A Short History of the Great Wall of China

Although I am a historian, for the most part, I learned history independently rather than in school. To be more specific, nearly all my basic knowledge of Chinese history was obtained through reading books. Looking back on those early days, I feel deeply indebted to the short handbooks of history that led me into the glamorous palace of Chinese civilization. Given my personal experience, I believe that handbooks like the History of Chinese Civilization series, which are brief and to the point, can be of great help to Westerners in their efforts to learn more about the history and culture of China.

It is critical that history books tell the truth. Telling the truth is easier said than done, and it is simply impossible to do a perfect job. For one thing, history, by nature, is complicated and difficult to comprehend; for another, recounting history in a popular style is an even more difficult task. Luckily, readers will be quite aware that these books are just a guide in their journey to discover the treasures of Chinese civilization. History of Chinese Civilization will win over its readers with fascinating and inspiring historical facts and anecdotes, told in accurate yet vivid, simple yet thought-provoking language. With carefully chosen and arranged content, the series will not only help Westerners and overseas Chinese to learn the language, history, and culture of China, but also will serve as easy-to-read handbooks for Chinese readers—young readers in particular—to obtain more knowledge of Chinese history and culture. Furthermore, by reading these books, Chinese readers will learn idiomatic expressions and thus be able to communicate more effectively with people around the world.

Chinese civilization has a glorious history. Personally, however, I do not believe that this series, which primarily targets overseas readers, is written with boastful intentions. The cultures of all countries and peoples, resplendent as they are, have flaws. What we need is to communicate with each other and understand each other. Back at the end of the Qing dynasty, numerous Japanese used the word “incomprehensible” to describe the bewilderment they felt upon visiting China and experiencing Chinese culture. Today, a similar feeling of bewilderment still exists between different cultures. Considering that even the Japanese could feel this way despite the frequent cultural exchanges between Japan and China throughout history, it is almost certain that people living in more geographically and culturally distant countries would feel even more bewildered. I therefore hope that History of Chinese Civilization and other similar books will help Western readers learn more about China and understand it better so that we can expel this sense of bewilderment, bridge the gaps between cultures, and enjoy an increasingly harmonious world.

Introduction

The backbone of China and a symbol of the diligence and wisdom of the Chinese people, the Great Wall is also a wonder in the history of architecture, equal to the pyramids of Egypt.

The construction of the Great Wall started in the mid-seventh century bce. In order to defend itself, the State of Chu built a wall in the form of three sides of a square which stretched for thousands of li, which came to be known as the Square Wall. Later, the States of Qi, Wei, Qin, Zhao, Zhongshan, and Yan all constructed walls on their borders to defend themselves.

In 221 bce, Emperor Qin Shihuang unified China, establishing the first unified feudal dynasty in Chinese history. In order to defend against the intrusions of the Xiongnu people, Emperor Qin Shihuang sent General Meng Tian to the north to drive the Xiongnu further northward; he further ordered the construction of the Qin Great Wall at enormous costs of labor, material, and money. The Qin Great Wall was built on the basis of the walls that had been constructed earlier by the States of Yan, Zhao, and Qin in the north. It started at Lintao in the west and ended at Liaodong in the east, stretching for thousands of li. The Qin Shihuang Great Wall established the groundwork for the later Ten-thousand-li Great Walls of later dynasties.

The walls built in the Han dynasty (206 bce-220 ce) continued to extend to the west, passing Hexi and reaching Xinjiang. Two forts, Yumen Pass and Yangguan, were set up in Dunhuang, Gansu Province, enabling smoother transit on the world-famous Silk Road from then on. This enhanced the communication between Chinese and western cultures and promoted contacts and trades between the ethnic minorities of the border areas and the people of the heartland.

The dynasties which followed the Han continued to build walls, among which the one built in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) was of the largest scale. It reached the Yalu River in the east and Jiayuguan, Gansu Province in the west. Traversing the north of China like a winding gigantic dragon, full of vigor and vitality, this is the Great Wall we see today.

The greatest exemplar of the Ming Great Wall is the section which was built at the strategically important position of Badaling. The spectacular sights of the Badaling Great Wall have won it a great reputation at home and abroad. In 1961, the Badaling section of the Great Wall was listed in the first group of key cultural relics units under State protection by the State Council of China; and in 1990, the United Nations awarded Badaling, as the representative of the entire Great Wall, the certification of world cultural heritage.

The Badaling Great Wall, hovering among the high mountains like a flying dragon, is a world-famous scenic spot which attracts numerous visitors every year. Climbing on the wall at Badaling, one feels the grandeur and infinite charm of the Great Wall.

The Great Wall in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods

1. The Origins of the Great Wall

The story of “Meng Jiangnü’s Bitter Weeping” leads many people to believe that the Great Wall was first built in the Qin dynasty (221 bce-206 bce), but in fact, the Great Wall’s earliest construction can be dated back to the seventh century bce, during the Spring and Autumn Period (722 bce-481 bce), and the building of defensive walls in China began even earlier. From the earliest beginnings of human consciousness, we have understood the importance of defending ourselves; therefore, after primitive humans entered the historical stage of clan society, the various clans dug channels and built walls around their living places as their means of defense.

After China entered the historical stage of slave society, the slave owners indulged more and more in creature comforts, resulting in a growing awareness of the possibility of crisis and a strong demand for a defensive system to ensure the security of their wealth and persons. After King Wu struck down King Zhou (King Dixin, the last king of Shang) and founded the Zhou dynasty (1046 bce-256 bce), he granted large estates of land and slaves to various princes and dukes, who in turn built walls to protect their estates and defend against the intrusions of other ducal states. In addition, in order to fend off the attacks of the nomadic tribes in the north, they also build a series of forts in the strategic positions of the border areas.

According to the famous opening lines of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the momentum of history was ever thus: the empire long divided must unite; the empire long united must divide. Even a dynasty as strong as Zhou also could not escape its doom. As the Zhou dynasty declined, the ducal states increased in power and began to vie with each other for hegemony. The once advanced slave system fell to pieces, while the feudal system took its place and began to rise. In the contest between the old and the new, the feudal system won, and a unified, centralized country gradually came into being.

In the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods (722 bce-221 bce) the frequency and fierceness of war sunk the people into an abyss of suffering. The original defensive systems of the ducal states were far from satisfactory for the military demands of the era; networks of beacon towers, forts, river valleys, cliffs, moats, and walled roads thus came into being, which finally led to the formation of a large-scale defensive system in the northern border area. This kind of defensive system, unlike the forts which could only defend a city or locality, was a long line of defense meant to protect a broad area. Though the different sections of the northern border defenses lasted for varying lengths of time, together they formed an ongoing foundation for a long line of defensive structures which came to be collectively referred to as the “Long Wall” (the Great Wall). This was the rudiment of the Ten-Thousand-li Great Wall.

All of the ducal states built walls along their borders most prone to invasion. Some walls, such as those constructed by the States of Chu, Qi, Qin, and Zhao, were built to defend against invasion and annexation by other states; others were built to fend off nomadic tribes such as the Xiongnu, for example the north border walls of the States of Qin and Zhao. Among these, the walls of the States of Chu and Qi are considered the earliest constituents of the Great Wall, but the walls of Qin and Zhao were much longer and stricter defensive measures.

2. The Wall of the State of Chu: The Square Wall

In 1998, then-American President Clinton visited China for the first time. When he visited Mutianyu, upon seeing the grand section of the Great Wall there, he asked a question: “Is this the earliest part of the Great Wall?” Secretary General Dong Yaohui of the China Great Wall Society, a renowned Great Wall specialist who was accompanying him, immediately answered, “No. It was built in the Ming dynasty. Mutianyu has only six hundred years of history. The earliest Great Wall was the wall of the State of Chu, which was built more than 2,600 hundred years ago.”

Lying in the South of China, the territory of the state of Chu included the whole of today’s Hubei Province and the north of today’s Hunan Province. In its prime, the territory of Chu reached the south of today’s Henan and Shandong Provinces in the north, neighboring the states of Han, Wei, Song, and Qi; in the west, it reached the eastern border of present-day Sichuan Province, next to the states of Ba and Qin; in the south, it reached Cangwu (today’s Jiuning Mountain in southern Hunan Province), Wuling, and Baiyue; and in the east, it reached the sea. The state of Chu may have had an area of five thousand li, the largest territory among Chinese states of the time.

The wall of Chu was called the Square Wall. According to the “Geography” section of the Book of Han, “there is a great wall named Square Wall in Ye, a fief of Yegong in the state of Chu.” By the Han dynasty, the Square Wall was already called “Long Wall” (the Great Wall). In the Huainanzi, written in the Han dynasty, we can also find the words “to construct meandering square walls,” which gives us a picture of the rolling square walls. According to the Commentary on the Waterways Classic written by Li Daoyuan in the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420-589), square walls as long as several hundred li were connected to the rolling mountains and called the Square Wall or the Long Wall. We can therefore judge that the Square Wall was a series of long walls that were connected and stretched for hundreds of li; it is thus justifiable to regard the Square Wall as the earliest Great Wall.

Why would the state of Chu, which had great power and strong military strength, build this Great Wall at a great cost of labors and materials? We should start from the history and geographical position of Chu. Chu was established by the Sanmiao people along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and it took part in the punitive expedition of King Wu against King Zhou in the early Zhou dynasty. The state of Chu was formed when Emperor Cheng of the Zhou dynasty granted the territory of Chu Xiong Yi, who later lived in Danyang. Chu gradually developed from a small dependency into a great power in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods. In 704 BCE, the Duke of Chu, Xiong Tong, called himself King Wu, and the state of Chu had an area of a thousand li. Because Chu was in the south of China, however, and consisted of many different ethnic groups, it was still looked down upon as “the state of barbarians” even though it was a great power. The state of Chu often fought wars with the other ducal states in the central plains area. In order to defend against the attacks of the ducal states of the central plains, Chu therefore built a defensive system composed of a series of connected fortresses arrayed on its borders in the east, north, and west. Making full use of the strategic positions of its mountains and rivers and using local materials, the state of Chu constructed the earliest Great Wall in China. The total length of the wall of Chu was three hundred kilometers, and the walls were mainly built with soil; where there was no suitable soil, they used stones instead. It is also said that some places “in the south and north had no walls built, but were defended by perilous mountains.”

Quite regrettably, this solid Great Wall, which lay imposingly in the south of China and fended off the attacks of the strong troops of Qin, couldn’t escape a destiny of dilapidation. Today, most parts of the wall of the state of Chu no longer exist; only two remaining relic sites demonstrate the resplendence of its past. One is the Daguankou Great Wall site at the western foot of Mount Fangcheng, located in Huangjiamen Village, Dushu Town, northeastern Fangcheng County. The other is the Xiangheguan Great Wall site, which is located north of Xianghe Village in northern Miyang County and stretches from Mount Wufeng in the east to Mount Guan in the west, with a length of six kilometers remaining. Time brings great changes to the world; however, when you climb onto the Great Wall sites of Chu, it seems that you can still feel the prosperity of the great power which laid imposingly in South China at that time.

3. The Wall of the State of Qi: The Great Wall Built Along the Mountains

The state of Qi was a great power which held a vast territory in eastern China during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods. Qi was located in northern Shandong Province. In its south was the imposing Mount Tai, the first of the Five Holy Mountains, and it neighbored the states of Chu, Lu, and Song; in the north, it faced the state of Yan across the vast Bohai Sea; in the west, it was separated from the state of Zhao by a river; and in the east there was the sea. The capital of Qi was Linzi.

Qi was protected by the vast sea to the north and east and by the surging, ancient Yellow River in the west. Only the southern border of Qi was comparatively unsafe. Although the magnificent Mount Tai and Mount Yi lay there, they couldn’t stop fierce attacks by the enemies; therefore, the state of Qi built walls along its southern border. In the Commentary on the Waterways Classic, Li Daoyuan of the Northern Wei dynasty cited the Bamboo Annals: “In the twentieth year of the reign of Huicheng of Liang (the twenty-eighth year of the reign of Weiwang of Qi, 351 BCE), the State of Qi built a long wall for defense.” Citing the History of the State of Qi, Zhang Shoujie of the Tang dynasty wrote in the Historical Records of Justice, “To protect from the invasions of the state of Chu, Emperor Xuanwang (342 BCE-324 BCE) of the state of Qi had a wall built on the mountain range, stretching over one thousand li from the sea in the east to Jizhou in the west.” The chapter “Hanshui” in the Commentary on the Waterways Classic also says that “The Wenshui River flows out of Mount Tai (present-day Mount Yi and Mount Daxian) in Zhuxu County (to the east of today’s Linqu, Shandong Province), and there was a long wall on the mountain, which started at Mount Dai (i.e., Mount Tai) in the west and ended at the vast sea in the east, stretching about one thousand li. This wall was built by Tian.” Although the years of the Qi Great Wall’s construction differ in the records above, they still make clear that the state of Qi built a wall to protect its territory.

The wall of Qi started in the north of Pingyin County in present-day Shandong Province, went eastward and passed through the northwest of Tai’an County, the north of Laiwu County and Mount Yi, and ended at the sea between Dazhu Mountain and Xiaozhu Mountain, which were located in the east of Anqiu County and the south of Jiaoxian County. The wall of Qi had a total length of over five hundred kilometers. The Mulingguan Pass, famous in the past for connecting the south and north of present-day Shandong Province, was situated on Mount Yi.

4. The Wall of the State of Wei: The Disappeared Great Wall

As a country in the north, the state of Wei, like other ducal states, sought to ensure its security. Wei had a fairly large territory, including what are today the northern area of Henan Province, the southern part of Shanxi Province, and the eastern area of Shaanxi Province. It abutted the powerful state of Qin in the west and the state of Zhao in the north, and it also bordered upon the state of Qi in the east and faced the states of Han and Chu in the south. The capital of Wei was originally Anyi, in present-day Xiaxian County, Shanxi Province. During King Huiwang’s reign, however, he thought that the capital was too close to the powerful state of Qin, with the danger of being annexed looming at every moment; therefore, he decided to look for a safer place, and the capital was moved to Daliang, in present-day Kaifeng, Henan Province.

The state of Wei built two walls. One was in the west of Kaifeng City, Henan Province, and since it was to the south of the ancient Yellow River, it was called the Henan (lit. south of the river) Great Wall. It was also called Juan Great Wall because it passed through Juandi (present-day Yuanwu, Henan Province). Because of the frequent flooding of the Yellow River here, the Henan Great Wall has long since disappeared.

The other wall was in the west of the state of Wei. Since it was to the west of the Yellow River, it was called the Hexi (lit. west of the river) Great Wall or the Heyou (lit. right of the river) Great Wall. As to the Hexi Great Wall, there were some records in the Bamboo Annals and the Historical Records of Justice. In the Historical Records of Justice, it says, “The state of Wei abutted the state of Qin in the west, and it built walls on the borders between it and the state of Qin, which stretched from Zhengxian County in Huangzhou to the south, over the Wei River in the northwest, on the east bank of the Bingluo River, and in Shangjun and Fuzhou in the north.” From this clear description, we know the position and direction of the Hexi Great Wall.

5. The Wall of the State of Qin: The Great Wall Still Standing

The State of Qin in the Warring States Period (475 BCE-221 BCE) was a great power; among the ducal states, its strong national power and vast territory was incomparable. The western border of the State of Qin extended to the eastern part of present-day Gansu Province, and most part of Shaanxi Province belonged to the Qin Empire. In the east it bordered upon the States of Wei and Han, it abutted the States of Chu and Shu in the south, while in its west and north it was next to ethnic minorities. The capital of the State of Qin was in present-day Fengxiang City, Shaanxi Province. The rulers of the State of Qin were very ambitious. In the twelfth year of the reign of Xiaogong (350 bce), in order to contend for the hegemony of the central plains and further unify the whole country, the state of Qin moved its capital to Xianyang, which was in the east of present-day Xianyang, Shaanxi Province.

As with other states, the original aim of building a wall was to counter the invasions of the ethnic minorities. The Xiongnu people were a minority group of ancient China mainly distributed in the north. They lived a typical nomadic, stock-raising life. They were well-known for their skills in archery, hunting, and fighting, and their activities affected the daily life of the people living in the northern part of the central plains. Thus, King Zhao ordered the construction of a long wall along the line of Shaanxi Province, Beidi, and Shangjun to fend off the invasions of the Xiongnu. This long wall was named the Qin Great Wall, and some people also called it Qin Zhaowang (King Zhao) Great Wall. The latter name is used to distinguish it from the later famous Great Wall of Qin Shihuang.

The Qin Zhaowang Great Wall still stands on the boundless Loess Plateau today, meandering like a long snake. It started from Lintao County, Gansu Province in the west and extends to the southeast. After reaching the Weiyuan Plain, it turned to the northeast. Then the wall passed through Tongwei and Jingning counties in a northeastly direction till reaching Guyuan County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. From there, it turned to the northeast, passing Huanxian County, Gansu Province, the area of Hengshan, and Yulin and Shenmu counties in Shaanxi, ending at the western bank of the Yellow River. The wall had a total length of about two thousand kilometers, looking grand and majestic. Except for the section in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, which was constructed with both rammed earth and stone, the Qin Zhaowang Great Wall was completely constructed of stamped loess.

On the inner side of the Great Walls, there usually beacon towers and forts. Beacon towers were used to convey signals; when enemies came, signal fires would be lit on the beacon towers, and the enemy’s situation was communicated to the defending troops all along the wall and the generals inside. They could thus prepare and organize the army to counterattack the enemy. The beacon towers were usually built on high places with an open view in order to convey the signals accurately. The sites of such beacon towers have been found along the walls of Chu and Wei to the west of the Yellow River, but not many; some may have been destroyed by weathering. In comparison, the number of beacon towers along and inside the Qin Zhaowang Great Wall was much larger, about one every one to three kilometers on average and one thousand in total. The beacon towers usually were in the shape of a round platform, varying from two to five meters in height. Their remains are old and weather-beaten witnesses to the great changes of history.

