The Ming City Wall of Nanjing, built in 1366, was completed in 1393.
A total of 280,000 migrant workers and about 350 million city bricks were mobilized in five provinces and 28 provinces, 152 prefectures and counties, which lasted for 27 years.
From its completion to the present, it has survived 600 years of wind and rain and war!
It is not only the largest city wall in China, but also the largest city wall in the world, what is the reason for the Ming City Wall of Nanjing today?
The imprint on the Ming City Wall of Nanjing
In the age of cold weapons, the quality and fortitude of the city walls were too important!
How to ensure the quality of each brick of the construction of the city wall?
Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, thought of a way, that is, to order local officials and responsible persons who made bricks everywhere and brick kiln makers to leave information such as the casting place, time, and name of the caster on the bricks, so that when there was a problem, they would be held accountable, and if the circumstances were serious, they would be punished with capital punishment!
Zhu Yuanzhang is forbidden by order, and cutting off your head will never be a joke when there is a quality problem, so from local officials down to brick-burning craftsmen and farmers, all of them strictly control the quality, which also ensures that the Ming City Wall has stood for more than 600 years!
Hundreds of years have passed, today we go to visit the Ming City Wall in Nanjing, and these marks on many bricks are still clearly visible!
Imprint on the Ming City Wall of Nanjing (rubbing)
Have you learned a lot today?
Source: New Landscapes of Calligraphy and Painting