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When people think of the Great Wall, the first thing that comes to mind is the towering city wall standing above the mountains.
It is meandering and continuous, and is one of the "Eight Wonders of the World".
But in fact, the ancient Great Wall was not as connected in the north of the motherland as it is today.
More than 2,000 years ago, the Great Wall built by the vassal states was basically independent, and the materials and heights were not uniform.
After several dynastic changes, the Great Wall became longer and more standardized.
It is precisely for this reason that some American scholars say that the Great Wall of China has brought endless disasters to Europe.
Why is this happening?
The inevitability of the construction of the Great Wall by agrarian civilization
The Great Wall before the Qin Dynasty, known as the "Pre-Qin Great Wall", can be traced back to the Western Zhou Dynasty in the 9th century BC.
At that time, the Western Zhou Dynasty was still in its heyday, and although the vassal states had not yet made any moves, the "Xuanli" tribe (that is, the later Xiongnu) in the north would come to harass them from time to time.
“靡室靡家，玁狁之故。 不遑启居，玁狁之故。 ”
The "Book of Songs: Cai Wei" in the primary school text tells the story of the soldiers of the Zhou Dynasty who left their hometowns and fought against this northern foreign race.
In order to stop them from repeatedly harassing the Zhou border, the king of Zhou ordered the construction of a continuous array of castles on the border, Leh, as a fortification.
This was the prototype of the Great Wall.
Later, when Zhou Tianzi declined and the vassal states rose, there were constant disputes between them, and they also competed to build the Great Wall on their borders.
In the Warring States Period, the large and small vassal states of Qi, Chu, Qin, and Yan began to build the Great Wall for self-defense.
As a result, on the land north of the Yangtze River, discontinuous city walls have been erected for hundreds of years.
These Great Walls are inconsistent in size and direction, and are generally short, only one or two kilometers long, and of limited use.
It wasn't until Qin unified the Six Kingdoms that these walls really entered the pages of history.
During the reign of Qin Shi Huang Yingzheng, he encountered the same problem as Zhou Tianzi - the Xiongnu invaded the territory.
Although the number of the Xiongnu is small, they are brave and good at fighting, even if they are "fierce men from the sky" Qin Shi Huang, there is no way to annihilate them in one fell swoop.
As a result, the construction of the Great Wall on the border was once again on the agenda.
Qin Shi Huang's goal was even more ambitious, he wanted to erect walls along the northern border to completely stop the Xiongnu cavalry.
Most of the Great Wall we see today was repaired and expanded in the Qin period, with a length of tens of thousands of meters, from which the so-called "Great Wall" came.
Later dynasties, such as the Han, Sui, Tang, and Song, all expanded the Great Wall on this basis.
Why were these dynasties so keen on building the Great Wall?
In addition to defending against foreign invasions, there is also an inevitable law of civilization development.
For human beings, survival is the first element, followed by the construction of civilization and order, and finally the guarantee of the continuation of civilization.
And the Great Wall just solves these three basic problems facing humanity.
The first is well understood, after the construction of the Great Wall, it was not easy for foreign tribes to invade on a large scale, and the survival and safety of the people of the dynasty were guaranteed.
It is only when survival is guaranteed that human beings can multiply and develop civilization.
Second, regarding the construction of civilization, the existence of the Great Wall directly reduced the fighting between agrarian civilizations and nomadic peoples.
A peaceful environment has created breathing space for the birth and development of civilization.
The third is the continuation of civilization, the lifeblood of Chinese culture has never been broken, and the Great Wall has made great contributions.
Because it ensures that people within the territory will not move easily, and there are traces of the change of civilization from generation to generation.
Even if there is a change of dynasty, it will not completely erase the historical origins and customs of the people that already existed before.
Therefore, once the major dynasties stabilized their regimes, they would be keen to build the Great Wall.
Some scholars say that the Great Wall was not built for war, but to prevent war.
As long as you have seen the Great Wall with your own eyes, it is easy to understand this sentence.
We are inside the walls, the nomads are outside the walls, they can't easily get in, on the contrary, we are not so easy to go out and conquer the city.
The blood of peace has flowed in the blood of Chinese culture since ancient times.
So, under such backward production conditions in ancient times, how was the "Great Wall" built?
The miracle of the birth of the Great Wall
The two most important things in building the Great Wall are the people who built the Great Wall and the materials used to build the Great Wall.
Although the Great Wall was built with the intention of lasting peace, it is undeniable that the Great Wall itself was also forged with the blood and tears of countless soldiers and laborers.
There are three main sources of manpower for the construction of the Great Wall.
The first category is the garrisoned army.
During the Qin Dynasty, after Qin Shi Huang conquered the Six Kingdoms and conquered the Xiongnu, he sent his general Meng Tian to build the Great Wall.
The 300,000 soldiers under Meng Tian had just repelled the Xiongnu, and they had to stay in the north to build the Great Wall.
They were an important force in the construction of the Great Wall during the Qin Dynasty, and other dynasties had similar situations.
In the Ming Dynasty, when Qi Jiguang was the chief soldier of Jizhen, he led his troops to build the Great Wall from Shanhaiguan to Juyong Pass.
The second category is forcibly requisitioned people.