6. King Wuling and the Wall of the State of Zhao

The territory of the state of Zhao included most of Shanxi Province, the northeast of Shaanxi Province, and the southern part of Hebei Province. It bordered the states of Zhongshan and Qi in the east; in the south and west it abutted the states of Wei, Han, and Qin; and it was next to the minorities of Linhu and Loufan in the north and the state of Yan and Donghu in the northeast. The capital of Zhao was originally Jinyang, that is, present-day Taiyuan, Shanxi Province; later, it was moved to Zhongmu, in the west of present-day Tangyin County, Henan Province. In 386 BCE, King Jing moved the capital of Zhao, for the last time, to Handan in Hebei Province.

The state of Zhao had two walls, one in the south and the other in the north. The southern one was located on the southern border of Zhao, on the northern bank of the Zhanghe River, which was in the border area of present-day Hebei Province and Henan Province. Since it was built during King Su’s reign (349 BCE-325 BCE), it was also called the Zhao Suhou (King Su) Great Wall. It defended against the state of Wei.

According to the “Account of the Xiongnu” in the Historical Records, King Wuling was brilliant from a young age, and he did much work in studying the strategies of the Reforms of Shang Yang of Qin, vowing to achieve greatness in his life. He was enthroned (325 BCE) at a period during which all the ducal states were fighting with each other to annex other states and contending for hegemony in the mid-Warring States Period. Although the state of Zhao had become much stronger through the work of his predecessors, it was still weak compared to the other ducal states. It suffered from their oppression, and pieces of its land were encroached upon by Qin. The state of Zhao was also frequently harassed by nomadic tribes in the north and east of its territory, such as the Loufan and Donghu. Facing these conditions, King Wuling thought that Zhao should learn from the nomads so as to enhance the battle effectiveness of his army. He therefore tried to change the various customs and traditions of his state: he took the lead in wearing nomadic clothes and called on his soldiers to practice horseback archery. In this way, the army of the state of Zhao grew stronger. Zhao defeated the Linghu and Loufan at last, and its territory reached the states of Yan and Dai in the north and Yunzhong and Jiuyuan in the west. The state of Zhao later set up the three prefectures of Yunzhong, Yanmen, and Dai, after which King Wuling ordered a wall built in the north of the three prefectures, which became known to history as the Northern Zhao Great Wall.

The Northern Zhao Great Wall started from Dai in the east (in present-day Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province), passed Yunzhong and Jiuyuan (present-day Baotou, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region), and then turned toward the Yin Mountains from the northwest and reached Gaoque (the gap between the Wula Mountains and the Lang Mountains in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region). This Northern Zhao Great Wall had a total length of about 650 kilometers. At present, scattered sites of this wall can still be seen stretching among the Daqing Mountains, the Wula Mountains and the Lang Mountains. Later, when Emperor Qin Shihuang ordered the building of the Ten-thousand-li Great Wall, part of this section served as the basis.

Along the wall built by the State of Zhao, there were also many fortresses, fortified passes, and beacon towers, which formed a solid and in-depth defensive system.

7. The Wall of the State of Zhongshan: A Great Wall Built by a Small State

On the battlefield of the powerful ducal states contending for hegemony in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, the state of Zhongshan was only a very small contender. Established by Baidixianyu, it was situated between the states of Yan and Zhao (in the area of present-day southern Hebei Province). Zhongshan abutted the state of Yan in the east, and on the other three sides it was completely surrounded by the state of Zhao. Its capital was originally at Gu (in present-day Dingxian County, Hebei Province) and later was moved to Lingshou (about ten kilometers to the southwest of present-day Lingshou City, Hebei Province).

The state of Zhongshan was established in 414 BCE, and in order to protect itself, it built a long wall of fortifications in 369 BCE. In the “Account of Zhao” in the Historical Records, it is recorded: “In the sixth year (of King Cheng’s reign of Zhao), the State of Zhongshan built a long wall.” This wall was used to defend against the invasions of the states of Zhao and Wei, though mainly the former. According to the historical records, the position of the wall was around the border area of present-day Hebei Province and Shanxi Province. It passed Mount Huan and the Taihang Mountains; and stretched south by the passes of Daoma, Longquan, and Niangzi; at last reaching the Dalingkou area of Mingshui Mountain to the south of Huangyangguan Pass in Xingtai. Its total length was more than two hundred kilometers.

8. The Wall of the State of Yan: The Great Wall Along the Yishui River

The state of Yan was located in the north of Hebei Province and the south of Liaoning Province of today. It bordered Korea in the northeast, the Donghu in the east, the states of Zhongshan and Zhao in the west, and the Gulf of Bohai and the state of Qi in the east. Its capital was Ji (present-day Beijing). Later, the state of Yan built Wuyang as its “lower capital” and called Ji the “upper capital.”

According to archaeologists, Yan also had two walls in its time: one was to the south of the lower capital of Yan, on the bank of Yishui River; therefore, it was called the Yishui Great Wall. It was also known as the “Southern Yan Great Wall.” The other wall was along the northern border of the state of Yan. The Yishui Great Wall was constructed solely to protect Wuyan, the lower capital, since it was too close to the state’s southern border and thus close to the threat of the warlike states of Zhao, Wei, and Qi. We can infer from the Historical Records that this Yishui Great Wall was built before King Zhao’s reign (311 BCE-279 BCE). It started at the foot of the Taihang Mountains in the west and stretched eastward along the northern bank of the Southern Yishui River till Xushui River. After a section along the northern bank of the Pu River (the middle and lower reaches of the Southern Yishui River), it crossed the Pu River and turned to extend along the southern bank of the river till Rongcheng City. Then it went east, crossed the Ping River, and stretched to Anxin (which is buried by the northern embankment of Baiyang Lake today). Passing Anxin, the wall entered the area of Xiongxian County (where it is covered by the embankment of the Daqing River today); then it crossed the Daqing River, stretched to the southeast, and at last ended at Dacheng after passing Wen’an. Except for the section in the west, which was built of stone, the Yishui Great Wall was constructed of rammed earth.

According to the “Account of the Xiongnu” in the Historical Records, in the period after King Wuling built the Zhao Great Wall, there was a virtuous and able general of Yan, Qin Kai, who stayed among the Donghu for a time as a hostage and won great respect and trust from the Donghu people. When he returned to his own country, however, he led the army to attack the Donghu, who were defeated and retreated a long distance, leaving large stretches of land behind. Thereupon, “the state of Yan also built a wall, stretching from Zaoyang to Xiangping. It also set up the prefectures of Shanggu, Yuyang, Youbeiping, Liaoxi, and Liaodong to defend against the Donghu people.” This was the Northern Yan Great Wall. The Northern Yan Great Wall started at Dushikou in the area of Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province; passed Guyuan, Weichang, and Kalaqin Banner in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region; passed Chifeng Mountain, Heishan Mountain, and the Laoha River in the northeast; and then turned eastward and entered the hilly area in the north of Jianping County, Liaoning Province, where the wall was built in strategic and perilous positions. After going out of the mountainous area, the wall crossed the Beng River and entered Aohan Banner in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. It finally reached Fuxin County after passing Beipiao, Liaoning Province. It still has not been confirmed whether or not this wall continued eastward from Fuxin County and went all the way to Liaoyang (Xianping in the State of Yan).

The Contribution of the First Emperor

1. Why Did Emperor Qin Shihuang Build the Ten-thousand-li Great Wall?

In the Warring States Period (475 BCE-221 BCE), seizing the opportunity as the strong ducal states fought each other for hegemony, Xiongnu troops invaded southward and took the area of Hetao inside the walls of the states of Zhao and Yan, greatly threatening the security of the state of Qin in the north.

By the year 221 BCE, the six remaining states had all been conquered by Emperor Qin Shihuang; the chaos of princes and dukes fighting for hegemony was thus completely ended, and the first united, centralized, feudal empire in Chinese history came into being. After that, in order to maintain and cement the unification of the country, Emperor Qin Shihuang ordered the demolition of the “walls in the heartland” which had been used by the ducal states to protect themselves in the Warring States Period. In 214 BCE, he appointed General Meng Tian as the head of three hundred thousand soldiers to drive out the Xiongnu in the north, and Meng Tian succeeded.

In order to ensure the peace and security of the central plain area, the emperor then ordered the construction of a wall stretching ten thousand li at an enormous cost of labor, materials, and money. Based on the previous wall sections of Yan, Zhao, and Qin in the north, built during the Warring States Period, the Qin dynasty started large scale rebuilding—connecting or expanding those original sections of walls. As the Qin dynasty expanded its territory to the north, twelve defensive prefectures were set up in sections along the northern border. In this way, a complete Great Wall, starting at Lintao in the west and ending at Liaodong in the east, was linked up into one. It stretched over ten thousand li, hence the name, the Ten-thousand-li Great Wall.

The construction of the Great Wall under the orders of Emperor Qin Shihuang was an important event in Chinese history. The places the Great Wall passed were mostly perilous strategic positions, climbing up and down the high mountains and deep valleys. The scale of this huge project was unprecedented.

2. The Qin Shihuang Great Wall

The Qin Shihuang Great Wall can be roughly divided into three sections: the east, the middle, and the west.

The general run of the eastern section was as follows: it started in Huade County, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Going east, it passed Kangbao County, Hebei Province, Taipusi Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the south of Duolun County, Fengning, Hebei Province, the north of Weichang County, the north of Chifeng City, and the south of Naimanyukulun Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. It finally reached the north of Fuxin, Liaoning Province. This section of the Great Wall might have been rebuilt on the basis of the Northern Yan Great Wall built in the Warring States Period, or it may have been an entirely new construction of the Qin dynasty. According to the historical literature, the Qin Shihuang Great Wall extended from the east of the Liao River to the northern bank of the Datong River in the territory of North Korea, but no obvious sites are found there. Since the natural conditions of the areas passed by the eastern section were quite different, the construction of the Great Wall had to use various local materials, adopting such methods as “making use of strategic positions in building passes” and “laying stones for the fortress and planting elm woods in the pass.” The Great Wall in the areas of Chifeng, Weichang, and Fengning was usually built on mountains, so it was built using the local, naturally-occurring stones. This type of construction accounts for about fifty percent of the length of the Qin Shihuang Great Wall that has been investigated. The interior and exterior sides were all built with relatively large and regular stones, and the middle was filled with irregular stones or gravel. Its foundation was usually two to three meters wide, and the cross-section of the wall was trapezoidal: wider at the bottom and narrower on top. The wall was about three to four meters high according to estimates of the time, and the width of the top was about one meter. On the remaining foundations of the stone walls, there are some obvious seams in some sections, indicating that the wall was constructed in divided sections.

The general run of the middle section was as follows: it started in the north of Xinghe County, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, went along the northern bank of Lake Huangqi, and went around the northern part of Jining City. It then extended to the west along the Daqing Mountains and passed Cayouzhong Banner, southern Wuchuan County, Damiao, Yinhao, and Xidoupu in the north of Guyang County. After that, it crossed Wuyuan and the northern area of Hangjinhou Banner, where the wall was between the Yin Mountains and the Yellow River. At last it reached Wulanbu and the northern border of the desert in the west. This middle section of the Qin Shihuang Great Wall made use of part of the old Northern Zhao Great Wall built in the Warring States Period, but there was also much that was newly built. The body of this section was built by laying stones, and fortresses were built beside the important passes, as well as beacon towers in the areas good for observation and keeping a lookout. The grandeur of this huge project cannot be compared to the common earthen walls of the Warring States Period. The parts which were well-protected had an average height of five to six meters and a three-meter-wide top. Every one-to-two kilometers, there was a small beacon tower, and every five kilometers, there was a large beacon tower and a garrison barrack.

The western section was built along the Yellow River, and it was mainly composed of fortresses and passes, but not a wall with all sections connected. In the Lintao area, off and on we can still see the remaining walls, which resemble a flying dragon. There are also some local places with the names of Changchengpo (“the Slope of the Great Wall”) and Changchengkou (“the Beginning of the Great Wall”). Judging from the fact that the Qin Zhaowang Great Wall (which used to traverse Gansu Province, the south of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, the north of Shaanxi Province and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region from the southwest to the northeast) had ceased to be defended by that time, we can infer that the western section of the Qin Shihuang Great Wall was not built on the basis of Qin Zhaowang Great Wall. This section of Great Wall needs further investigation.

Emperor Qin Shihuang’s policy of “making use of topographical advantages in building passes” demonstrates itself in that the Great Wall was largely constructed on mountain ridges, and the inner side of the wall was usually the gentler slope. In the parts of the Great Wall that crossed the river valleys, the workmen sometimes used moats to replace the walls and sometimes built a parallel wall at one side of the river valley. Between two mountains, the workmen would built a stone wall using the natural stones, forming the strategic “stone gates.” In the places where the Great Wall passed the main road in the valleys, the workmen usually built an “in-the-way pass” composed of stone or mixed stone and rammed earth. Just as a dam enclose reservoirs in the mountains, fortresses were also built beside the passes. All these measures helped greatly strengthen the defensive function of the Qin Shihuang Great Wall.

3. The Great General Meng Tian

Meng Tian used to be a prison warder responsible for documents. Later, he was appointed a general and had outstanding military exploits. After Meng Tian led the army to conquer the state of Qi, Emperor Qin Shihuang appointed him to be a neishi (an officer responsible for drafting imperial edicts and participating in policy decisions) and relied on his service very much.

After Emperor Qin Shihuang unified the six ducal states, in order to remove the threat of the Xiongnu to the northern prefectures of the Qin dynasty, the emperor ordered Meng Tian to lead three hundred thousand soldiers to drive out the Xiongnu troops and reoccupy the vast lands in the south of the Yellow River. He also ordered Meng Tian to build a Great Wall extending for ten thousand li and a straight road from Jiuyuan to Yuanyang, nine hundred kilometers long. These measures contributed to preventing Xiongnu harassment. In addition, Meng Tian led the troops stationed in Shangjun Prefecture for over ten years, overawing the Xiongnu people.

Besides placing special trust and confidence in Meng Tian, Emperor Qin Shihuang also treated his younger brother Meng Yi very well, often asking for his company and appointing him as shangqing (superior official). The Meng brothers thus had great power and influence in the imperial court and the whole country, and the other high officials dared not defy them. In the thirty-fourth year of Qin Shihuang’s reign (213 bce), because he had attempted to persuade the emperor not to burn books and bury scholars, the crown prince Fu Su was demoted to Shangjun Prefecture to supervise Meng Tian’s troops.

In the thirty-seventh year of Qin Shihuang’s reign (210 bce), the emperor went to the south to inspect Kuaiji and died from disease in Shaqiu on his way back. At that time, Meng Yi hadn’t returned yet from his imperial orders to pray for the mountains and rivers. The the eunuch officer in charge of the palace, Zhao Gao, Chengxiang (Grand Councilor) Li Si, and Prince Hu Hai, forged an imperial edict establishing Hu Hai as the crown prince and sent an emissary to “grant death” (a term used when the emperor ordered somebody to commit suicide) to Fu Su and Meng Tian. As a result, Fu Su committed suicide, but Meng Tian suspected that the imperial edict was fake and was unwilling to give in. He was therefore imprisoned in Yangzhou (in the south of Suide, present-day Shaanxi Province). Hu Hai wanted to release Meng Tian, but Zhao Gao had a personal grudge against Meng Yi. Worrying that it would be unfavorable to him if the Meng brothers were put in important positions again by the new emperor, he therefore made up charges against them. After Hu Hai was enthroned, believing the false accusation of Zhao Gao, he forced Meng Tian to commit suicide with poison.

The tomb of Meng Tian was on the northern bank of the Dali River in the southwest of Suide County, Shaanxi Province. It is said that after Meng Tian’s death, the officials and soldiers under him, in tears, used their bare hands to scoop earth to stack up a large tomb for him. The tomb was a kind of hummock, with a height of about over twenty meters, and now at the site there is a gravestone inscribed “The Tomb of the General Meng Tian of Qin,” which was written by the Prefect of Suide in the twenty-eighth year of the reign of Daoguang (1848) in the Qing dynasty. In the areas passed by the Great Wall in Gansu Province, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Shaanxi Province, and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, there are to this day still many legends and stories about General Meng Tian—especially in Suide County, where the legends are rich, captivating, and touching.

4. A Story Told by the Great Wall: “Meng Jiangnü’s Bitter Weeping”

Whenever people hear or talk about the Great Wall, the popular folk story of “Meng Jiangnü’s bitter weeping” might come into their minds. This story happened in Emperor Qin Shihuang’s reign, during which he collected millions of labors to join the huge project of building the Great Wall.

The legend goes that Wan Xiliang, who married Meng Jiangnü, was recruited to build the Great Wall on the third day after their marriage. In the following three years, his family heard nothing from him and they were all very anxious. One night, in the severe winter, his wife Meng Jiangnü had a dream in which her husband suddenly entered the house and shouted, “Close the door! I’m going to freeze to death!” Meng startled awake from the dream and, worrying about the situation of her husband, was extremely anxious and sad. Then she made up her mind to go find her husband and give him warm clothes. After several days of full preparation, Meng Jiangnü said goodbye to her parents and started her long journey looking for her husband.

Meng Jiangnü went through innumerable trials and hardships before finally arriving at the foot the Great Wall. The finished section of Great Wall was indeed grand and majestic, like a gigantic dragon stretching among high mountains and deep valleys. But the Great Wall was still under construction then. The civilian labors did extremely burdensome work under the strict supervision of the sergeants, but what they ate was worse than what horses got, so they were all skin and bones. Meng Jiangnü asked every person she met about her husband, but she got no answer, so she worried deeply. Later, a foreman told her that her husband Wan Xiliang had died several months before, and his remains were already filled into the Great Wall. This bad news struck her numb like a lightning bolt. Then she began to cry as if she was going to cry her heart out. Whoever heard her wails couldn’t help weeping.

