The Great Wall of China
Walls and wall building have played a very important role in Chinese
culture. These people, from the dim mists of prehistory have been
wail-conscious; from the Neolithic period when ramparts of pounded earth were
used to the Communist Revolution, walls were an essential part of any village.
Not only towns and villages; the houses and the temples within them were somehow
walled, and the houses also had no windows overlooking the street, thus giving
the feeling of wandering around a huge maze. The name for "city" in Chinese
(cheng) means wall, and over these walled cities, villages, houses and temples
presides the god of walls and mounts, whose duties were, and still are, to
protect and be responsible for the welfare of the inhabitants. Thus a great and
extremely laborious task such as constructing a wall, which was supposed to-run
throughout the country, must not have seemed such an absurdity.
However, it is indeed a common mistake to perceive the Great Wall as a
single architectural structure, and it would also be erroneous to assume that it
was built during a single dynasty, for the building of the wall spanned the
various dynasties, and each of these dynasties somehow contributed to the
refurbishing and the construction of a wall, whose foundations had been laid
many centuries ago. It was during the fourth and third century B.C. that each
warring state started building walls to protect their kingdoms, both against one
another and against the northern nomads. Especially three of these states: the
Chin, the Chao and the Yen, corresponding respectively to the modem provinces of
Shensi, Shansi and Hopei, over and above building walls that surrounded their
kingdoms, also laid the foundations on which Chin Shih Huang Di would build his
first continuous Great Wall.
The role that the Great Wall played
in the growth of Chinese economy was an important one. Throughout the centuries
many settlements were established along the new border. The garrison troops were
instructed to reclaim wasteland and to plant crops on it, roads and canals were
built, to mention just a few of the works carried out. All these undertakings
greatly helped to increase the country’s trade and cultural exchanges with many
remote areas and also with the southern, central and western parts of Asia--the
formation of the Silk Route. Builders, garrisons, artisans, farmers and peasants
left behind a trail of objects, including inscribed tablets, household articles,
and written work, which have become extremely valuable archaeological evidence
to the study of defence institutions of the Great Wall and the everyday life of
these people who lived and died along the wall. |
