A classic representative of the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty
The main line of the inner Great Wall built in the Ming Dynasty enters the territory of Yanqing from Huairou West Shuiyu, turns west and southwest to the top of Longquanyu West Mountain in Dazhuang Kexiang, reappears in the "Chuanzi No. 1 Building" of the Shuiguan Great Wall after a period of blank, turns northwest through the Shuiguan Great Wall, Hongyeling to the north eighth floor of Badaling Scenic Area, and then turns southwest through the Badaling Unopened Great Wall, Badaling Ancient Great Wall to the highest point of the Yanqing Great Wall, Qingshuiding, and then continues southwest to Huajiayaozi and Shixia Pass, from Shixia Pass to the south and then southeast into the territory of Huailai County, Hebei Province. The main sections from east to west are: Longquanyu Great Wall, Shuiguan Great Wall, Hongyeling Great Wall, Badaling Scenic Area Great Wall, Badaling Unopened Great Wall, Badaling Ancient Great Wall, Huajiayaozi Great Wall, Shixia Guan Great Wall. The main line of the Great Wall enters Yanqing from Sihaiye and then goes northwest through Heihanling, Thursdaygou, Shangxiahualou, and Baihebao Reservoir (this section of the Great Wall is also known as the East Road Bian Wall) before entering the territory of Chicheng County, Hebei Province. In addition to the main line Great Wall, there are also many branch Great Walls in Yanqing, such as Nanshan Roadside Wall, Nanshan Liandun, and Xipuzi Great Wall, as well as two sections of the Northern Qi Great Wall remains.
Yanqing Great Wall passes through more than 130 administrative villages in 9 townships including Dazhuangke Township, Liu Binbao Township, Xiangying Township, Sihai Town, Yongning Town, Jingzhuang Town, Dayushu Town, Badaling Town, Kangzhuang Town, etc., and the existing wall length is 179.1 kilometers, including 28.2 kilometers of rammed earth Great Wall, 103.7 kilometers of stone Great Wall, 26.6 kilometers of brick and stone Great Wall, 473 enemy platforms, 86 beacon towers, 42 Guanbao and 21 ruins.
Longquanyu Great Wall snowscape
The Great Wall of Yanqing was basically built along the ridge of the Jundu Mountain Range, either cutting mountains to set up dangers, or building cities and walls, seizing the commanding heights of Xiongguan Pass upwards and guarding the throat of Guanshan Gorge downward. Compared with the Miyun and Huairou Great Walls, the Yanqing Great Wall has its own distinctive characteristics in addition to the common characteristics of tall and strong buildings and dense enemy buildings:
First, artificial walls are the most coherent. The main line of the Great Wall of the Ming in Yanqing District, except for the Longquanyu section and the unopened section of Badaling, has a low stone wall, a ballast side wall or a dangerous mountain wall, and the rest of the entire line is a masonry structure, the wall is continuously tall and strong, majestic, the building specifications and quality are very high, and it belongs to the first-class side wall in the Ming Dynasty. The Badaling scenic area was later artificially rebuilt, although it is not its original appearance, but it concentrates almost all the most important features of the Ming Great Wall, which can be called the classic representative of the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty. However, what has long puzzled people is that in such a region where the Ming Dynasty strictly guarded against the construction of the Great Wall at all costs, there was no trace of the construction of the Great Wall in a straight-line distance of about 20 kilometers from the top of Longquanyu West Mountain in Dazhuang Kexiang to the west to the "Chuanzi No. 1 Building" of the Shuiguan Great Wall. According to research, the Great Wall was indeed not built here in the Ming Dynasty, and the reason was that it was too close to the imperial tomb to build the Great Wall so as not to break the dragon vein. The "Ming Shi Record" recorded: "In September of the second year of the Apocalypse (1622), Xin Ugly, patrolled the imperial history of Liang Zhidong, Chen Chang, and Baojiang: Exit the pass, climb Badaling, and refuse to go down by virtue of height, the danger is in me, and I can keep it." A few hundred steps over the ridge is the fork in the road, which belongs to Xuanfu. East to the top of the Kawakasa flower (that is, the top of the mountain where the 'Sichuanzi No. 1 Building' is located), that is, the ancestral mountain of the tomb. Those who do not build border walls are ninety miles..."From the top of Longquanyu West Mountain to the "Chuanzi No. 1 Building" of the Shuiguan Great Wall, it is therefore listed as a forbidden mountain, "the mountain is an important place, and if you want to build wall piers to consolidate and seal, and the atmosphere is closed, it is not cheap, it is advisable to guard inside and outside, and plant more trees to nourish and protect." The defensive gap left here was later made up for by the Ming Dynasty by building the Nanshan Roadside Wall from the fork city to the Sihai Ye Jiuyanlou, because the distance from the imperial tomb here was already "beyond the nine knots, without harming the dragon vein, but it can be built". So, what is the problem with the difference between the 90 li mentioned by Liang Zhidong and the actual straight-line distance of 20 km? According to actual measurements, if the Great Wall is built from the top of the West Mountain to the "Sichuanzi No. 1 Building", its length should be 45 kilometers, which is what Liang Zhidong called "90 li".
The first enemy building at the easternmost end of the Shuiguan Great Wall, the "Chuanzi No. 1 Building" located on the mountainside of Chuancaohuading
Second, the Great Wall is the most abundant. Although the total length of the Yanqing Great Wall is not as long as that of Miyun, it is the most complete in the districts and counties around Beijing, in addition to the Great Wall of Brick, Stone Great Wall, and Ballasted Great Wall, there are rammed earth Great Wall and splitting mountain Great Wall that are not found in other districts and counties around Beijing, of which the remains of the rammed earth Great Wall are nearly 30 kilometers long, which is very rare around Beijing. In Xiaozhangjiakou Village, located on the side of Nanshan Road, because it is close to Badaling North and Fork City, it is strategically important, and around a small village, successive dynasties have built four types of Great Walls, including brick, stone, rammed earth and splitting mountains, which can be called the open-air "Great Wall Museum".
The remains of the Rammed Earth Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty pass through Xiaozhangjiakou Village
There are two sections of the Great Wall of Northern Qi currently confirmed by archaeology in Yanqing: one is located near Shixia Village, and connects to the Great Wall of the inner Great Wall, the main line of the inner Great Wall, from south to north; A section is located in the north of Jieji Shi Village, Dazhuang Kexiang, almost parallel to the Great Wall of the main line of the inner Great Wall, and extends south from Jiezi Shi Village to Dalinggou, Changping District and then to Badaling. But in fact, Yanqing is likely to have the earliest Great Wall of Beijing, the Great Wall of Yan and Qin. Although current archaeological results do not support this conclusion, the "Shiji" once recorded that the Great Wall of Yan traveled east from Huailai, Hebei Province through Shanggu to Liaodong. If so, southwest Yanqing should be the only way to go. After the Qin Dynasty unified the six kingdoms, it connected the Great Wall of Qin, Zhao and Yan, and built the Great Wall of Wanli from Liaodong Jieshi in the east to Lintao in the west, so it is likely that the Great Wall of Qin will also pass through Yanqing. Now, the western starting point of the Yan Great Wall has been found in the territory of Huailai, Hebei, and whether there are relics of the Yan Great Wall in Yanqing needs to continue to be investigated.
To be continued
Source: National Journal of Humanistic History
Text/Photo: Wang Songshao
Editor: Feng Yuxin