Meng Jiangnü remained at the foot of the Great Wall crying for several days. She cried and cried. Suddenly, there came an earth-shaking blare, and the grand Great Wall was breached with a twenty-kilometer-wide gap. After the dust cleared off, heaps of bones of the dead laborers buried in the Great Wall appeared among the ruins. Meng Jiangnü then awoke from her deep sorrow and, wiping off her tears, she made out the remains of her husband. After burying her husband carefully, she threw herself into the sea with extreme hatred towards the corrupt and fatuous emperor. People of later times built Jiangnü Temple in the Shanhai Pass to pay tribute to the virtues of this great legendary woman.

5. Merits and Demerits of Building the Great Wall

The large-scale construction of the Great Wall ordered by Emperor Qin Shihuang was an important milestone in Chinese history, which influenced later feudal dynasties greatly in their management of state and military affairs. Evaluations of Qin Shihuang’s decision have varied widely in the last two thousand years, both praising and criticizing, and they can be summarized in two points

On one side, some argue that a sovereign country should set up defenses and prepare for war. If Emperor Qin Shihuang had not made up his mind to construct the Great Wall, it would have been hard to protect the security of the Qin dynasty and ensure its stability and development. Building the Great Wall guaranteed the safety of the agricultural production area inside the Great Wall as well. The measures taken to move people to the border area and cultivate the lands in the north accelerated the development of the border area and cemented frontier defense. This earliest Ten-thousand-li Great Wall had great military effect, forcing the Xiongnu to retreat to the northwest and not plunder and harass the south for several decades. Inside the Great Wall, society was stable and the population expanded, and the agricultural economy also developed stably and quickly.

On the other hand, many have criticized Qin Shihuang’s construction of the Great Wall, saying that the emperor was ruthless and the Great Wall was only a waste of man power and money.

The first centralized feudal dynasty in China, the Qin, met its doom soon after the death of Qin Shihuang, and the Qin Shihuang Great Wall—constructed at such a large cost of man power and money—was accordingly deserted. The centralization of state power pioneered by the Qin dynasty, however was adopted by all the later feudal dynasties. The Qin Shihuang Great Wall, though deserted, also influenced the basic defensive thinking of all later dynasties. The political system of the Qin dynasty—with its implementation of a common law, a common system of written characters, and common weights and measurements, as well as building the Great Wall and a system of straight roads—had enormous influence on the politics, economy, and military affairs of later dynasties. After the Qin dynasty’s demise, its inhumane methods of rule were utilized and further developed by later dynasties. The Qin dynasty in fact established a solid basis for the development of the feudal society of the Han dynasty. It was the inheritance of the Qin dynasty’s political reforms that allowed the state apparatus of the Western Han dynasty to quickly function well.

The Frontier Wall of Emperor Wu: the Western Han Great Wall

1. The Political Situation of the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu

In the early Western Han dynasty (206 bce-25 ce), Maodun, the son of Chanyu Touman of Xiongnu, killed his father and swept up the neighboring tribes. He entrench his position on the land of the central plains and became more and more powerful.

As Liu Bang fought Xiang Yu in the central plains, Maodun seized the opportunity to intrude into the south, besieging Mayi and attacking Taiyuan, and he finally arrived at Jinyang City, which was located in the heartland of the Western Han dynasty.

In response, Liu Bang, by then Emperor Gaozu of the Han dynasty, personally led 320,000 infantry and cavalry to “expel the Xiongnu troops from Jinyang, and chased them northward to Pingcheng City in numerous victories” (according to the “Biography of Emperor Gaozu” in the Book of Han). Because the Western Han dynasty was recently established, however, and the regime had to be cemented, the country couldn’t afford more troops to drive the Xiongnu people further northward; therefore, it once adopted the policy of cementing friendly relations through political marriages with the Xiongnu. Even in the decades of friendly relation, however, the Xiongnu regime continued to harass the Han dynasty. According to the “Account of the Xiongnu” in the Historical Records, they “plundered the border area of the Han dynasty countless times,” and “in the fourteenth year of the reign of Xiaowen of the Han dynasty, the chanyu (leader) of the Xiongnu people led 140,000 cavalry and entered Chaona and Xiaoguan Pass, killing Mao, the duwei (junior general) of Beidi, and plundering many people and their properties.”

Facing this harassment from the Xiongnu, Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing struck back many times and repaired the Great Wall built in the Qin dynasty. They set up a string of beacon towers to convey the enemy’s disposition along the line from Chang’an to the Great Wall, greatly enhancing the defensive system and fighting back the Xiongnu’s invasion more effectively. Later, Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing, by adopting the advice of Jia Yi, Chao Cuo, and others, gradually pacified the rebellion of the princes and dukes in the early Han dynasty and restored the remaining forces of the slave owners, stabilizing the regime.

Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty was an important person, who, after Emperor Qin Shihuang unified the country, further cemented the centralized feudal system. He had long been cautious towards the Xiongnu, who by nature loved plunder, and once on the throne, he decided to strike back uncompromisingly. In the seventh year after he was enthroned (134 bce), he appointed Minister of the Palace Guards (weiwei) Li Guang as General of Valiant Cavalry to lead the troops stationed in Yunzhong, and he appointed Minister of the Guard (chongwei) Cheng Bushi as General of Chariots in charge of the troops stationed in Yanmen (according to the “Biography of Emperor Wu” in the Book of Han). During the Yuanshuo reign (128 bce-123 bce), however, Xiongnu troops repeatedly invaded Han and killed many officials and commoners in Liaoxi, Shanggu, and Yuyang. Emperor Wu therefore commanded Wei Qing and Huo Qubing to lead the army to drive Xiongnu out. In order to effectively prevent the ease of movement of the Xiongnu troops, aside from frontal attacks on the enemy, fortifications were also be enhanced.

Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty not only repaired the Qin Great Wall but also built a new Great Wall, whose scale and magnificence far surpassed the Qin Shihuang Great Wall. Emperor Wu’s Great Wall was mainly built in the Hexi Corridor. According to the “Account of Dawan” in the Historical Records, “the Han dynasty began construction on the Great Wall to the west of Lingju, and it established Jiuquan Prefecture to communicate with the states in the northwest.” In the mid-Yuanshuo reign, the Great Wall was extended from Yongdeng (Lingju in ancient times), Gansu Province to Jiuquan. In the second year of the Yuanshou reign (121 bce), Emperor Wu commanded General of the Flying Cavalry Huo Qubing to go to Longxi and drive the Xiongnu people away. The Xiongnu Duke Kunxie, after killing Prince Xiutu, led forty thousand people to surrender to the Han dynasty. Emperor Wu therefore set up two prefectures in the Hexi area, Wuwei and Jiuquan, and began the construction of the Hexi Great Wall.

The “Account of Dawan” in the Historical Records also records that in the sixth year of the Yuanding reign (111 bce), Emperor Wu commanded Zhao Ponu to defeat the Xiongnu; thereupon, the Great Wall was extended from Jiuquan to Yumen. In the same year, the Han dynasty reestablished the two prefectures of Zhangye and Dunhuang. In the fourth year of the Taichu reign (101 bce), the Great Wall was further extended westward from Yumen to Yanze (present-day Lopnur, Xinjiang). Within less than ten years, the Hexi Great Wall of more than one thousand kilometers was finished.

Emperor Wu further developed and improved the overall arrangement of the Great Wall, making the vast area within and beyond the Great Wall an integrated defensive system, with fortresses and passes built at set intervals at strategic positions and connected with beacon towers.

In order to fight back against the harassment of the Xiongnu, develop the production of the dependent states in the Western Region, and protect the trunk road leading to the east, Emperor Wu started the construction of fortresses and beacon towers to the west of Dunhuang and Loulan.

When Emperor Zhao was enthroned, he continued Emperor Wu’s policy of fighting back against the Xiongnu. According to the Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government, “In the first year of the Yuanfeng reign, the Xiongnu sent twenty thousand cavalry in four units and crossed the border of the Han dynasty. The Han troops chased them, killing and capturing nine thousand people, notably the Prince of Outuo, while the Han troops suffered few losses.” The Xiongnu therefore “retreated to the northwest and dared not intrude into the south any longer. The Han dynasty moved people to Outuo.” Emperor Zhao also built up the eastern section of the Great Wall and called on people to cultivate land in the garrison area, and according to the “Biography of Emperor Zhao” in the Book of Han, “in the first month of the sixth year of the Yuanfeng reign, he recruited the people of Junguo to build Xuantu Town in Liaodong.”

After Emperor Wu and Emperor Zhao, Emperor Xuan continued to build fortifications, further developing the production of the dependent states in the Western Region. In the third year of the Dijie reign (67 bce), Emperor Xuan sent Vice Minister Zheng Ji to extend the Great Wall and build agricultural colonies in Quli, and in the second year of the Shenjue reign (60 bce), the emperor appointed Captain of the Cavalry Zheng Ji as the protector-general of the Western Region, establishing the Protectorate of the Western Region in Wulei City to administer the thirty-six dependent states, including Wusun, Dawan, Kangju, Taohuai, Shule, and Wulei.

The number of dependent states in the Western Region later increased to 50, and “from post officers to princes and dukes, all bore the official seals of Han, totaling 376 people.”

2. Rambling Along the Western Han Great Wall

The Qin Shihuang Great Wall was already of a large scale, but the Western Han Great Wall was even larger, including the addition of a newly-built outer Great Wall. The total length of the Western Han Great Wall reached ten thousand kilometers; therefore, among the walls built by all of China’s dynasties the Western Han Great Wall was the longest.

The Western Han Great Wall started at Liaodong in the east and reached Yanze in the west. Its eastern section was mainly reconstructed on the foundations of the Qin Great Wall, though north of the Yin Mountains there were added passes and fortresses, while the section from the Hexi Corridor to the west was newly built.

Besides its ramparts, the Western Han Great Wall also had fortresses, watchtowers, beacon towers, fortified passes, moats, barracks, and so on. Along the Great Wall, there was a beacon tower every five miles, a watchtower every ten miles, a fortress every thirty miles, and a fortified pass every one hundred miles, constituting a tight line of defense.

1) The Western Section of the Western Han Great Wall

The western section of the Western Han Great Wall started at the side of Sugunuo’er Lake in Ejina Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, went south along the Ejina River, and then turned west along the Beida River in Jinta County, Gansu Province. It then extended along the southern foot of Beishan Mountain and the side of the Shule River till reaching Xiaofangpan City in the northwest of Dunhuang County. From there it continued westward, passing Lopnur and the side of the Kongque River, but at that point there were no walls, only continuous beacon towers. The Great Wall and beacon towers in the Juyan area were built to cut the connection between the Xiongnu people and the Qiang people and to protect the Hexi Corridor—the important path from the Han dynasty to the Western Region. There are about thirty sites of the Great Wall left now, including passes and walls, beacon towers, and administrative offices of commandants and captains. The western section of the Western Han Great Wall was mainly built of rammed earth or adobe. Reeds were usually placed between the layers of rammed earth to add erosion resistance. Some sections were built by laying flagstones on the two sides of the wall and filling gravel in the middle, or even by simply laying brushwood atop tightly-pressed gravel.

The Western Han Great Wall effectively stopped the northern nomadic tribes’ harassment of the agricultural areas in the south. Many cultural relics of the Han dynasty have been found in the sites of the Western Han Great Wall, indicating that products such as haircloth, grapes, and the fruits of the western countries were transported all the way to Chang’an and the areas to the southeast along the Silk Road. The Western Han Great Wall thus also played an important role in ensuring the smoothness of the Silk Road and the communication of art and culture between China and other countries.

2) The Middle Section of the Western Han Great Wall

The middle section of the Western Han Great Wall refers to the part between Shangdu and Ejina Banner in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. It was composed of two walls, with the outer wall built in the early Western Han dynasty lying on the prairie to the north of the Qin Great Wall. These two walls had a distance varying from five to fifty kilometers between them. They were built of both stamped earth and stonework, or by using cliffs as one side of the wall. Many farming tools from the Han dynasty have been discovered along this section of the Great Wall, indicating that the defending troops also engaged in agricultural production.

3) The Eastern Section of the Western Han Great Wall

The eastern section of the Western Han Great Wall refers to the part stretching from Shangdu to the Liaodong Peninsula. The Western Han Great Wall in the Chengde area of Hebei Province was located to the south of the Qin Great Wall and the Yan Great Wall, and to the north of the Ming Great Wall. Its construction was based on the old principle of “making use of topographical advantages in building passes,” and the ramparts were combined with blockhouses, most of which were built of rammed earth. The section of the Western Han Great Wall in the Chifeng area of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region was to the south of the Yan Great Wall of the Warring States Period and the Qin Shihuang Great Wall built in the Qin dynasty. The Western Han Great Wall remains in present-day Liaoning Province begin at Fuxin city in Liaoning Province, pass Zhangwu, Faku, and Kaiyuan to the east, and then turn to the south, entering the territory of North Korea near Xinbin and Kuandian. Judging from the characteristics of this section of the Great Wall, which has the construction characteristics of both the state of Yan and the Han dynasty, the Western Han Great Wall here was built on the basis of the Yan Great Wall.

3. The Defensive System of the Hexi Corridor

Along the Great Wall in the Hexi Corridor were fortresses, forts, beacon towers, and fortified passes, which altogether constituted an integrated defensive system.

The fortresses were small settlements near the Great Wall, which were usually built in especially strategic positions, not only for defense but also for observing the enemy. The commandants and captains responsible for defense of the prefecture were stationed in the fortresses, ready to fight at a moment’s notice. There were also additional structures which served the needs of the fortresses and helped them to function. They were usually built beside the fortresses or beacon towers. It should be noted that this kind of construction pattern had never appeared in the fortifications built by the earlier dynasties; it was pioneered by the Han dynasty. The beacon towers were square or circular, with sides or diameters of ten meters or so. They were usually several meters or even more than ten meters high. At present, more than three hundred beacon towers have been found in Jiuquan, Zhangye and Weiwu of Gansu Province. The fortified passes were usually built on the post road inside the Great Wall and were important gates on the Silk Road. In the four prefectures in the Hexi area, there were four famous passes, namely the Yumenguan Pass, the Yangguan Pass, the Jinguan Pass, and the Xuansuoguan Pass. On the post road there were also many post stations, where people could rest or stay.

The Han dynasty built the strategic fortifications in the Hexi Corridor in order to defend against the invasions of Xiongnu troops and ensure the smoothness of the Silk Road. The Han dynasty’s promotion of agricultural colonies of soldiers and civilians in this area was also of great significance in the development of the northwest. Thanks to the dry and sparsely populated local environment, a large proportion of these splendid achievements and structures has remained in existence, which has provided large amount of precious materials for later researchers.

Since the twentieth century, especially after 1949, after careful and all-around investigation and excavation, the fortifications of the Han dynasty have reappeared at last, and modern people have gradually become aware of them. In addition, tens of thousands of precious wooden slips (the form of book before paper was invented) of the Han dynasty unearthed at these sites have also provided precious materials for the research about the defensive system, garrisons, and fortifications of the Han dynasty.

4. The Tuntian (Agricultural Colony) System and the Great Wall

Tuntian, the policy of recruiting soldiers or peasants to cultivate the land in a garrison area, was an important part of promoting production and preparing for war, and it was closely related to the construction of the Great Wall. In fact, Emperor Qin Shihuang had already initiated this system when he ordered the construction of the Great Wall, setting up prefectures and moving people to the border areas. The Han dynasty inherited the system of the Qin dynasty. Especially during the reigns of Emperor Wu, Emperor Zhao, and Emperor Xuan, the rulers adopted the measures advocated by Sang Hongyang, Chao Cuo, and Zhao Chongguo, who advised further movement of the population to the border area. This policy was extensively implemented and agricultural production in the garrison area was developed. In the garrison areas along the Great Wall, in the fortresses, and in remote areas, defensive troops and migrant civilians cultivated the land together and constructed irrigation systems to prepare for war.

Zhao Chongguo, a great general who drove the Xiongnu people far north several times during Emperor Wu’s reign, intensely advocated building walls and developing agricultural production in the garrison areas. Emperor Wu adopted his proposals on two occasions. Emperor Zhao furthered this policy of developing agricultural colonies at the suggestion of Sang Hongyang. In the first half of the year after he was enthroned, “in the winter of the second year of the Houyuan reign, the Xiongnu entered Shuofang, killing officials and civilians”; therefore, the government set up a prefecture and “mobilized troops to be stationed in the Hexi area and develop agricultural production there.”

During Emperor Xuan’s reign, the government further developed the agricultural colonies in the Western Region which had been started by Emperor Wu. In the third year of the Shenjue reign (59 bce), the emperor created the office of the Protector-general of the Western Region (the protectorate was in Wulei Town, or present-day Luntai County, Xinjiang) in the central area of the dependent states of the Western Region. The protector-general administered and governed the agricultural colonies of the fifty dependent states of the time; agricultural production in the garrison area of the Western Region was thus greatly developed. Besides the main areas such as Shanshan, Cheshi, Luntai, and Quli, Chigu City in Wusun was also an important agricultural colony. Before setting up general protectorate, Emperor Wu had sent emissary commanders here along with officers for the forts, beacon towers, and so on.. A Han dynasty bamboo slip unearthed in Juyan proves this.

Agricultural production in the garrison areas during the Qin and Han dynasties provided the materials necessary for fighting the Xiongnu and consolidating defensive work. In later dynasties, there were not only agricultural colonies of defending troops but also of peasants. This policy played an important role in developing the uninhabited areas. When tracing its origin, we find that in fact it was closely related to the construction of the Great Wall.

5. Heroes of the Great Wall: Wei Qing and Huo Qubing

The life of Wei Qing can be summarized with the word “legendary.” His mother was a maid in the residence of Princess Pingyang (the sister of Emperor Wu). She gave birth to Wei Qing after she committed adultery with Zheng Ji, an official in Pingyang County. When Wei Qing was young, he was sent to his father’s home, but he was looked down upon and humiliated by the Zhengs because of his birth. After he grew a little older, Wei Qing didn’t want to endure humiliation in the Zheng family any longer, so he returned to live with his mother, who remained in an inferior position—working as a stable slave in the residence of Princess Pingyang. It was foretold that he would be an official and granted a title by the emperor in the future, but Wei Qing smiled bitterly and said, “I’m only the son of a slave, and I would be satisfied if I were not lashed or scolded in the future. How dare I hold the wild wish of being granted a title?”

