wall is non merely a wall, but a defense mechanism system that integrated assorted walls, watchtowers and towers of fire for describing under the control of military degrees defined. For illustration, under the Ming, there were nine subdivisions of different military duties that are described as, ,Nine critical defense mechanisms in the borders’’ . It was assigned a commanding officer, describing straight to the National Ministry of Defence. About one million military personnels were deployed along the Great Wall to continue the state. During 2,000 old ages of building of the wall, the Chinese people learned a batch about defense mechanisms ( harmonisation with the topography and location of military forces, edifice stuffs, etc. ) The format of the walls varied depending on the topography and defense mechanism demands. In the strategic transitions, the walls were really high and solid, although they were low and narrow in high and steep mountains to cut down the costs in money and labour. In some topographic points like Juyongguan or the Badaling subdivision, general regulation, the walls have seven to eight metres in tallness, four to five metres thick at the top and six to seven meters down. Inside the upper portion, there is a parapet of a meter barrier which prevented the soldiers fall, niches two meters high, every bit good as holes for pull or throw stones. In the strategic subdivisions, the upper portion is blocked by a series of cross walls to forestall the enemy to mount. During the dynasty of the Ming, General Qi Jiguang, celebrated for get the better ofing Nipponese plagiarists, improved the defence of the wall system, by adding towers, watchtower and the warehouses for arms and weaponry. Base on ballss are defensive strategic points throughout the wall.Fire coverage towers constituted one of the indispensable constituents of the defence system and an effectual agencies of conveying military information. During the Ming, sounds of detonation were added to heighten the consequence. As a defense mechanism system, the Great Wall crosses mountains, comeuppances and prairies, drops and rivers and harmonizes its construction to the complexness of the topography. It is a wonder of ancient architecture.

The wall remained standing, so, for a long clip. Under the great Han dynasty became a great topographic point for the conflicts against the Huns, China utilizing projectiles countless ground forcess. During the following dynasty, the Chinese generals seized the immense wall as a base from which to come on in Hun Mongol heartland in Central Asia. That was the great migration of Germanic peoples. The building whose being had produced such effects spread over continents, merely partly protected China, and from its diminution in the 13th century was less protected.

When in 1368 succumbed the Mongol dynasty in China under force per unit area from the Chinese reserves and riders steppe retreated to Central Asia, one of the first tasks the new Ming dynasty ( 1348-1644 ) aimed strictly Chinese, was the Reconstruction of the enforcing wall.

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