►Do you think that the Great Wall originated in the Qin Dynasty after Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms?
As we all know, the Great Wall was a very important defensive project in ancient times on the mainland. In China's long history and culture, the Great Wall represents the image of China.
We all think that the Great Wall originally originated in the Qin Dynasty after Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms, and Qin Shi Huang ordered the construction of the Great Wall in order to prevent the invasion of the Xiongnu Empire in the north.
Indeed, when the Xiongnu attacked the Central Plains, although the wall of the Great Wall was short, it would also block the way of the Xiongnu army, and the war horses would definitely not be able to cross the Great Wall, and the soldiers lost their war horses and could only rely on people to climb over the Great Wall with their bare hands, thus weakening the Xiongnu's combat effectiveness.
However, the construction of the Great Wall can be traced back to the Western Zhou Dynasty, hundreds of years before the Qin Dynasty. After Qin Shi Huang destroyed the Six Kingdoms and unified the world, he continued to build the Great Wall left over from the Warring States period.
Many of the projects of the Qin Dynasty were laborious and costly, which made the people complain, including the large-scale Afang Palace and the construction of the Great Wall, which was also a very huge project at that time.
Because Qin Shi Huang's construction of the Great Wall was a major event that caused a sensation in history, in the legend of the Great Wall, more and more people regard the Great Wall as originating in the period of Qin Shi Huang.
►The origin and development of the Great Wall spans thousands of years of Chinese history
The beacon tower of the Western Zhou Dynasty was located on the city wall and was used as an alarm signal station in the event of enemy invasion. At that time, more than 20 beacon towers were built in Hojing, which is the area of today's Xi'an.
In Haojing, there was a famous allusion to the historical "beacon play princes", and the king of Zhou You of Western Zhou had a concubine named Zhao Jiao, who encouraged King Zhou You to light the beacon tower to let the surrounding princes come to the rescue, and the princes were teased.
From then on, the princes no longer believed that King Zhou You lit the beacon tower for help, which eventually led to the demise of Western Zhou.
Later, in the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, the countries defended each other and built city walls one after another, slowly forming the shape of the early Great Wall. It's just that the names of each region are different in different periods, in fact, they all boil down to the current Great Wall.
For example, in the State of Chu, it is called "Fang City", and the "Geographical Record of Hanshu" records: "Ye, Chu Ye Gongyi, there is the Great Wall, the Fang City." "In the Ming Dynasty, it was also called "side", which means border wall.
The walls of the Warring States period existed independently of their respective countries, and the earliest and most famous Great Wall recorded was the Qi Great Wall built by the State of Qi, known as the "father of the Great Wall".
The largest project was carried out during the reign of Qin Shi Huang, who connected every section of the Great Wall left behind, and strengthened and perfected it to form a complete Great Wall.
After the Han, Three Kingdoms, Sui and Tang dynasties, the Great Wall has been constantly being built and extended, of which the Ming Dynasty is the dynasty that built the most Great Wall except the Qin Dynasty, and most of the Great Wall we see now is the Great Wall after renovation during the Ming Dynasty.
►As a world cultural heritage, the Great Wall is so low, can it prevent foreign invasion?
In 1987, the Great Wall was listed as a world cultural heritage, which shows its influence and status in world culture. Don't think that the Great Wall is just an isolated wall, the Great Wall is a defense system with the city wall as the main body.
This defense system is designed with various checkpoints on the strong and continuous long wall, which can block the war horses of foreign enemies from crossing over, especially for the nomads in the north, it is impossible to cross the Great Wall to graze sheep and pasture.
The Great Wall spanned 15 provinces and cities in the north of our country, with a total length of more than 20,000 kilometers, the recorded length of the Great Wall in the Ming Dynasty was more than 8,000 kilometers, and the length of the modification in the Qin and Han dynasties exceeded 10,000 kilometers, and it is now the longest distributed in Shaanxi Province and Hebei Province.
In Chinese civilization, the Great Wall is known as the greatest project in the history of human civilization. In our ordinary people's eyes, the Great Wall is magnificent, but not high enough, such a height can really defend against the enemy's attack, isn't it a little strange.