Some time later, Wei Zifu, the sister of Wei Qing, was chosen by Emperor Wu as a concubine, so Wei Qing was also brought into the palace to work. Emperor Wu soon discovered the military talents of Wei Qing; his military career thus started. In the fifth year of the Yuanguang reign (130 bce), Emperor Wu appointed Wei Qing as General of Chariots and commanded him, along with other generals, to lead ten thousand cavalry on an expedition against the Xiongnu. Thus began Wei Qing’s journey of fighting on the battlefield to serve the country. Later, his sister Wei Zifu gave birth to the crown prince and was established as queen. Consequently, Wei Qing also won more trust from Emperor Wu, and was put in more important positions.

In the second year of the Yuanshuo reign (127 bce), the Xiongnu amassed many troops to attack Shanggu and Yuyang. Emperor Wu decided to shun the main army of the Xiongnu and attack their weak areas; therefore, he sent Wei Qing to lead an army to attack the area of Henan (Hetao) which had been occupied by the Xiongnu for a long time. Wei Qing led forty thousand troops out from Yunzhong. He adopted flanking tactics, arriving at the rear of the Xiongnu troops, and occupied Gaoque quickly. He then led the crack cavalry galloping southward to Longxi, enveloping the Xiongnu troops of Prince Baiyang and Prince Loufan. The Xiongnu troops found that they were in an unfavorable situation and fled in a flurry. The Han troops captured thousands of enemies and more than a million livestock, regaining complete control of the Hetao area completely. For this great achievement, Wei Qing was granted the title of Marquis of Changping.

In spring of the fifth year of the Yuanshuo reign (124 bce), Emperor Wu ordered Wei Qing to lead thirty thousand cavalry from Gaoque on an expedition against the Xiongnu. Wei Qing led his army on a forced march of six-to-seven hundred li. They besieged the tent of Prince Youxian at night while he was drinking in his tent with beautiful concubines in his arms. Somewhat drunk, when he suddenly heard the chaos of battle outside the tent, he was frightened out of his wits. Prince Youxian only managed to break through the tight encirclement with several hundred cavalry, fleeing to the north. The Han troops captured over ten of Prince Youxian’s commanders, more than fifteen thousand people, and millions of livestock in this battle, gaining a complete victory. Emperor Wu was overjoyed upon the arrival of this message and sent an emissary to the army to confer the rank of Great General on Wei Qing.

Wei Qing, the son of a slave, had now become Great General, and the officials in the imperial court all flattered him. At that time, Princess Pingyang was widowed and sought a husband among the marquis. Many people said that Great General Wei Qing was a quite suitable person, so Emperor Wu permitted their marriage immediately. In this way, Wei Qing and Emperor Wu developed a much closer relationship, and he won even more trust from the emperor. Nevertheless, Wei Qing was still very modest and benevolent; he respected worthy people and never oppressed others with his power and influence.

In his whole life, Wei Qing fought seven wars with the Xiongnu. He dared to deploy military forces in the rear of the enemy and was good at mounting both surprise attacks and normal attacks. As a general, he was strict in executing orders and observing discipline, and he also shared in the comforts and hardships of the soldiers. In battle, he usually galloped at the head, and the officers and soldiers were all willing to serve him. Wei Qing at last died from disease in the first year of the Yuanfeng reign (105 bce).

Huo Qubing was the nephew of Great General Wei Qing, and as the son of the queen’s sister, he was selected to be an imperial attendant at the age of only eighteen. Since he loved horse archery, he followed Great General Wei Qing to battle in the sixth year of the Yuanshuo reign (123 bce). He led eight hundred light cavalry to attack the Xiongnu, killing two thousand Xiongnu troops. For this, he was granted the title of Marquis of Guanjun. In the second year of the Yuanshou reign (121 bce), he was promoted to General of the Flying Cavalry. He led the army against the Xiongnu six times, and saw impressive achievements in two battles. In the second year of the Yuanshou reign, Huo Qubing, now the General of the Flying Cavalry, led ten thousand cavalry from the area of Longxi across Yanzhi Mountain (in the southeast of present-day Gansu Province), and after galloping for a thousand li, attacked the Xiongnu. He killed almost nine thousand Xiongnu and seized the bronze figure of the Buddha Prince Xiutu which the Xiongnu used to offer sacrifices to heaven. In the summer of the same year, the army again went out of the Longxi and Longbei area. Moving two thousand li, they crossed Juyan Lake and marched into Qilian Mountain, where they captured and killed over thirty thousand Xiongnu troops. This battle dealt a heavy blow to the right branch of Xiongnu, resulting in a split inside the Xiongnu. Prince Hunxie then killed Prince Xiutu and led over forty thousand people in pledging allegiance to the Han dynasty. The Han dynasty allocated these Xiongnu people to newly cleared land outside of the frontier fortresses and set up five dependent states according to the customs of the Xiongnu people. The Han dynasty later set up the four prefectures of Wuwei, Zhangye, Jiuquan, and Dunhuang in the Hexi Corridor area, which facilitated direct communication between the central areas and the Western Region, and played an important role in the rise of Western Han and the fall of the Xiongnu.

In deploying military forces, Huo Qubing emphasized the practical situation and never abided by obsolete military tactics. Emperor Wu used to ask him to teach him military tactics, but Huo said, “Deploying military forces must be based on the factual conditions; only learning tactics is not enough.” When Emperor Wu granted him a mansion, Huo said, “as long as the Xiongnu are not annihilated, I have no home.” He was intrepid in combay, always galloping to the head, and he usually led a small advance guard of the main army. However, since Huo Qubing had grown up in a rich family and later lived in a palace, he capitalized on his noble identity and failed to show solicitude for his soldiers. When the army was deployed outside of the Great Wall, Emperor Wu used to supply him with over ten wagons of food and drink; when the army moved on, however, he would abandon large amounts of delicious food, leaving officers and soldiers alike pale with hunger.

In total, Huo Qubing led fourteen campaigns against the Xiongnu, each time returning victorious. He annihilated 110,000 enemies, made forty thousand enemies surrender, and greatly enlarged the territory of the Han dynasty. His martial achievements were even greater than those of his uncle Wei Qing. After achieving so much, Huo Qubing final attained the zenith of his life as Great Minister of War and General of the Flying Cavalry; however, only two years later, in the sixth year of the Yuanshou reign (117 bce), Huo Qubing died at only twenty-four.

The Great Wall from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Jin Dynasty

1. The Eastern Han Great Wall: Buried in History

In the first year of the Jianwu reign, Emperor Guangwu (Liu Xiu), fought wars from east to west to destroy the forces of the many treacherous generals and anti-Han forces; therefore, he had no time and energy to pay attention to the situation in the north and the appearance of various hidden troubles. In these circumstances, the troops sent to fight the Xiongnu were defeated again and again. Spurred on, the Xiongnu became more savage, killing and plundering the Han people at will. Facing domestic unrest and foreign invasion, Emperor Guangwu was extremely anxious; he therefore sent generals to recruit soldiers to develop agricultural colonies in Jinyang, Guangwu, Changshan (Zhiyuan, in the northwest of present-day Yuanshi, Hebei Province), Zhuojun Prefecture (present-day Zhuoxian County, Hebei province), and Yuyang so as to prepare defenses against Xiongnu invasion. In the twelfth year of the Jianwu reign (36 ce), the central plains were largely pacified, so Emperor Guangwu had the energy to turn his attention to the north at last. He began to dedicate himself to the development of the north.

In order to protect the capital Luoyang and defend against the harassment of the Xiongnu, Emperor Guangwu ordered the construction of four Great Walls in the fourteenth year of the Jianwu reign (38 ce). One was located between Lishi County, Shanxi Province and the southeast of Xianyang, Shaanxi Province. The second one was situated between present-day Gaoling County, Shaanxi Province and Anyi County, Shanxi Province. The third one was located between present-day Taiyuan, Shanxi Province and Jingjing County, Hebei Province. The fourth one was situated between the south of present-day Dingzhou city and Linzhang County, Hebei Province.

The walls constructed in the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220), however, have largely been buried by history. No vestige or relic sites have been found, so modern archaeologists have not yet proved their existence.

2. The Northern Wei and Eastern Wei Great Walls

1) The Northern Wei Great Wall

The Northern Wei dynasty (386-534) ruled a vast area north of the Yellow River. The rulers of the Northern Wei dynasty were from the Tuoba clan of the Xianbei people. Originally nomads, they became much stronger after gaining control of the central plains, where agricultural production predominated, and they continued the feudal society and economy of the area. To the north of the dynasty were two strong nomadic tribes, the Rouran and the Qidan, who were still in the historical stage of the slave society; these slave owners harassed the south from time to time. The Northern Wei dynasty therefore adopted the method of which the Qin and Han dynasties had used to defend against the Xiongnu—building a Great Wall.

According to the “Biography of Emperor Mingyuan” in the History of the Wei Dynasty, Emperor Mingyuan ordered the construction of a Great Wall to the south of Changchuan in 423, the eighth year of the Taichang reign. The wall began in Chicheng (present-day Chicheng County, Hebei Province) and reached Wuyuan in the west (present-day Wuyuan County, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region), stretching for more than two thousand li. In 446, the seventh year of the Taipingzhenjun reign, over one hundred thousand people from Sizhou were sent to build a Great Wall around Ji (the capital). The wall started at Shanggu and ended at the river, covering a distance of thousands of li. It started in today’s Juyongguan, Beijing, and stretched southward to Linqiu. It reached Hequ County, Shanxi Province after passing the passes of Pingxing, Beilou, Yanmen, Ningwu, and Piantou in the west. This wall was called Jishangsaiwei or the Great Wall Around Ji (Ji means capital) because it protected the southern side of the capital, today’s Datong.

2) The Eastern Wei Great Wall

In 534, Gao Huan established Yuan Shanjian as Emperor Xiaojing of the Northern Wei dynasty and Emperor Xiaowu went to Yu Wentai for shelter; the Northern Wei dynasty was thus divided into the Eastern Wei and the Western Wei. After the Eastern Wei dynasty (534-550) moved its capital to Ye, it built a Great Wall. According to the Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government, in the seventh year of the Wuding reign (549 ce) of the Eastern Wei dynasty, Gao Huan ordered a Great Wall built on Bei Mountain in Sizhou, starting at Maling in the west (present-day Jingle County, Shanxi Province) and reaching Tudeng in the east (present-day Guoxian County, Shanxi Province). The project was finished in forty days. This section of the Great Wall stretched from southwest to northeast in the Lüliang Mountains for a total length of seventy-five kilometers.

3. The Northern Qi, Northern Zhou, and Sui Great Walls

1) The Northern Qi Great Wall

In 550, Gao Yang seized the throne of the Eastern Wei dynasty, and the dynasty was renamed Qi, known to history as Northern Qi. The Northern Qi dynasty (550-577) had a vast territory, including present-day Hebei Province, Henan Province, Shanxi Province, and Shandong Province. To its north, there were threats from the nomadic tribes of Tujue, Rouran, Qidan and so on, and to its west the Northern Zhou regime opposed it. For the sake of defense, the Northern Qi dynasty began to build its own Great Wall. According to the History of the Northern Dynasties, in the third year of Tianbao reign (552 ce), the Northern Qi dynasty built a Great Wall from Xihezongqinshu (in the northwest of today’s Datong) to the Bohai Sea (at the present-day Shanhai Pass) in the east. In the sixth year of the Tianbao reign (555 ce), the emperor ordered a levy of 1,800,000 people to build another Great Wall from Xiakou in Youzhou (present-day Nankou, at the Juyongguan Pass in Beijing) to Hengzhou (present-day Datong City) in the west, with a total length of over nine hundred li. In the first year of the Tiantong reign (565 ce), in the strategically important positions of the two thousand li from Kuduishu to the sea, fortresses were built on mountains and in valleys. According to the History of the Northern Dynasties, the east-west Great Wall constructed by the Northern Qi dynasty stretched for more than 1500 kilometers, with a garrison post every thirty kilometers, and twenty-five prefectures and towns were set up in the strategic positions to station troops for defense. In the beginning of the eighth year of the Tianbao reign (557 ce), the Northern Qi dynasty built a wall inside the original Great Wall, from Kuluoba (in the southwest of Datong today) to Wuheshu (in the northeast of Pingxingguan), which had a total length of more than two hundred kilometers. In the first year of the Tiantong reign (565 ce), the dynasty again extended the inner Great Wall in Wuheshu to the east and connected it with the outer wall of Juyongguan.

In addition, in order to defend against the Northern Zhou dynasty, the Northern Qi dynasty also built a south-north Great Wall. According to the Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government, in the second year of the Heqing reign (563 ce), Minister of Public Works Hulü Guang led twenty thousand troops to build a Great Wall of over one hundred kilometers. This is the section of the Great Wall today we see between Youguan, Guangchang, and Fuping.

Among all of the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420-589), the Northern Qi dynasty added the most to the network of the Great Wall.

2) The Northern Zhou Great Wall

In 557, Yuwen Jue usurped the throne of the Western Wei dynasty and renamed the dynasty Zhou, known to history as Northern Zhou. Its territory included Hebei Province, Shanxi Province, and Shandong Province. In order to defend against the Tujue and Qidan to the north, the Northern Zhou dynasty rebuilt the old Western Wei dynasty Great Wall in the north. The Northern Qi dynasty and the Northern Zhou dynasty lay one in the east and the other in the west, but the latter was much stronger than the former. In 557, the Northern Zhou dynasty conquered the Northern Qi dynasty. Later, since the Tujue harassed the border repeatedly, the Northern Zhou dynasty rebuilt the Northern Qi Great Wall again.

3) The Sui Great Wall

In 581, Yang Jian unified China and established the dynasty named Sui (581-618). Ending the four hundred years of feudal separation since the late Eastern Han dynasty, Emperor Wen began construction on the Great Wall as soon as he was enthroned in order to fend off the intrusions of the Tujue, Qidan, and Tuguhun. During the Sui, the government adopted the strategies of associating with distant countries and attacking near ones and making mischief among the khans inside the Tujue tribe. These strategies were effective, but the Tujue nevertheless remained their deepest worry. With no other methods available, the government had to build the Great Wall; therefore, the Sui dynasty engaged in large-scale construction on the Great Wall: seven times in a mere thirty-seven years, each time levying hundreds of thousands of civilian labors—perhaps even a million.

The Great Wall built in the Sui dynasty nonetheless only appears in historical records, not in the archaeological record. There are perhaps three reasons:

First, the Sui dynasty rebuilt and repaired many parts of the Great Wall, mostly on the basis of the Qin and Han Great Wall, but rarely built new walls itself; therefore, the sections rebuilt or repaired by the Sui dynasty are still regarded as belonging to the Qin and Han Great Walls.

Second, construction on the Sui Great Wall was usually finished in a short time and with poor quality. Most of the earthen sections were not rammed; therefore, after the weathering of many years, some have become present-day hills and some have long disappeared.

Lastly, some of the Great Wall built by the Sui dynasty might be covered by the Great Wall constructed in the Ming dynasty, so it can no longer be seen.

4. The Great Wall in the Tang, Song, and Liao Dynasties

1) The Great Wall in the Tang dynasty

The Tang dynasty (618-907) was very strong and had a vast territory; therefore, it didn’t need the Great Wall to function as a protective screen but only as a means to prevent harassment by tribes such as the Xi and the Qidan. Consequently, it only made use of or restored very few sections of the Great Wall. In this era, however, the states of Bohai and Koryo, border each other on the Korean Peninsula, constructed long walls similar to the Great Wall of the Chinese central plains. As the states of Liao, Northern Song, and Western Xia, confronted each other, a large part of the Great Wall was under the control of the Qidan.

2) The Great Wall in the Song dynasty

According to historical records, in order to defend against the invasions of the Qidan and Western Xia, the Song dynasty (960-1279) constructed series of fortresses on the border, but they didn’t form an effective defensive system. In this period, development of the Great Wall stagnated.

3) The Great Wall in the Liao dynasty

The Liao dynasty (907-1125) was a regional dynasty established by the Qidan people in the north of China. The Liao dynasty was known as the Qidan Kingdom when it was first established in 907 but renamed itself Liao in 947. It was overthrown by the Jurchen people in 1125 after lasting for more than 210 years.

The Great Wall constructed in the Liao dynasty is scarcely noted in the historical literature. According to the “Biography of Emperor Taizu” in the History of the Liao Dynasty, in the second year of the Kaiping reign (908), “Liao constructed the Great Wall in Zhengdonghaikou.” Vestiges of this wall can perhaps be seen on Nanguan Mountain in the Jinzhou area of present-day Dalian. Relics like iron arrowheads have been found here, indicating that the Zhengdonghaikou Great Wall of the Liao dynasty was likely located here.

5. The Jin Great Wall

The Jin Great Wall was of a unique style and large scale, and it was the third so-called Ten-thousand-li Great Wall after the Qin Shihuang Great Wall and the Western Han Great Wall. It is also known as the Jin Border Moat or the Jin Border Fortress.

At the end of the eleventh century, the Wanyan tribe of the Jurchen people rose to power in northeast China and established a confederation of tribes. In 1115, the leader of the Wanyan tribe, Akutta, established the Jin dynasty (1115-1234). In 1125, intrepid Jin troops overthrew the Liao dynasty. The rising power of the Mongols, however, sent troops to invade the Jin dynasty many times after 1121. The Jin government thus had to build fortifications and organize defenses against the invasions of the Mongols. This project was started in 1138 and finished in 1198, taking sixty years. The Jin Great Wall started from Hulunbei’er League in the east and reached the Daqing Mountains in the west, with a total length of over five thousand kilometers. Situated in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Heilongjiang Province, this Jin Great Wall was only inferior to the previous two Ten-thousand-li Great Walls.