In addition to the soldiers, the imperial court would also forcibly recruit people and let them set out from their hometowns to build the Great Wall.
In many cases, these people also have to bring their own baggage and tools.
The famous legend "Meng Jiangnu Crying on the Great Wall" is based on this.
On the day of Meng Jiangnu's wedding, her husband was taken away by officers and soldiers to repair the Great Wall, and many years later, Meng Jiangnu went to the Great Wall to find her husband, and cried down the Great Wall after learning of her husband's death......
Although the story is fictional, the situation of the conscripts at that time is well documented.
The third category is criminals.
During the Qin and Han dynasties, there was a crime of "Chengdan", that is, criminals were sent to the border to build the Great Wall, and the general sentence was 4 years.
They belong to the low-level laborers in the Great Wall, and they need to work day and night, and the mortality rate is very high.
With the people who built the Great Wall, where did the building materials come from?
Generally speaking, the Great Wall was built according to the topography, and the craftsmen who built the Great Wall must have been very knowledgeable about geography.
When they encountered high mountains, they built them on mountain ridges, when they encountered large rivers and deep valleys, they used them as natural barriers, and when they encountered traffic fortresses, they built walls on key sections.
In this way, it not only saves manpower, but also controls the risk.
The construction of beacon towers and fortresses is more important to the choice of terrain, which is why the beacon tower can be seen from a distance when lit - because it occupies the high ground.
The construction of the Great Wall requires a large amount of earth and stone materials, which are basically made of local materials.
In high mountains, stones are dug in the vicinity and walls are built with stones.
In the sandy area of the plains, the soil is rammed into clods and rises from the ground.
Desert areas, such as the Great Wall around Yumen Pass, are also built in the way of sand and gravel + reeds or red wicker, and its firmness is no worse than that of stone, which shows how wise the ancient working people were.
After more than 2,000 years of construction and improvement, the total length of the Great Wall has reached more than 20,000 kilometers, and more than 8,000 kilometers are still there.
How did the Great Wall defend against the enemy?
How can such a vast project be effective when the enemy is attacking?
Some people may say, isn't it just to keep people out and not let them in?
In fact, the actual operation is not that simple.
The height of the Great Wall is not unclimbable by manpower, and it is generally more than ten meters, and in some dynasties, soldiers can easily climb it with a ladder.
One of the significant advantages of building the Great Wall was that it could deter nomads from encroaching on horseback.
Their horse skills were much stronger than those of the Central Plains soldiers, and the cavalry was invincible.
However, with the barrier of the Great Wall, these nomads could only abandon their horses and climb over the city wall and enter the city to fight the Central Plains soldiers hand-to-hand.
When enemy soldiers climb the wall, the soldiers on the wall have a geographical advantage and can easily repel the enemy.
In addition, the Central Plains is a vast land, and the weapons are relatively better than the nomads, and they have a better chance of winning in close combat.
Second, the Great Wall will set up a beacon every 30 miles, and this beacon will serve as an alarm.
When there is an invasion of foreign enemies, light a beacon fire, and soldiers from a distance can detect the situation in time and respond as soon as possible.
The story of "King Zhou You's Beacon Fire Opera Kings" is related to this beacon tower.
Third, the walls of the Great Wall are actually accessible to people and even cars.
The bricks and stones on the city wall were flat, equivalent to the current cement or stone pavement.
In battle, it was much more convenient to transport supplies and soldiers from the city walls than to cross mountains.
As a result, the Great Wall played a great role in defending against foreign enemies.
Basically, when the ruler was in power, he would want to build the Great Wall a little more and improve it more, so that his dominance would be more stable.
Only dynasties founded by nomadic peoples like the Yuan and Qing would not care much about the fortifications of the Great Wall.
Because they came in from outside the Great Wall, and to the south is a vast land, so why should they compete with the Great Wall?
In addition, the construction of the Great Wall also affected Europe to some extent.
Some American scholars bluntly said: The Great Wall has harmed Europe!
Since the nomads outside the Central Plains were blocked by the Great Wall and could not go south, they found another way to the east.
Because the land in the north was cold and barren, these nomads had to go to the fertile land to plunder resources.
Once they are blocked from the Central Plains, eastward invasion is almost inevitable.
These soldiers on tall horses descended on the land of Europe like divine soldiers from heaven, and caught them off guard.
Among them, there is an excellent representative, Genghis Khan.
Although the Central Plains was also conquered during the Yuan Dynasty, Genghis Khan's iron cavalry did not stop, and they marched eastward with few opponents.
The Europeans were frightened by Genghis Khan and called his army the "Whip of God".
Eventually, Genghis Khan's iron cavalry stayed in the Danube valley and did not go any further.
If it weren't for the "robbery" of the nomads, what would be the current situation on the European continent?
This is actually an unanswered question, and the current development model in Europe is created by a combination of factors.
These remarks by American scholars are just another attempt to "detain the pot" to the Chinese.
Refer to the article
China National Daily, "The Great Wall: A Representative Symbol of the Chinese Nation and an Important Symbol of Chinese Civilization"
People's Daily Online "World Cultural Heritage: The Great Wall"
Guangming Network "The Construction and Significance of the Great Wall in History"