►The highest part of the Great Wall is only 5 meters, and the short part is less than 3 meters
After Qin Shi Huang unified the six kingdoms, he still kept fighting in the south and the north, obviously the foundation of the Qin Dynasty at that time was unstable, which also gave the northern Xiongnu an opportunity. Therefore, in order to stabilize his rule and prevent the invasion of the Xiongnu, Qin Shi Huang ordered the construction of the Great Wall.
Qin Shi Huang's construction of the Great Wall is quite magnificent, and it is true that the people have used a lot of manpower and material resources to have the influence of the "Great Wall" in history and the world today.
Qin Shi Huang may have also thought about building the Great Wall a little higher, but due to the technical conditions at that time, it could only be built to the highest place of 5 meters, and the shortest place was not even 3 meters, so it could only make up for the lack of construction length.
Imagine, the Xiongnu tribes at that time were all nomads, a large herd of war horses, cattle and sheep, no matter how much ability they had, they could not enter the Great Wall in batches, the Great Wall was continuous, and it was difficult to see the sewing needles, and it had to be said that the combat effectiveness was greatly weakened.
►As a huge defense system, the Great Wall played a strategic role in ancient times
It can be said that Qin Shi Huang built the Great Wall at that time for the Xiongnu in the north, because although the nomads of the northern steppe were extremely brave, they were also good at riding and shooting.
In this case, as long as it can block the threat of the steppe cavalry, it is the maximum defense. In the south, a wall a few meters high may not be able to resist the attack of the infantry, but against the cavalry, the wall can block the movement and resist the attack.
The Xiongnu soldiers in the steppe, losing their war horses was like losing their legs, and they could only turn back without attack. At this time, the Qin Dynasty relied on the population advantage and then pursued it with victory.
Being able to attack when encountering a strong enemy is the biggest defense. Therefore, the defensive function of the Great Wall is not because of the height of the wall, but because it has a prominent strategic role.
After the general Meng Tian repelled the Xiongnu, the Qin Dynasty continued to build the Great Wall, spanning the entire east-west border "from Lin Tao in the west to Liaodong in the east", with a total length of more than 10,000 li.
►Western scholars praised the wisdom of the ancient people on the mainland and called the scourge of the Great Wall flowing west
Barfield, a professor of anthropology at Boston University in the United States, said that nomads are going south to the Central Plains to plunder precisely because of the scarcity of land in the north.
Since the construction of the Great Wall by Qin Shi Huang, the invasion of the Xiongnu in the north has been repeatedly blocked, and as the nomadic tribes gradually expanded, the southward movement was not successful, and it was changed to the western invasion of West Asia and Europe.
So Barfield, in his book "Dangerous Frontiers: Nomadic Empires and China", concluded that "the Great Wall will bring disaster to the west". From another point of view, this is the strategic value of the Great Wall.
► The war between the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu, because the Great Wall served as a strategic stronghold, forcing the Xiongnu to move west
In the late Qin Shi Huang, the death of the anti-Xiongnu general Meng Tian, coupled with the harsh government of the imperial court, caused a four-way uprising, although the Qin Dynasty was overthrown, the Chu and Han sides quarreled over dominating the world, which also gave the Xiongnu the opportunity to make a comeback.
All forces are eager to dominate the world, and there is no spare power to defend the border. At this time, the Great Wall became unimportant to the Xiongnu. If a wall several meters high could really prevent the Xiongnu from climbing over the Great Wall, it was impossible.
Earlier, we talked about the use of the Great Wall in the time of Qin Shi Huang, focusing on the strategic layout, attack and defense are carried out at the same time, once the Great Wall loses the army garrison, the Xiongnu do not climb the wall and cross the goods, resulting in the people in the northern region living in poverty.
In the Western Han Dynasty, starting from the ancestor Liu Bang of the Han Dynasty, he always attached great importance to the invasion of the Xiongnu, until the time of Emperor Wudi of Han, Wei Qing, Huo Qubing and other generals relied on the advantages of the Great Wall and used the Great Wall of Qin as a stronghold to defeat the Xiongnu again.