The defensive system of the Jin Great Wall was suitable for steppe topography. Its main structure was moat dug to prevent war horses from crossing, and on the inner side of the moat a long wall was built. It also included a rational deployment of main and auxiliary walls, garrison posts, and beacon towers. The Jin Great Wall encompassed various forms and geographical positions, with troops stationed in garrison posts, fortresses, and passes. There are still hundreds of kilometers of Jin Great Wall left, traversing the vast steppe.

The Qiqiha’er section was the earliest section of the Jin Great Wall. On its high and intact main walls, there are watchtowers and a galloping path on which horses and chariots could pass, and outside of the wall there is a moat to protect the main wall. Outside of the main walls, there are disconnected second or even third layers of wall and moat to strengthen the defensive function. Garrison fortresses are located inside the wall. The section of the Jin Great Wall in Zhalantun City had a total length of over 140 kilometers, which was all of a single wall and moat, but most parts of this section have been buried in the sand and grass. Most sections had a height of two meters, the maximum was eight meters, and about fifteen to twenty meters outside of the wall there was a moat, which was two to six meters wide and three to four meters deep. Inside the wall, there were square garrison fortresses built of rammed earth, about 180 meters in the length around the four sides; they were built every ten kilometers or so. Past historical literature also refers to it as the Taizhou Border Moat, the Changchun Border Fortress, or the Chinggis Khan Border Wall.

The Magnificent Ming Great Wall

1. The Historical Background of the Ming Great Wall

The Ming Great Wall was the most magnificent Great Wall in China. During the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), the rulers—regardless of cost, spending more than two hundred years and using large amounts of labor and money—rebuilt the Great Wall. They changed the line of and extended the original walls, producing the last, famous Ten-thousand-li Great Wall.

There were profound historical and political factors behind the construction of this ten-thousand-li-long, world-shaking, enormously costly military defense project. After the many years of war in the late Yuan dynasty (1206-1368), there was an empty treasury when the Ming dynasty was established. The military’s strength was also quite weak, and they were frequently defeated in wars against the remaining troops of the Yuan. This austere reality made the Ming dynasty realize that with their strength, then they were unable to annihilate the remaining forces of the Yuan dynasty. How, then, to stabilize and solidify their newly acquired rule? Zhu Yuanzhang chose to continue the way of governing he had adopted before the Ming dynasty was established: the policy of “building walls high, storing grains broadly, and delay in enthronement” proposed by Zhu Sheng. “Building walls high” was a long-term military tactic intended to allow one to consolidate one’s strength and attack only when the chance came. Applied to the defense, it meant building walls to defend the border. In 1368, after Zhu Yuanzhang gained the throne, he began construction work on the Great Wall.

After more than ten years’ efforts, the defensive capabilities of the Ming dynasty in the north were greatly strengthened, and the Ming dynasty began to launch wars against the remaining forces of the Yuan dynasty. In February of the twentieth year of the reign of Hongwu (1387), the General Feng Sheng led one hundred thousand troops to attack the Nahachu tribe of the Northern Yuan, defeated them utterly, and disintegrated the remaining forces of the Mongols. The remaining Mongolian nobles pledged allegiance to the Ming dynasty. They were not willing to submit totally to the Ming dynasty, however, so the Mongolian nobles of the Northern Yuan had many intense conflicts with the Ming dynasty. From 1390 to 1396, the Ming dynasty launched wars against the tribes of the Northern Yuan and essentially established a stable situation in the border area.

In Gansu Province, the Ming dynasty pacified the Hexi area early on and set up the Gansu Garrison to be responsible for defensive affairs; the Hexi area was thus quite stable. After several effective expeditions to the north, the troubles on its northern border, especially Hebei Province, Shanxi Province, and Shaanxi Province, were largely alleviated. The forced westward movement of the Mongolian tribes, however, brought many troubles to the border area of Gansu Province.

During the reigns of Hongzhi and Zhengde, in order to defend against the intrusions of the Mongols, the Ming dynasty discussed the necessity of rebuilding the Great Wall again. In the early Ming dynasty, the government established four garrison posts in the north: Liaodong, Xuanfu, Datong, and Yansui. Later, Ningxia, Gansu, and Jizhou were added, along with Guyuan and Taiyuan. These were collectively called the Nine Garrisons or Nine Frontiers, and large numbers of forces were deployed to defend each.

In 1421, Emperor Chengzu (Zhu Di) moved the capital to Yanjing (present-day Beijing). Afterward, Emperor Chengzu personally led the army to the northern desert five times, but this didn’t solve the problem of consolidating border defenses completely. In the process of expeditions to the north, however, the emperor came to deeply understand that it was essential to strengthen the defensive system of the northern frontier; therefore, he began to attach more importance to constructing the Great Wall. After the death of Emperor Chengzu, the military strength of the Ming dynasty weakened through years of wars. The dynasty had long lost the ability to organize huge expeditions against the remaining forces of the Northern Yuan.

After the seventy years of the successive reigns of emperors Jing, Xianzong, and Xiaozong, the Ming dynasty began to decline from the enthronement of Yingzong. The eunuchs were in power and politics were very corrupt. In the economy, there was the problem of the high concentration of land in the wealthy and powerful landlords and bureaucrat class. They didn’t pay land tax, which resulted in an economic crisis. All the peasants were short of food and clothing, and even the phenomenon of selling their own sons and daughters arose. The peasants had no choice but uprising. With domestic troubles and foreign invasion, as strong enemies pressed on the border, the Ming dynasty considered strengthening the military defenses on the northern border as the most important aspect of national defense policy. To the Ming government, constructing the Great Wall, enlarging its fortresses, and strengthening the border’s in-depth defenses were the only means of preventing the intrusion of the northern nomadic tribes; therefore, every Ming emperor after Chengzu emphasized improving the Great Wall to protect the frontier.

2. The Nine Frontiers and Eleven Garrison Posts

The world-famous Great Wall of today in fact is the Great Wall of the Ming dynasty. The Ming Great Wall started at the Yalu River in the east and reached Jiayuguan in the west, with a total length of over seven thousand kilometers. It was the greatest, the most famous, and the most splendid masterpiece in the whole history of China’s Great Walls. Its superb construction techniques, tight defensive measures, magnificent style, and mighty building work were all unprecedented. Winding up and down across green mountains and boundless deserts, the Ming Great Wall eventually ran intrepidly into the sea. This precious cultural relic is not in the least inferior to the Qin Shihuang Great Wall.

The Ming dynasty divided the Great Wall into nine defensive sections which were called the Nine Frontiers or Nine Strategically Important Posts. Each of the frontiers had a zhenshou (military commander) responsible for defensive affairs. In 1551, in order to strengthen the defense of the capital and protect the Ming tombs, the Ming dynasty added the garrison posts of Chang and Zhenbao to the northwest of Beijing. The Ming Great Wall had Nine Frontiers and eleven garrison posts in total. The run of the walls of the eleven garrison posts and the stations of the military commanders was as follows:

1) The Liaodong Great Wall Garrison Post

Located in present-day Liaoning Province, the Liaodong Great Wall Garrison Post was the most powerful defensive screen for the capital. It started at the Yalu River in the east and reached Shanhaiguan in the west, with a total length of 970 kilometers. The military commander was stationed in Guangning (present-day Liaoningbei Town).

2) The Jizhen Great Wall Garrison Post

Another important defensive screen for the capital, the Jizhen Great Wall Garrison Post ran through Hebei Province, Tianjin, and Beijing. It started at Shanhaiguan in the east and reached Mutianyu in the west, with a total length of 880 or so kilometers. The military commander was stationed in Santunying (in Qianxi County, Hebei Province).

3) The Lüzhen Great Wall Garrison Post

The Lüzhen Great Wall Garrison Post was later added to the original Jizhen Garrison Post. It started at Mutianyu in the east and reached Zijinguan in the west, with a total length of about 230 kilometers. The military commander was stationed in Changping.

4) The Zhenbao Great Wall Garrison Post

The Zhenbao Great Wall Garrison Post was also added later in order to strengthen the defense of the capital. It started at Zijinguan in the north and reached Guguanguan in the south, with a total length of about 390 kilometers. The military commander was stationed in Baoding.

5) The Xuanfu Great Wall Garrison Post

The Xuanfu Great Wall Garrison Post was located in the northwestern part of Hebei Province, starting at Juyongguan in the east and reaching the Xize River (to the northeast of Datong in Shanxi Province today), with a total length of 570 or so kilometers. The military commander was stationed in Xuanhua.

6) The Datong Great Wall Garrison Post

The Datong Great Wall Garrison Post was located in the border area in the north of Shanxi Province. It started at Zhenkoutai (in northeastern Tianzhen Town, Shanxi Province) in the east and reached Yajiao Mountain (to the northeast of Pianguan, Shanxi Province today) in the west, with a total length of about 335 kilometers. The military commander was stationed in Datong.

7) The Taiyuan Great Wall Garrison Post

The Taiyuan Great Wall Garrison Post was also called the Shanxi Great Wall Garrison Post. Situated in northeastern Shanxi Province, it started at the Yellow River in Baode and Hequ in the west, and reached Huangyu Pass in Heshun County in the east, with a total length of about eight hundred kilometers. The military commander was stationed in Pianguan.

8) The Yansui Great Wall Garrison Post

The Yansui Great Wall Garrison Post was also called the Yulin Great Wall Garrison Post. It started on the west bank of the Yellow River in Fugu County in the east and reached Huamachi (present-day Chixian County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region) in the west, with a total length of about one thousand kilometers. The military commander was stationed in Yulin.

9) The Ningxia Great Wall Garrison Post

The Ningxia Great Wall Garrison Post was located in the north of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. It started at Dayanchi (in present-day Chixian County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region) in the east and reached Lanzhou in the west, with a total length of about 830 kilometers. The military commander was stationed in Yinchuan.

10) The Guyuan Great Wall Garrison Post

The Guyuan Great Wall Garrison Post was located in the south of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and the southeast of Gansu Province. It started at Jingbian in the east, connected with the Yulin Town Great Wall, and reached Gaolan in the west, linking with the Gansu Great Wall Garrison Post, with a total length of about 750 kilometers. The military commander was stationed in Guyuan.

11) The Gansu Great Wall Garrison Post

The Gansu Great Wall Garrison Post was located in Gansu Province, starting at Lanzhou in the east and reaching Jiayuguan in the west, with a total length of about eight hundred kilometers. The military commander was stationed in Zhangye.

The Ming Great Wall, composed of the above Nine Frontiers and eleven garrison posts, had a total length of more than 7,500 kilometers, with over 976,000 officers and soldiers stationed along the wall. The above figure for manpower refers to one period only, and the length the length of the Great Wall given here is found in various historical records, but the actual length of the Great Wall is thought to have been much longer.

3. The Ming Great Wall: A Historic Miracle of Architecture

The Ming Great Wall was the last Great Wall constructed in Chinese history, and also the wall with the largest scale, longest erection time, most solid construction, and most perfect facilities. One of the greatest ancient structures in the world, it has made its mark on the history of world civilization as a man-made miracle. It has been calculated that if we used the bricks and earth that were used to construct the Ming Great Wall to build a wall of five meters in height and one meter in thickness, this huge wall would be more than long enough to encircle the earth.

The construction of the Great Wall required mastery of many subjects of knowledge, such as mathematics, mechanics, and construction materials—and geography as well, since the choice of location needed to take the topography and water resources into account. The Great Wall therefore reflects the scientific level of its time. It is an object illustration of the development of the natural and social sciences. The great inventiveness, wisdom, and hard work of our ancestors, as embodied in this structure, provide a continuing reference for today’s scientific research as well.

The construction of the Great Wall was a large-scale and arduous project, and the choice of location, planning, design, the sourcing of construction materials, and the levying of labor were all very sophisticated. In keeping with the principles of ancient Chinese architecture, in the construction of the Ming Great Wall, the workmen “used local materials and utilized them accordingly” for long-term practical work. As Luo Zhewen, the famous Great Wall specialist, has summarized, the Great Wall “makes use of nature, conforms with nature, and at last remodels nature,” thus creating a wonder in the world history of architecture.

The Ming Great Wall was an integrated military defensive system consisting of ramparts, passes, fortresses, watchtowers, beacon towers, and post stations.

The ramparts are the main body of the Great Wall. They can be differentiated according to material: brick wall, stone wall, earth wall, shoveled mountain wall, mountain wall, wooden fence wall, moat wall, and so on. The materials differed according to location, such as in mountains or on the plains, and the convenience of getting certain materials. Except for the wall body of the Jizhen Great Wall Garrison Post, which was completely built of stones and bricks, the ramparts of the other garrison posts were mainly of rammed earth, with only the watchtowers covered with brick. A shoveled mountain wall means a steep cliff wall shoveled out from the natural landform of a mountain. Mountain walls usually consisted of bricks or stones laid leaning over the sheer ridge of the mountains. A moat wall refers to the earthen wall built on one side of a moat. The cross-section of the ramparts presents the shape of a trapezium, wider at the bottom and narrower on the top, and the size of the ramparts varied in accordance with terrain and needs. On the top of the ramparts, there were crenels outside and a parapet wall inside. The parapet wall was mainly set to ensure the safety of the guarding soldiers, preventing them from falling out of the wall accidentally. There were also arched passageways to let the soldiers go up and down.

Fortified passes were the gates going in or out of the Great Wall, so they were the key points in the defense of the Great Wall. There were archways of brick and gate towers and embrasure watchtowers on top. Usually two or more forts were built in a pass, connected with brick or stone walls to form enclosed settlements. Some forts might also have enceinte walls enclosing the gate, turrets, water passes or wing towers, and horse paths ascending the wall as well, which were built to let the stationed troops go forth from the settlements and onto the forts quickly. Fortified passes were indispensable to the Great Wall.

Fortresses were built to station troops. They were divided by rank into weicheng, shouyu, qianhusuocheng, and baocheng. Usually built inside the Great Wall, in some rare situations they were built on the outside. Weicheng and qianhusuocheng were set at intervals of about one hundred li. The perimeter of a weicheng was between three and 4.5 kilometers, and that of a qianhusuocheng between four and five kilometers. Outside of their brick ramparts were mamian, turrets, and enclosing walls. Sometimes there were moon forts outside the gate or wing forts opposite the gate to strengthen the gate’s defenses. Inside the fortresses there were yamen (government offices), barracks, civilian houses, and temples. The distance between weicheng, qianhusuocheng, and the Great Wall varied. They were usually constructed in areas of flat terrain, suitable for stationing troops and at a suitable distance from the Great Wall. Baocheng, also called border fort, were set up at intervals of five kilometers or so and had a perimeter of 0.5 to 1.5 kilometers. They usually were built with bricks and had one or two gates protecting by enclosing walls. Inside the baocheng were garrison barracks, drill grounds, and temples. The distance between the border forts and the Great Wall usually was no more than five kilometers; the garrison troops thus could man the wall quickly when enemies came. The watchtowers on the Great Wall could only hold very few soldiers; they usually only functioned as places for sentry and shelter. It would have been impossible to move forces onto the wall from afar at the moment when an emergency occurred, so the fortresses—in fact military camps—were built inside and along the Great Wall. These fortresses varied in scale in accordance with the degree of importance of the section of the Great Wall, but they were all built nearby so as to allow troops to ascend the Great Wall quickly as soon as urgent situations occurred.

Watchtowers were also set up at different intervals along the Ming Great Wall according to the terrain and topographic conditions. The watchtowers were built astride the wall. They were usually two or three stories tall, with square blocks built of brick. They rose several zhang (a unit equal to about ten feet) above the ramparts and had crenels on all four sides. There was a boat-shaped small room in the middle of each watchtower called a loulu. The watchtowers and loulu could provide shelter for guarding soldiers and also store grain and weapons to prepare for emergency needs. On the four sides of the loulu, there were also observation crenels. The watchtowers had a length of about twelve zhang at the side and could hold thirty to forty soldiers. They were built by General Qi Jiguang in the latter half of the sixteenth century. According to the “Biography of Qi Jiguang” in the History of the Ming Dynasty, Qi Jiguang proposed to “make the garrison troops build one 1,200 watchtowers first.” These 1,200 watchtowers, however, were only built on the section from Shanhaiguan to Juyongguan in Beijing. If all the watchtowers of the whole Great Wall were counted, the number would be quite considerable.

Chengtai were another important structure on the Ming Great Wall. These were platforms extruding out from the ramparts, smaller on top and larger at the bottom, shaped somewhat like the face of a horse; they were therefore also called mamian (horse face). In important sections, they were set up at intervals of 150 kilometers or so, and their floorboards were at the same level as the top of the ramparts. If there were rooms built on the blocks, they were called pufang. These could provide shelter from rain when the guarding soldiers were patrolling, allowing “the soldiers to take shelter and the firearms to avoid rain.” The three sides of the chengtai had crenels which were used to shoot at enemies attacking the wall. The chengtai thus had a key defensive function, since “it was difficult for soldiers on the ramparts to look down, and for fear of arrows and shells hitting them in the face, they dared not peek over the edge.” When enemies were moving under the wall, the soldiers could be shot easily if they stretched their bodies out over the ramparts. With the chengtai extruding out from the ramparts, however, the attackers at the foot of the wall could be shot from the chengtai on their left and right and prevented from ascending the wall. The distance between two chengtai was therefore usually equal to the shooting range between the two. For example, at the Jiayuguan Great Wall, the fortresses and blocks were distributed in this scientific way and formed a fairly perfect defensive system, so this section played a decisive role in ensuring the peace in the Ming’s northwest.

There were also many beacon towers along the Great Wall, and in the Ming dynasty there was a saying: “one beacon tower every five li and one fortress every ten li.” Alarm signals were sent from the beacon towers, and they also had guarding and observation functions; they thus formed an important part of the whole defensive system of the Great Wall. Beacon towers signaled military information with smoke during the day and fire at night. They were usually built inside and outside of the Great Wall at easily seen places such as on the peaks of high mountains, on uplands, and at turnings of the road. The beacon towers were isolated high platforms built with rammed earth or brick. On top were watch houses supplied with firewood, signal guns, sulfur, and saltpeter; and under the towers were barracks for the guards, sheep pens, stables, and storehouses—all enclosed by a wall. The beacon towers had four names based on their location: one kind was set close to the side of the Great Wall and were called “frontier beacon towers,” the second kind extended to the outside of the Great Wall and were called “beacon towers outside of the heartland,” the third kind extended to the government seats behind the Great Wall—with which they communicated—and were called “beacon towers in the heartland,” and the fourth kind were lined along traffic paths and were called “passageway beacon towers.” Beacon towers usually were set up every five kilometers or so, just within the range of eyesight.

Post stations were also an important auxiliary establishment in the Great Wall defensive system. These were places of rest and transfer in the transportation of people or materials, and they were also responsible for sending official documents between the garrisons and the government. In order to transmit information accurately and quickly, many post stations and post houses were set up along the Great Wall. In the Jiayuguan section and its surrounding area (the most important defensive point on the western part of the Ming Great Wall), the post stations were very densely dispersed, with four routes in the four directions going in and out of the pass forming a powerful and effective communication network which enabled the garrison troops to prepare fully before the enemy attacked.

4. Beacon Towers of the Ming Great Wall

The signal fire alarm system in the Ming dynasty was mainly inherited from the ones used in the Sui dynasty and the Tang dynasty, which were much more advanced than the system in the Han dynasty.

The beacon towers built in the Tang dynasty were much higher and larger, and there was usually one every fifteen kilometers. Beacon towers in the form of platforms hanging in the air were invented in the Tang dynasty. On this kind of beacon tower, the platform was a circle made from earth, and a round tower was built on top. On each Tang dynasty beacon tower were set four chimneys and four torches. These towers were used in an innovative double alarm system: having discovered enemies, besides lighting fires, the guards also had to report to the fortresses of their prefectures or counties. The regulations for the beacon fires in the Tang dynasty were as follows: when the enemy sighted was no more than five hundred infantry, light one fire; if they were between five hundred and three thousand cavalry, light two fires; for over three thousand foes, light three; and for over ten thousand, light four. A one-fire alarm stopped at the governments of prefectures or counties, but an alarm of two or more fires was to be reported to the capital. These signal fires had to pass one thousand kilometers in a single day and night, demonstrating that in the Tang dynasty the beacon system was very tightly organized.

In the Ming dynasty, the beacon system was even more improved; besides lighting fires and sending smoke, signals via gunshot were added. A decree issued in the second year of the reign of Chenghua (1466) prescribes: “If the enemies are one-or-two to several hundreds, light one fire and fire the signal gun once; if the enemies are more than three thousand, light three fires and fire the gun three times; for over five thousand but less than ten thousand, light four fires and fire the gun four times; and for over ten thousand, light five fires and fire the gun five times.” This “fire and signal gun” system included not only firelight and smoke but also large sound, just like signal detonators in modern time. This not only heightened the watchfulness of the soldiers and improved the accuracy of the signals but also accelerated the speed of the signals. On the beacon towers of the Ming dynasty, there were all kinds of artillery pieces, such as the blunderbuss—a small cannon made of bronze—and also cannons molded of iron, which were nicknamed first general, second general, third general, and so on. The Ming dynasty had a very rigorous regulations to govern the beacon towers. It prescribed that the soldiers on the beacon towers couldn’t leave their posts without permission; otherwise, they might delay the communication of military information. The beacon towers were to be cleaned regularly and to store large amounts of firewood. The soldiers were to keep watch in shifts day and night, and they were to receive and pass signals accurately. Disobedient soldiers would be court-martialed. The relics unearthed from the Great Wall include a document of the Ming dynasty which describes the beacon system and details these specific regulations for lighting fires and firing signal guns: when the watchtowers and fortresses discover enemies, if the number of enemies is less than ten, light a fire and fire a signal gun during the day; if the number is more than twenty, light two fires and fire two signal guns; if the enemy is more than one hundred, light three fires and fire three signal guns; if the enemy is more than one thousand, light fires and fire signal guns continuously. From the above, we know that the Great Wall and its beacon towers historically played a very important role in military defense.

By the later Ming dynasty, the system of lighting beacon fires and firing signal guns was gradually replaced by a system which combining lanterns, raising flags, and firing signal guns. More detailed and tighter prescriptions were adopted, enabling the signals to specific the direction where the enemies came from. During daylight, the signals were as follows: one signal gun and a green flag meant enemies were in the east; two signal guns and a red flag meant enemies were in the south; three signal guns and a white flag meant enemies approaching from the west; four signal guns and a black flag meant enemies coming from the north. Since the flags couldn’t be seen during the night, they were replaced with lanterns at night. According to the records, the system of lanterns and signal guns was as follows: one light and one signal gun meant enemies were in the east; two lights and two signal guns meant enemies coming from the south; three lights and three signal guns meant enemies were in the west; and four lights and four signal guns meant enemies coming from the north. The speed of this system was much greater than that of the fire-and-smoke system of the past. Signals could pass over 3,500 kilometers in a single day and night. The Great Wall and the beacon system formed an integrated military defense system which played an important role in many wars.

5. The Historical Significance of the Ming Great Wall

In the long history of the legendary ancient military defense system of the Great Walls, the Ming Great Wall was the solidest and longest-used. It defended against the harassment of nomadic tribes in the north, effectively fended off the remnants of the Yuan dynasty, and consolidated the rule of the Ming dynasty.

The Ming Great Wall also reflects the social conditions of the Ming dynasty— for example the productivity level, the level of scientific development, the state of international relations, the prevalent customs and religious beliefs, as well as the political, economic, and military situations,. The Japanese scholar Daoye Ye once said that “the culture of the Great Wall is very profound and mysterious. If one can unearth this hidden treasure, then perhaps he can uncover the ancient but precious mysteries of China.”

Among all the Great Walls in Chinese history, the Ming Great Wall had the largest scale, the longest construction time, and the most perfect defensive system and structure. It played a significant role in protecting the security of the country and the stability of the people’s daily life and productivity. It embodies the highest achievements of architecture in ancient China and the wisdom of the ancient Chinese people.

The Ming Dynasty Ten-thousand-li Great Wall is a crystallization of the toil and wisdom of countless people—especially the winding Ming Great Wall in Gansu Province, which still stands erect in the face of the northwest wind after six or seven hundred years, watching the changes of the world and witnessing the Chinese people write new chapters in history.

The Great Wall Today

1. Badaling: Epitome of the Great Wall

The famous Badaling section of the Great Wall is a classic representative of the Ten-thousand-li Great Wall. It is located in Yanqing County, sixty kilometers to the northwest of Beijing. It was an important screen for Juyongguan, a very important pass of the Ten-thousand-li Great Wall.

Badaling is the highest peak in the Jundu Mountains and Yanshan Ranges, where the magnificent Ten-thousand-li Great Wall passes Beijing. It leads to Beijing in the south, Yanqing in the north, Xuanhua and Datong in the west—hence the name Badaling: the phrase “lu cong ci fen, si tong ba da” means “the road divides here, extending in all directions.” The geographical position of the Badaling area was very important as a strategic military position in all dynasties, and it was also one of the areas in which a Great Wall was built earliest. This place was always a key point of defense in all dynasties that controlled it. The Great Wall we see here today was rebuilt in the Ming dynasty on the ridge of the mountains. The wall is high and solid, built with regular and huge bricks, and the foundation is built of granite. The top of the wall is covered with square bricks, with lime smoothly filling in the seams. The wall we see today is 8.5 meters high, 6.5 meters wide at the bottom, and 5.7 meters wide at the top—wide enough to accommodate five horses running abreast or ten people walking side by side. Along the wall there are many beacon towers and watchtowers, with a frequency of about one watchtower every one or one-half kilometer. They are all grand and quite orderly. There are crenels on the watchtowers and windows below to facilitate overlooking and shooting. The whole section of the Great Wall ascends from a fort to two peaks in the south and north, hovering on the ridge of the Jundu Mountains, with its head and tail disappearing into the distant mountains.

At the southern entrance of Badaling, there are five ancient cannons, among which the largest is 2.85 meters long and 105 millimeters in caliber. On this cannon are inscribed the large characters “granted to the General of Invincible Might by the emperor.” The four smaller cannons are inscribed with “the eleventh year of the reign of Chongzhen,” telling us when the cannons were made. These four smaller cannons, commonly called cow-leg cannons, were unearthed in 1957 during repairs on the Great Wall. Also unearthed were 235 shells, among which the largest were of 125 millimeters in diameter and six kilograms in weight and the smallest were only of forty millimeters in diameter and 0.25 kilograms in weight. These shells indicate that there were even larger cannons on the Great Wall in the past. When using these cannons, the soldiers had to fill the bore with gunpowder and shells and then light a fuse to make the gunpowder in the bore explode, thrusting the shell out. The power produced by the gunpowder explosion was enormous, and the longest range could reach more than five hundred meters, making these among the most advanced weapons of the Ming dynasty.

The Badaling Fort was the center of the section of the Great Wall in the Jundu Mountains. The fort was first built in the seventeenth year of the reign of Hongzhi (1504) of the Ming dynasty by the Vice Military Commander Ji Guang and his soldiers. It was rebuilt by Qi Jiguang in the tenth year of the reign of Wanli (1582). The fort is very grand. Its ramparts stand erect with a width of 8.5 meters at the bottom and a height of 7.5 meters. The three-odd-meter foundation of the fort was constructed of eight layers of granite, and the upper parts were built by laying large bricks, making Badaling Fort one of the grandest and most imposing posts on the Great Wall. The fort is an irregular square whose top is a rectangular platform with crenels in the four sides in which to place cannons and crossbows. The fort has two gates, one in the east and the other in the west. There is a board over the western gate with the four characters “the Strategic Gateway of the North”; over the eastern gate are the four characters “the Outer Post of Juyong.” On the two sides of the fort there are two watchtowers which connect with the rampart; the fort thus forms the shape of a horn.

In the zigzagging Badaling section, there is a spectacular scene called “two dragons locking the mountain” which deeply impresses everyone who visits. The Great Wall extends to this spot from afar, but here it suddenly stops—with no walls built further but a cliff instead, and on the other side of the cliff the Great Wall continues and extends into the distance. The scene thus resembles two gigantic dragons lying and embracing the mountain.

The Badaling section of the Great Wall was the earliest to open to tourists among all the sections, and in 1961 the State Council listed Badaling as the first unit of key cultural relics under state protection. In 1987, it was also listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

2. Juyongguan: the “Number One Pass Under Heaven”

Juyongguan is a famous ancient fort along the Great Wall sixty kilometers to the north of Beijing and twenty kilometers away from the Badaling section of the Great Wall. It was a strategically important pass and is now a cultural site under state protection.

According to legend, when Emperor Qin Shihuang ordered of the construction of the Great Wall, he forcibly moved prisoners, soldiers, and levied laborers to live here and named the pass Xijuyongtu, which means “place where second-rate people have been moved to live.” The Han dynasty continued to use this name, but in the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280) it was renamed Xiguan. It was called Nakuanguan in the Northern Qi dynasty and then Juyongguan, Jimenguan, or Junduguan in the Tang dynasty. In later dynasties it retained the name Juyongguan.

Juyongguan is in a strategic position and has long been a bone of contention among warring strategists since ancient times. It had two forts in the south and north respectively; the one in the south was named “Nankou” while the one in the north was “Badaling.” The fort now extant was built by General Xu Da under the order of Emperor Taizu (Zhu Yuanzhang) of the Ming dynasty. The valley in which the fort lies belongs to the Jundu Mountains of the Taihang Ranges. It is reputed for its strategic position, which is described with the saying “a man in the pass can withstand ten thousand invaders.” It became the northwestern door of Beijing. On the two sides of Juyongguan, the mountains are very spectacular, and in the middle there is an eighteen-kilometer-long valley called Guangou. The surroundings of Juyongguan have flowing streams and overlapping green mountains, blooming flowers and singing birds. The beautiful scenery here won the name of Overlapping Verdant Scenes of Juyong, one of the famous Eight Scenes of Yanjing.

In the past, Akutta, Emperor Taizu of the Liao dynasty, once passed Juyongguan when attacking Youzhou. Later, Abaoji, Emperor Taizu of the Jin dynasty, stopped in Juyongguan on his way to attack Yanjing. His troops were destroyed without a battle, however, as they were crushed to death by an avalanche from the mountains. On another occasion, when Chinggis Khan, Emperor Taizu of the Yuan dynasty, reached the outskirts of Juyongguan, the people of the Jin dynasty— taking advantage of the difficulty of Juyongguan—strengthened the iron gate with molten metal, paved the road with iron caltrops for hundreds of li, and guarded the backbone of the pass. Chinggis Khan therefore sought advice from Zabar. Zabar said that there was a byroad in the dark forest, but it was too narrow for more than one horse to pass. If the horses was hastened with mouth gags, however, it would only cost them one night to move on to Nankou. Chinggis Khan asked Zabar to guide the army, entered the valley at night, and arrived at Nankou when day dawned. The people of the Jin dynasty were still sound asleep when a sudden din of drums echoed from the heavens.

In the Yuan dynasty, Juyongguan was an important road between Dadu (Beijing) and Shangdu (today’s Duolun, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region). Since the emperor came and went on this road quite often, Xanadu, with its temples and gardens, was built in the pass. The Yuntai (Cloud Platform) now extant was the foundation of the Guojie Pagoda built in the Yuan dynasty, on top of which three Lama Pagodas were built, but they were burned down at the end of the Yuan dynasty. In the fourth year of Zhengtong of the Ming dynasty (1439), a Buddhist temple was rebuilt on the Yuntai, named Tai’an Temple. This temple was burnt down during the reign of Kangxi f the Qing dynasty, and only the Yuntai has been left since then.

In the Ming dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang appropriated an enormous fund to repair and strengthen the military defenses of Juyongguan, building two fortified gates, one on the land and the other on the water, and enclosing walls protecting the gates. In the strategic positions in the mountains to the south and north of the fort, there were also six watchtowers and eighteen beacon towers. Juyongguan thus became a post of even greater importance, and its construction and equipment reached maturity. From South to North, its defensive system was made up of Chadaocheng, the Outer Post of Juyong (Badaling), the upper fort, the middle fort (Juyongguan Fort), and Nankou, with Juyongguan as the command center. The guards of the fort, called longqingwei, were equipped with helmets, armor, spears, bows, arrows, and firearms. The fort was not only of a mature design but also equipped with many auxiliary establishments, such as a yamen (government office), a storehouse, bookstores, an arsenal, temples, and academies, which increased Juyongguan’s cultural significance. The founding emperors of the Yuan dynasty, the Ming dynasty, and the Qing dynasty all passed Juyongguan; therefore, it is unique and beyond comparison in its strategic position in politics and military affairs.

In 1961, the Yuntai of Juyongguan was listed in the first group of key cultural relics under state protection by the State Council. In 1982, Juyongguan was also included in the Badaling-Ming Tombs National Park because of its important cultural and natural value.

3. Simatai: the Museum of the Great Wall

The Simatai section of the Great Wall is situated at Gubeikou, 120 kilometers northeast of urban Beijing. First built in 1368 (the first year of the reign of Emperor Hongwu of the Ming dynasty), it is among the best-preserved sections of the Ming Great Wall. A fantastic section characterized by delicate and unique design and diversified structures, it incorporates a variety of styles found in other parts of the Great Wall and is thus reputed as the “Museum of the Great Wall.”

Zigzagging along steep mountain ranges, this section of the Great Wall features unmatched perilous heights, which is reflected by the names of its two parts, the Heavenly Stairway and the Heavenly Bridge. The Heavenly Stairway is a narrow section with a single wall, whose narrowest part is less than half a meter. The section mounts like a stairway along the mountainside. On both sides are steep and hazardous cliffs, and one must hold one’s breath if one looks down. The Heavenly Bridge, one hundred meters in length and some forty centimeters in width, is situated on the top of the Heavenly Stairway. The cliffs on either side of the Heavenly Bridge are even more breathtaking. A common saying among visitors goes: “It is hard to climb onto the Heavenly Bridge—even harder than mounting the sky.” This part is among the most dangerous but extremely exciting sections of the Ming Great Wall.

The walls and watchtowers of the Simatai section of the Great Wall exhibit a unique design and varied architectural styles. One characteristic of this section is its densely-dispersed watchtowers—thirty-five in total in a span of 5.4 kilometers. Here, the nearest distance between two watchtowers is 43.8 meters and the farthest is six hundred meters, while in other parts of the Great Wall, the average distance between two watchtowers is one hundred to two hundred meters. In fact, according to the regulations of the walls built during the Ming dynasty, the interval between every two watchtowers should be five hundred meters. The Simatai section is an exception. In terms of appearance, some watchtowers here have only a single window, and others have two, three, four, or five windows. Some are one-story structures, and there are also interconnected two- or three-story watchtowers. Varied in size and appearance, they were constructed in light of the rank and amount of stationed troops as well as geographical conditions. In terms of the interior structure, some watchtowers are built of brick and others are brick-and-wooden structures or brick-and-stone structures. The watchtowers accommodate one or more chambers and the patterns of the rooms are like the Chinese characters 田 and 井. Their roofs are different in design, with plain roofs, hollow roofs, octagonal painted roofs, and reversed-container-shaped roofs. Their gates and windows are also delicately designed, with side gates, central gates, brick arches, stone arches, and even carved granite gates featuring superb craftsmanship. All of these make Simatai a unique section of the Great Wall which attracts numerous tourists.