In the long-term war between the two sides, the Great Wall, as a strategic stronghold, played a huge role in the defensive and offensive ends, and the Han Dynasty army was able to continuously march into the south and north of the desert, and even almost destroyed the entire Xiongnu clan.
Because of the Great Wall, it ensured the defense and attack of the Han Dynasty army, and beat the Xiongnu to surrender. This made the Huns unable to retreat in defeat, and finally changed direction and moved the war of aggression to the west.
Although Professor Barfield's rhetoric is a bit far-fetched, the reason why Qin Shi Huang built the Great Wall caused disaster to the west was not only the Han Dynasty, but also Genghis Khan's Mongol Empire war disaster extended to Eurasia.
►As for the great disaster caused to Europe, it has nothing to do with the Great Wall
The best way for steppe nomads to plunder was to attack the rich Central Plains. Because the Great Wall made the Xiongnu fearful, unable to achieve their desire to attack the Central Plains to seize supplies, they had to attack west, as far as Europe.
The Xiongnu nomads like to migrate and live, even if the Great Wall cannot prevent them from invading the Central Plains, they will also attack to the west, just as the rise of the Turkic Empire later, Genghis Khan swept across Eurasia, including the Central Plains, that is, the later Yuan Dynasty.
After losing the battle with the Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu marched to the Western Regions, subduing almost the entire Central Asian region, and the countries of the Western Regions were also forced to pay tribute to the Xiongnu.
This good situation did not last long, and soon the Xiongnu suffered a military defeat, and the Xiongnu Empire that attacked to the west fell apart, until the medieval period, the Turkic Empire claimed to be the master of the world, and once again opened the road to western invasion.
In the 13th century, with the fall of the Song Dynasty, the Great Wall also lost its effect on the Xiongnu, and the Mongol Empire launched a simultaneous attack from north to south, eventually sweeping across Eurasia and establishing the Yuan Dynasty.
►The West believes that the Great Wall of Qin Shi Huang has miserably killed Europeans, but the Great Wall has played a more useful role in historical changes
Genghis Khan's attack to the West, which dealt a huge blow to Europe, almost allowed the nomads to unify the two continental plates of Europe and Asia, so Western scholars attributed the root cause to the existence of the Great Wall.
Because of the existence of the Great Wall, it prevented nomads from invading the Central Plains. The transition to the West gave birth to the nomadic empire, which became the connecting line between Eastern and Western civilizations, and throughout history, the real connection between the whole world began when the Mongol Empire conquered the West.
In the Ming Dynasty, it spent a lot of money to build the Great Wall, in addition to defending against the invasion of the Mongols and Jurchens in the north, but also as a defensive measure for the economic blockade of Houjin. To a certain extent, using the Great Wall as a blockade line protects the country's economic security.
This is economic sanctions, which achieve the effect of "surrendering without a fight". After the retreat, prices soared in eastern Liaoning, national strength weakened, and the nomads in the north were economically depressed, unable to wage wars of aggression.
The Qing Dynasty also built many Great Walls, and set up checkpoints and customs around the Great Wall, strengthening control in border areas and effectively curbing the development of illegal trade and smuggling activities.
The Great Wall during the Qing Dynasty continued the blockade function of the Ming Dynasty, and has changed from resisting foreign enemy aggression to preventing and controlling internal uprisings, and has always maintained a strategic position of Anbang and Dingguo.
The Great Wall built by the Qing Dynasty was crude, but it was also an integral part of the Great Wall of China. Although not as spectacular as the Great Wall of Qin or the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty, it is still regarded as an important cultural heritage in Chinese history.
It can be seen that the core function of the construction of the Great Wall by various dynasties and generations in history is to resist foreign invasions. In addition to providing military defense, it also protects the economy and trade of the Central Plains through blockade and control economically.
The Great Wall shows the wisdom and courage of the ancient Chinese and symbolizes the indomitable national spirit of the Chinese nation. Long Journey is like a giant dragon, hovering on the land of China, after thousands of years, unstoppable.