The Simatai section is mainly noted for its magnificent but perilous topography; meanwhile, the Mandarin Duck Lake at the foot of the Great Wall gives this section spirit. The reflections of boat sails on crystal-clear water add a serene and tranquil touch. A hot spring and a cold spring meet in this lake, so half of its water is warm and the other half is cold. The water never freezes. In scorching summer, boating on the lake is an ideal way to escape from summer heat and get refreshed.

Besides its picturesque landscapes, this section of the Great Wall is also a treasure of historical and cultural heritage. In recent years, many historical relics have been unearthed here, including iron cannons, stone cannons, iron arrowheads, iron guns, grenades, tri-tube guns, iron bullets, and powder scoops used by the troops stationed there—as well as such utensils and tools such as hoes, shovels, kitchen knives, and iron lamp bowls. These relics are valuable materials for research on the Ming Great Wall and the history of the dynasty.

“The Great Wall is unmatched around the world,” said Luo Zhewen, a renowned Great Wall specialist, “and the Simatai section is unmatched among all sections of the Great Wall.”

4. Mutianyu: Shining Branch of the Great Wall

The well-preserved Mutianyu section of the Ming Great Wall is located in Huairou County, Beijing, about seventy-three kilometers away from the urban area of Beijing.

Mutianyu enjoys a long history. According to the historical literature a Great Wall was already constructed here over 1,400 years ago in the Northern Qi dynasty, but the Mutianyu section we see today was built on the basis of the Northern Qi Great Wall by Xu Da, a great general under Zhu Yuanzhang, in the early Ming dynasty. Before the construction of the Great Wall, Xu Da had fought against the Yuan army here when the Yuan rulers were driven out in the early Ming dynasty. Not long after the victory over the Yuan, the Ming dynasty began to build the Great Wall and passes in Mutianyu because “after the Yuan regime was driven to the north, they still tried to restore their reign many times,” and Mutianyu was one of the most important defensive areas. In order to further strengthen the defenses of Beijing, after the middle period of the Ming dynasty, the court specially transferred here from the south General Qi Jiguang. Already famous for driving out Japanese pirates as the military commander of Jizhen, he was to superintend the construction of the Great Wall to the north of Beijing.

The construction of the Mutianyu section is of a unique style very rare in the architecture of all the sections of the Great Wall. The watchtowers here are densely dispersed and the passes are strategically positioned, with crenels on both sides of the wall. To the west, this section of the Great Wall is connected to the Juyongguan section in the Changping region, and to the east, it links with the Gubeikou section in Miyun County, Beijing. It has been a strategically important stronghold since ancient times, when it was called the “Impregnable Pass on the Perilous Mountains.” Mutianyu and the passes of Juyongguan and Zhenbiancheng compose an integrated defensive system.

Mutianyu is located in the center of the mountains, with a moist and warm climate quite suitable for the growth of trees. A poet of the Qing dynasty once wrote a poem that reads “the valley of Mutianyu is very special, […] with thousands of peach trees in blossom and tens of thousands of willows.” The fragrant flowers blooming in spring, the limpid rivers flowing in summer, the red maple leaves covering the mountains in autumn, and the world of pure white shining in winter have won Mutianyu a reputation as “Mutianyu, the shining branch of the Great Wall.”

Closing

We have walked through the several thousand years of history of the Great Wall. In closing this book, we ponder the arduous development of the Great Wall. Taking another look today at the Great Wall, which has silently crossed the tunnel of time and endured through countless wars, what is left to say?

The Great Wall played a very important role in protecting the people and property inside the Great Wall, developing the economy and culture of the north, stabilizing the central plains, and promoting land transportation between China and western countries. The rough history of the Great Wall reflects the great history of China. The Chinese people have stridden forward with the Great Wall, one step after another, and we are deeply aware that the Great Wall is a miraculous wonder created by our ancient ancestors and a resplendent treasure of our history. Yet the Ten-thousand-li Great Wall is not only the pride of the Chinese people but also a treasure of the world and of the whole of humankind.

The world is moving forward, and today, in a peaceful and prosperous China, the old Great Wall seems to have long lost its original military significance. It is only a tourist attraction for people to visit, ponder the past, and enjoy the beauty of natural sights. It just like an aged general who served in the army all his life but now is getting old and has no chance to exercise his abilities. Silently witnessing the development of China and watching the people lead the life of their own time, he nevertheless speaks the truth of history through his own presence.

Other Titles in this Series:

A Short History of the Seven Ancient Capitals

A Short History of Silk

A Short History of TCM

The Origins of Chinese Civilization

A Short History of Chinese Calligraphy

A Short History of Pagodas

A Short History of Parks and Gardens

A Short History of Confucius Temples

A Short History of Martial Arts

A Short History of Chinese Characters

A Short History of Festivals and Holidays

A Short History of the Great Wall

A Short History of the Yangtze River

A Short History of Tea

A Short History of Liquor

A Short History of the Yellow River

The complete series as well as much more essential China information is available at The China Encyclopedia Project. For more information, visit www.ecph.chinaconnectu.com

CHINESE EDITION

A Short History of the Great Wall

长城史话

序

北京大学教授辛德勇

我不是一个科班出身的历史学工作者，基础的中国历史知识，几乎全部得自自学。所谓“自学”，也就是自己摸索着读书。在这个过程中，一些篇幅简短的历史知识小丛书，给我提供过非常重要的帮助，是引领我步入中华文明殿堂的有益向导。按照我所经历的切身感受，像这样简明扼要的小书，对于外国人了解中国的历史文化，应当会有更大的帮助。现在摆在读者面前的这套《中华文明史话》中英文双语丛书，就是这样一种主要针对外国朋友而量身定做的书籍。

编撰这样的历史知识介绍性书籍，首先是要保证知识的准确性。这一点说起来简单，要想做好却很不容易。从本质上来讲，这是由于历史本身的复杂性和认识历史的困难性所造成的，根本无法做到尽善尽美；用通俗的形式来表述，尤为困难。好在读者都能够清楚理解，它只是引领你入门的路标，中华文明无尽的深邃内涵，还有待你自己去慢慢一一领略。这套《中华文明史话》中英文双语丛书，在首先注重知识准确性的基础上，编撰者还力求使文字叙述生动、规范，深入浅出，引人入胜；内容则注重富有情趣，具有灵动的时代色彩，希望能够集知识。

引言

万里长城象征着中国人民的勤劳与智慧，同时也是世界建筑史上的一大奇迹，可与埃及的金字塔相媲美，是中华民族的脊梁。

长城的修建始于公元前7世纪中期，那时的楚国为了防御敌人，修筑了数百里长的非封闭性城墙，被人们称作方城。后来的齐、魏、秦、赵、中山、燕等国为了自己国家的安全，都沿边界修筑长城。

公元前221年，秦始皇统一中国，建立起中国历史上第一个统一的封建王朝。为抵御北方匈奴的入侵，秦始皇派大将蒙恬向北驱逐匈奴，并耗费巨大的人力、物力、财力，以燕、赵、秦三国在北方修筑的长城为基础，在西起临洮，东至辽东修筑长城，绵延起伏，规模宏大，奠定了万里长城的根基。

汉代的长城继续向西修筑，经过河西，延伸至新疆，并在甘肃敦煌设置了玉门关和阳关两个要塞，举世闻名的丝绸之路从此畅通，这样就加速了中西方文化的交流，也促进了边疆各少数民族与内地的交流与贸易往来。

汉以后的朝代继续修筑长城，其中明朝修筑的长城东延至鸭绿江，西远达甘肃的嘉峪关，横贯中国北部，规模最大，就像一条蜿蜒起伏的巨龙，充满着生机与朝气，它就是我们今天所见到的万里长城。

明代长城的精华是八达岭长城。八达岭长城地理位置十分险要，景色极其壮观，名声远播海内外，1961年被国务院列为“全国首批重点文化保护单位”；1990年作为万里长城的代表获得了联合国颁发的人类文化遗产证书。

八达岭长城是世界级的旅游胜地，每年都吸引着众多的游人，它就像一条腾飞的巨龙，盘旋在崇山峻岭之中。登上八达岭长城，你可以体验长城的雄姿，享受长城的无穷魅力！

一由保家卫国开始——春秋战国长城

1. 长城的起源

“孟姜女哭长城”的故事让许多人误以为长城始建于秦代，其实长城的起源可追溯到公元前7世纪的春秋时期，而筑城防御更要早很多。或许是人类在有了意识之初便已懂得自我防护，在原始人类进入氏族社会以后，各个氏族便相继在他们所居之地周围挖沟筑墙，作为保护自己的防御措施。

中国进入奴隶社会后，奴隶主的享乐意识大增，导致他们的危机意识日盛，强烈地要求有更加完善的城池防御体系来保障他们的安全与财富。武王伐纣建周后，大规模地把封地连同奴隶分赏给王室子弟和诸侯功臣，而得了封地的诸侯为了巩固和发展其领土，无不大筑城郭，以维护既得的利益，防御他国的侵犯。同时为防御北方游牧民族的袭击，又在边境要地修筑连续排列的城堡——“列城”用以防御。

俗话说，“天下大势，分久必合，合久必分”。诸侯争霸，王室衰微，曾经先进的奴隶制度分崩离析，如周朝者那样强盛，最终也无法避免被历史抛弃的命运，取而代之的是封建制度的兴起。在新与旧的较量中，封建制终于取得了胜利，统一的中央集权国家也逐步形成。春秋战国时期，战争的频繁和激烈使人民深陷于水深火热之中。但各诸侯国原来的防御手段远远不能满足军事上的需要，于是就产生了用城墙把烽火台、城堡、河谷、山崖、壕堑、道路等联系起来的思想，从而在边境上形成了大规模的防御体系。这种防御体系，不同于只能防守一个都邑或据点的城堡，而是构成一条相当长的防线，防卫着极为广阔的地区。这些防线不管多长，从总体上看，是一条线状工程，所以被称为长城。这就是万里长城的雏形。

各诸侯国都在自己易受侵犯的边境筑起了道道长城。有为抵御敌国侵犯、兼并而建的，如楚、齐、秦、赵等国；也有为抗击匈奴诸胡而建的防御线，如秦、赵北界。其中，楚、齐长城应是最早修筑的长城，而秦、赵长城要长得多，防御措施也严密得多。

2. 号称方城的楚长城

1998年，美国总统克林顿首度访华在慕田峪长城游览的时候，看着眼前雄伟宏大的长城，就忍不住好奇地提出一个问题：“这是中国最早的长城吗？”当时陪同的中国长城学会秘书长、著名长城专家董耀会不假思索地脱口而出：“这不是，这是明代的长城，慕田峪到2004年的时候只有600年的历史，我们中国最早的长城是楚国的楚长城，距今已有2 600多年的历史。”

楚长城又称方城，《汉书·地理志》说：“叶，楚叶公邑，有长城号曰方城。”汉代已经把方城叫长城了。汉代的《淮南子》也说：“绵之以方城”，是说方城是绵延不断的。南北朝郦道元的《水经注》也说方城连山而接，连绵数百里，号为方城，一谓之长城。可见方城是相互连结数百里的长城，因而把它看作最早的长城是不错的。

拥有着强大国力、精壮雄兵的楚国为什么要浪费如此大的人力物力去修筑长城呢？这要从楚国的历史和地理位置谈起。楚是三苗人在长江中下游建立起来的，它在周朝初期曾参加了周武王伐纣的战争。楚国由周成王封熊绎于楚地开始，居楚地丹阳，从一个附庸小国逐渐变成春秋战国时代的一个强国。公元前704年，楚君熊通为武王，有地千里。但因其地处中国南方，民族繁杂，即使拥有强大的国力，依然被中原国家视为“蛮夷”之邦而受到敌视，故而楚国与中原的华夏各诸侯经常发生战事。为防御中原诸侯国家的袭击，楚国在东部、北部和西部边界上，修筑了由一系列依地形排列的城堡联结起来的防御工程。充分利用了山河之险，因地制宜，就地取材，建成了中国最早的长城。楚长城全长约300千米，城垣以土筑为主，“无土之处，累石为固”，据说，也有的地方是“南北虽无基筑，皆连山相接”。

可惜的是，这座曾经抗拒过秦国精兵的攻打，雄踞于中国南方的坚固城墙，最终也难逃残破的命运。如今的楚长城大部分已损毁，仅存两处遗址还见证着当年的辉煌。其一为大关口长城遗址，位于方城县东北独树镇黄家门村、方城山西麓大关口两侧。其二为象河关长城遗址，位于泌阳县城北象河乡北一线，东至五凤岭，西到关山，全长6千米。岁月流逝，物是人非，如今当你登上昔日楚长城的遗址，似乎还能感受到当年这个雄踞于中国南方的大国的强盛。

3. 依山而筑的齐长城

齐国是春秋战国时期的东方大国，有着相当广大的疆域面积，经过历史学家的研究考证得知，它的位置是今天山东省的北部，南有雄伟的五岳之尊的泰山坐镇，与楚、鲁、宋各国为界；北有辽阔的渤海滋养，与北方的燕国相望；西有幽幽清河，与赵为邻；东为辽阔的大海。国都在临淄。

齐国东、北两面都是辽阔汹涌的大海，西边是滔滔的古黄河天险。只有南边的地方比较薄弱，虽然有高大雄伟的泰山、沂山，但是却不能够阻挡敌人的凶猛进攻，于是齐国就在南方的边境上修建了长城。北魏郦道元先生《水经注》里引《竹节纪年》说：“梁惠成王二十年（齐威王二十八年，公元前351），齐筑防以为长城。”唐张守节《史记·正义》引《齐记》说：“齐宣王（公元前342～前324）乘山岭之上筑长城，东至海，西至济州，千余里，已备楚。”《水经注·汶水》有说：“汶水出朱虚县（今山东临朐东）泰山（即今沂山、大岘山），山上有长城，西接岱山（即泰山），东连琅玡巨海，千有余里，盖田氏之所造也。”虽然以上所述的记载里筑长城的年代不大一致，但都明确地让我们明白了一点，齐国已经建造了长城来保护自己的国土。

齐长城西起今山东省平阴县北，向东经泰安县西北至莱芜县北，然后向东，经沂山山脉，在安丘县东至胶县南的大朱山与小朱山之间入海，全长500多千米。自古以连接齐鲁南北而著称的穆陵关就坐落于沂山之上。

4. 现已消失的魏长城

作为一个北方国家，魏国跟其他的诸侯国一样，首先要确保自己国家的安全防卫。当时魏国的疆域面积很宽阔，囊括了今河南省的北部、山西省的南部和陕西省的东部地区。它的西边国土与强大的秦国紧挨着，北边与赵国犬牙交错，东部与齐国相邻，南面有韩、楚相望。魏国国都原来在安邑，也就是今山西省夏县这个地方，等到魏惠王的时候觉得都城离威猛的秦国太近，随时都有被吞并的危险，于是就决定给都城重新找一个相对安全的地方，于是迁都大梁，也就是今天的河南省开封市。

魏国曾经修筑过两道长城。一道在河南开封的西边，因为在古黄河的南面，因此历史上将它称为河南长城，又因为它经过卷地（今天河南原阳原武镇），所以也叫做卷长城。由于黄河在这一地区的频繁泛滥，已使河南长城踪迹难觅。另一道长城在魏国的西界，因为是在黄河的西面，所以也就将它称为河西长城或河右长城了。关于河西长城，在《竹书纪年》、《史记》中都有过一些文字记载。《史记·正义》里边说：“魏西界与秦相接，南自华州郑县，西北过渭水，滨洛水东岸，向北有上郡鄜州之地，皆筑长城以界秦境。”从这里的叙述我们可以很明白地知道河西长城的方位以及它的地理走向。

5. 傲然耸立的秦长城

战国时的秦国是很强大的诸侯国，国力之强盛，疆域之辽阔，是其他诸侯国不能与之相提并论的，秦国西部国界延伸至今天的甘肃省东部，其中陕西省的大部都是秦帝国的国土。东部与魏国及韩国相连接，南部与楚国和蜀国是邻居，西部与北部则和当时中国境内的少数民族为伴。秦朝的国都是今天的陕西省凤翔市。秦国国君个个野心勃勃，为谋取中原霸业，进而一统天下，秦国于秦孝公十二年（公元前350）将国都迁到咸阳，当时的咸阳位于今天陕西省咸阳市的东部。

最初修筑长城的目的主要是为抵御境内少数民族的侵犯，秦国也不例外。匈奴是中国古老的少数民族，居住在中国北部，以畜牧为业，逐水草迁徙，不定居，也无城郭。人人都能拉弓射猎，骁勇善战，影响了中原北境从事农业生产的民族的安定，成为秦国的后顾之忧。于是，秦昭王沿陕西、北地、上郡一线修筑了一道长城来抵御匈奴的入侵。这道长城被人们称作秦长城，也有人称之为秦昭王长城。后者是为了和后来赫赫有名的秦始皇长城相区别。

秦昭王长城至今依然傲然耸立，像一条长蛇一样蜿蜒于漫漫的黄土高原之上。它西起甘肃省临洮县，沿东南走向，到达渭源地区后，转而变为东北走向。向东北穿过通渭、静宁等县，一直抵达今天的宁夏回族自治区的固原县，经固原县，折为东北走向，依次经过甘肃省环县，陕西省横山地区，榆林和神木等县，最后到达黄河西岸。全长约2 000千米，是十分雄伟壮观的。它除内蒙古境内的一段为夯土与石筑兼用外，其他段都是由黄土夯筑而成。

长城沿线的内侧一般建有烽燧、城郭及古城遗址等。烽燧，顾名思义，就是烽火台。人们用它来传递信号，当敌人来进犯时，在烽火台上点起烽火，这样敌情就传给长城上的守军以及长城内的军事将领。他们可以争取时间组织兵力，反击敌人。烽燧一般建于视野开阔的高地，以便于准确无误地传递信号。楚长城和魏国黄河以西的长城沿线发现了烽燧遗址，但数量不多。有可能是因风吹雨打日晒而损坏了一部分。与此相比，秦昭王长城的沿线及长城内侧烽燧数量众多，平均每隔1～3千米就有一座，共计1 000余座。烽燧大多是圆台型，现存的高2～5米不等，它们就像是饱经沧桑的老者一样，见证着历史的风云变幻。

6. 赵武灵王与赵长城

赵国的疆域面积包含了今天山西省大部、陕西省东北部、河北省南部。东与中山国、齐国国壤相接，南和西与魏国、韩国、秦国交错在一起，北与少数民族林胡、楼烦相邻，东北与燕国、东胡成为邻居。赵国的国都原来在晋阳，也就是今天山西省的太原市地区；后来迁到中牟，也就是今天河南省汤阴县西边；公元前386年赵敬侯最后一次迁都到邯郸，也就是今天的河北邯郸。

赵国共有南北两道长城。南长城位于赵国南界，今河北与河南省交接的漳河北岸。是利用漳水、滏水的堤防相连扩建而成，首起河北武安县西太行山麓，缘漳河北岸而东，再折向东北，形成一个外凸的弓形。建于赵肃侯在位（公元前349～前325）之时，又称赵肃侯长城，是用来防御魏国的。

据《史记·匈奴列传》记载，赵武灵王从小就气质不凡，才识聪明，他对秦国商鞅变法的富国强兵策略下了很大的工夫去研究，他发誓一定要做出一番大事业。赵武灵王即位（公元前325）时，刚好遇到了战国中期诸侯各国逐鹿中原、进行兼并战争最强烈的时候。赵国虽然经过他的伟大的先辈们苦心经营之后，国力有了一定的提高，但是与其他诸侯国比较，赵国还非常的贫弱，经常遭受那些强大的诸侯国的欺侮，一片又一片疆土被秦国侵吞霸占。此外，赵国的北方、东方大部分边界与胡人部族相邻，楼烦、东胡等很多草原上的游牧民族经常对赵国进行骚扰掠夺。面对这样的局面，赵武灵王为加强军队士兵的战斗力，认为应该向胡人学习，于是开始尝试改变各种风俗习惯，带头改穿胡服，大力号召士兵练习骑射，军力逐渐强大，终于击破了林胡、楼烦，“壤地北至燕、代，西至云中、九原”，后来设了云中、雁门、代这3郡，他便命令在这3郡北边修筑了一道长城，这就是后来历史上所称的北长城。

北长城东起于代（今河北省张家口境内），经过云中、九原（今内蒙古包头市境内），从西北方向又折入阴山，至高阙（今内蒙古乌拉山与狼山之间的缺口处），长约650千米。现在这一段赵长城的遗址还断断续续地绵亘于大青山、乌拉山、狼山之间。后来秦始皇修筑万里长城的时侯，曾利用了这一段赵长城的部分作为基础。

沿着长城，人们还修筑了许多城堡、障塞和烽燧，从而构成了坚固的纵深防御体系。

7. 小国也筑长城——中山国长城

在强大的诸侯国争雄争霸战场上，中山国只能算是春秋战国时期白狄鲜虞领导建立的一个特别小的国家了，位置是夹在太行山东西的燕国、赵国之间（今河北省南部平山、灵寿、行唐、定县、正定、石家庄这一带）。东面边紧挨着燕国，其他3面全部为赵国包围。国都原来在顾（今河北定县），后来就迁到灵寿（今河北省灵寿城西南大约10千米的地方）。

中山国是在公元前414年建立的，为了保卫自己国家的利益，在公元前369年建了一道作为保障的长城。《史记·赵世家》记载：“（赵成侯）六年，中山筑长城。”这道长城用于防御赵、魏，以抗赵为主。根据史料证明，中山长城大约位于今河北、山西省交界的地方。它纵贯桓山、太行山南下，经过倒马、龙泉、娘子等诸多关隘，向南到达邢台黄洋关以南的明水岭大岭口地区，全长200多千米。

8. 易水边上的燕长城

我们知道燕国位于今河北省北部、辽宁省南部。全境东北和朝鲜为邻，北和东胡接壤，西和中山、赵交界，东南是渤海湾，并和齐接。国都在蓟（今北京）。后又建武阳为下都，称蓟为上都。

据考古专家的考查发现，燕国建有两道长城：一道在燕下都之南，易水之滨，所以叫做易水长城，也称为燕南长城；一道在燕国的北境地方。易水长城的修建完全是为了保卫燕下都武阳的。因为武阳的地理位置太过偏于燕的南境，与好战的赵国、魏国、齐国相邻，燕不得不有所防备。根据《史记》推断，这道长城应该是建在燕昭王（公元前311～前279）之前。易水长城西起于太行山下，沿南易水北岸向东前进，到徐水，走瀑河北岸（南易水的中、下游地区），又穿越瀑河，顺势沿着瀑河南岸直到容城，接着向东穿越萍河，抵达安新，为今白洋淀北堤所压。长城进入雄县境内，被大清河防洪堤坝所掩没，逐越过大清河向东南前进，经文安抵达大城。长城的墙体除了最西端那部分是石块垒砌的以外，其他都是用夯土修筑建成的。

据《史记·匈奴列传》说：赵武灵王修筑了长城以后，燕国有一个非常贤能的大将秦开在东胡作人质，东胡对他非常信任也非常尊重。但是当他回到了自己的燕国后，就率领军队去袭击东胡，东胡战败，丢下大片土地，退却到千里之外。于是“燕亦筑长城，自造阳至襄平。置上谷、渔阳、右北平、辽西、辽东郡以拒胡”。这就是历史上的燕北长城。燕北长城大概西起河北省张家口地区的独石口，向东北延伸，经沽源、围场进入内蒙古自治区喀喇沁旗，沿山岭逶迤盘旋到了赤峰，穿越黑山头到达老哈河，渡河后又朝东继续前行，进入辽宁省建平县北部丛山丘陵之中，在高山与深谷之间穿行，地势特别险要。长城出了山谷，过崩河，再一次进入内蒙古自治区的敖汉旗，出了敖汉旗又进入辽宁省北票，径至阜新县。至于从阜新是不是向东一直到达辽阳，即燕的襄平，至今还没有查明。

二千古一帝的经典——秦始皇长城

1. 秦始皇为什么要修筑万里长城

战国时期，匈奴借大国争霸的机会，乘机南下占有了赵长城、燕长城以内的河套地区，严重威胁着秦后方的安全，被秦视为后患。

公元前221年，秦始皇统一六国，彻底结束了诸侯割据称雄的混乱局面，建立了中国历史上第一个统一的中央集权的封建专制王朝。此后，为了维护和巩固统一，秦始皇拆毁战国时各诸侯国用以割据自卫的“腹地长城”，又于公元前214年，命大将蒙恬率兵30万，发起北逐匈奴的战争，把统一战争期间乘机入居塞内的匈奴部落逐出塞外。为了确保中原地区的安宁，不惜耗费巨大的人力、物力和财力，修筑长城，延绵万余里。秦长城利用了战国时期燕、赵、秦三国北部长城的基础，进行了大规模地修复、连接和增筑，随着秦王朝新拓疆域，向北扩展延伸，沿线设置12郡，分段防御，从而使西起临洮，东至辽东的整个长城防线，联贯为一，逾万里之上，自此始有“万里长城”之称。

秦始皇筑长城，是中国历史上著名的事件。长城所经地带，多是险峻要塞之处，上下陡峭，出入深谷，这样浩大的工程，在整个人类历史上是前所未有的。

2. 秦始皇万里长城

秦始皇长城其大体分为东、中、西三段。

东段长城大致走向为：自内蒙古化德县境，往东经过河北康保县、内蒙古太仆寺旗、多伦县南、河北丰宁、围场县北、内蒙古赤峰市北境及奈曼与库伦旗南境到达辽宁阜新市北面。这段长城有可能是沿用战国时期燕北线长城旧迹修复而成，或者是秦新筑。在辽河以东，根据文献记载，秦始皇长城一直延伸至朝鲜境内的大同江北岸，但现在没有发现其明显的遗存。由于东段长城所经过地带的自然条件差别较大，故而长城的修筑采取就地取材，“用险制塞”、“累石为城，树榆为塞”等不同方法。赤峰、围场、丰宁一带的长城多选在山岭上，就地取自然石块垒砌，约占调查过的长城长度的50 percent。其内外两侧均用较规整的大石，中间填以乱石块或砾石，基宽一般为2～3米，横断面呈梯形，下宽上窄，估计当时城墙高约3～4米，顶宽1米左右。在石筑城墙残基上，有的地段发现明显的接痕墙缝，表明当时筑造长城是按地区分工段的。

中段长城大致走向为：自内蒙古兴和县北经黄旗海北岸，绕过集宁市北境，顺着大青山向西绵延，经过察右中旗、武川县南部、固阳县北部的大庙、银号、西斗铺，然后北依阴山，南以黄河后套为障，经五原、杭锦后旗北境，西抵乌兰布和沙漠北缘。这段长城部分利用了战国赵北线长城的基础加以修缮，但新筑的也不少。墙体为石块垒砌而成，重要的关口都建有城障，适于观察瞭望处设有烽火台，工程之浩大，气势之雄伟，是一般战国土城墙不可比拟的。保存较好的地段，一般高5～6米，顶宽3米；隔1～2千米有一小烽火台，隔5千米有一座大烽火台和驻军营盘。

西段长城是凭借黄河天险而成，以障塞城堡为主，不全是互相连接的长城。在临洮一带，仍可看到残留的城墙若断若续，如游动起伏的长龙。当地地名还有叫做“长城坡”、“长城口”的。而当年横贯甘肃、宁夏南部、陕北、内蒙古的西南至东北走向的秦昭王长城已失掉防御作用，因此推断秦始皇西段长城不是建在战国秦昭王长城基础上的。此段长城遗址还需要进一步考察证实。

秦始皇“因地形、用险制塞”修筑万里长城，具体体现在长城大多建在山梁上，并且内侧为比较缓和的斜坡；在长城穿越河谷的地段，或者以沟堑代替墙壁，或者在河谷的一侧增筑一段平行的墙壁；而两山之间则用天然石块砌成石墙，形成险要的“石门”；在长城穿越山谷要道的地方，往往筑起一条如同封山水库大坝一样的石筑或土石混筑的“当路塞”，并在“当路塞”的侧旁修建城堡。这些措施大大加强了秦始皇万里长城的防御功能。

3. 大将军蒙恬

蒙恬曾经做过狱官，负责典掌文学。任大将军后，战功卓著。蒙恬带军攻下齐国后，被秦始皇委任为内史，甚为倚重。

秦始皇统一六国后，为解除匈奴对秦国北方诸郡的严重威胁，命令蒙恬领兵30万北逐匈奴，收复黄河以南大片土地，又令其修建了逶迤万余里的秦长城，还修建了自九原抵云阳，全长900千米的直道。这些措施对防止匈奴的侵扰发挥了重大作用。蒙恬驻兵上郡10多年，威震匈奴。秦始皇不仅宠信蒙恬，而且对其弟弟蒙毅也非常好，常让蒙毅伴随左右，并任命其为上卿。蒙氏兄弟权倾朝野，其他将相都不敢与之抗衡。在秦始皇三十四年（公元前213），太子扶苏因劝谏秦始皇不要焚书坑儒，被贬派到上郡去监管蒙恬军队。

秦始皇三十七年（公元前210），秦始皇巡游会稽，北还途中在沙丘病死。当时蒙毅受命祈祷山川未返，中车府令赵高与丞相李斯、公子胡亥密谋篡改了诏书，立胡亥为太子，遣使者赐公子扶苏、蒙恬死。结果扶苏自杀，蒙恬怀疑诏书有诈，不肯就范，被囚于阳周（今陕西绥德西）。胡亥想释放蒙恬，但赵高与蒙毅有私人过节，担心蒙氏兄弟重新得到秦二世的重用将会对自己不利，便罗织罪名，加以陷害。胡亥即帝位后，听信赵高谗言，迫使蒙恬服毒自杀。

蒙恬墓就在今天的陕西省绥德县城西南大约0.5千米处的大理河北岸。相传蒙恬死后，他部下的将士含着泪用自己的双手掬土为他堆起了一个很大的墓冢，墓冢呈圆丘样，高20多米，现有清道光二十八年（1848）绥德知州书立的“秦将军蒙恬墓”碑。直到今天，在甘肃、宁夏、陕西、内蒙古诸省和自治区的长城沿线地区都流传着许多关于蒙恬将军的传说故事，尤其是在绥德县，这种传说更丰富，更吸引人，并且极为感人。

4. 长城讲述的故事——“孟姜女哭长城”

只要说起长城，人们都会不约而同地把它和在中国广为流传的“孟姜女哭长城”的民间故事联系起来。秦始皇为了修筑长城这项浩大的工程，征集了上百万劳力。

传说万喜良在结婚后的第三天便被抓去修筑长城，而且这一去就是三年，中间没有一点消息，让家人都很着急。在一个寒冬腊月的夜晚，他的妻子孟姜女忽得一梦，看见丈夫破门而入，一进门就大声地喊道：“快关门啊，冻死我啦!”她从梦中惊醒过来，惦念着丈夫的生死，心中万分忧虑，无比悲伤。于是便下定决心，要去给丈夫送御寒的衣服。经过一番精心准备，数日之后，孟姜女便告别了爹娘，踏上了千里迢迢的寻夫之路。

一路上，她历尽千辛万苦，受尽万般磨难，终于到达了长城脚下。筑起的长城果然雄伟壮观，像一条巨龙绵延起伏于群山深壑之中。当时，长城正在修建中，民夫们在军士严密地监督下从事着极为繁重的劳动，但吃的还不如牛马，个个骨瘦如柴。孟姜女逢人便问，打听自己丈夫的下落，但一直没有找到，日夜忧心如焚。后来有一位工头告诉她，万喜良已在数月前死去了，且其尸骨已填进了城墙。这一消息，犹如晴天霹雳，使她悲痛万分，号啕大哭。凡是听到这哭声的人们，无不为之动容而伤感落泪。

孟姜女守在长城脚下，一连数日，痛哭不止，她哭着哭着，忽然间，耳边传来一声地动山摇似的巨响，雄伟的长城突然崩开了一个20千米长的缺口。在烟雾消散之后，被填埋在长城里的民夫的累累白骨便暴露于泥土碎石之间。这时，孟姜女忍住悲恸，擦干眼泪，辨认出了丈夫的尸骨，细心收殓以后，便怀着对横征暴敛、腐败昏庸的统治者的刻骨仇恨投海自尽了。后人为了歌颂这位传说中善良妇女的高尚品德，便在山海关外修建了一座姜女庙。

5. 功过自有后人评说

秦始皇大规模修建长城是中国古代历史上的重大事件，在以后始终影响着各代封建王朝的治国、备军思想。对于秦始皇修筑万里长城的评论，两千年来众说纷纭，有褒有贬，归纳起来就是两点：一方面主张一个主权国家就要备战设防。认为在当时，秦始皇若不下决心修筑长城，就不能保卫秦国的安全和稳定发展，也保证不了长城内农业经济生产区的安全。迁民充边、垦殖北方土地等措施，加速了边疆地区的开发，巩固了边防。这条最早的万里长城，在军事防御方面表现出了显著的功效，匈奴被迫向西北退缩，十余年不敢南下掠扰。长城内社会安定，人口增长，农业经济得以迅速稳定地发展。但另一方面对秦始皇修筑万里长城进行贬斥的也不乏其人，这一派斥责秦始皇暴虐，筑长城劳民伤财。

中国第一个集权封建王朝随着秦始皇的去世很快灭亡了，花费了大量人力与财力建造起来的秦始皇长城被无情地废弃。但是，秦国所创造的集权制度，被以后各代封建王朝统治者所采用。废弃的长城总是影响着历代王朝对国家战略防御的基本思想。秦朝的政治体制，统治国家的管理制度，统一文字，统一度量衡，修建长城并修建直道这一系列举措，对后来的政治、经济与军事有着巨大影响。秦国灭亡后，那种以残暴手段来有效控制国家政权的方法，在秦以后的各代封建王朝中使用得更为出神入化，秦国实际上为以后汉王朝封建统治制度的建设与发展打下了坚实的基础。西汉正是因为承继了秦国所采取的一系列政治改革措施，才使国家机器很快得以正常运转。

三汉武帝的“边墙”——西汉长城

1. 汉匈两国的政治局势

西汉初年，匈奴头曼单于之子冒顿，杀掉其父并以突然袭击的方式侵占了友邻部落，并不断南下侵占中原的土地，势力渐大。

正当刘邦以全部兵力消灭项羽时，冒顿趁此机会南侵，大举围攻马邑，甚至引兵南逾句注进攻太原，到晋阳城下，已经入侵到汉王朝的内部地区了。

汉高祖刘邦，亲自率兵32万“从晋阳连战，乘胜北逐，逐至平城”（《汉书·高帝纪》）。但是，由于西汉刚刚建立，政权正在巩固，不能拿出更多的兵力来远逐匈奴，因此曾一度采取了与匈奴和亲的政策。然而就在和亲的几十年中，匈奴贵族也没有停止过对汉王朝的侵扰，“往往入盗于汉边，不可胜数”，“汉孝文帝十四年，匈奴单于十四万骑，入朝那、萧关，杀北地都尉卯，虏人民财产甚多”（《史记·匈奴列传》）。

面对匈奴的这种掠扰，文帝、景帝时期即曾多次予以回击，并修缮了秦时所筑长城。从长安至长城沿线，设置了许多烽火台传递军情，加强了防务，有力地抗击了匈奴的袭扰。之后，文、景二帝采纳了贾谊、晁错等人的意见，逐步平定了汉初分封诸王的叛乱和奴隶主残余势力的复辟活动，政权开始巩固下来。

汉武帝是一个继秦始皇统一后，把封建专制国家进一步巩固下来的重要人物。他对掠夺成性的匈奴贵族早有戒备并准备给以坚决地回击。在他继位的第7年（元光元年，公元前134）派“卫尉李广为骁骑将军屯云中，中尉程不识为车骑将军屯雁门”（《汉书·武帝纪》）。但是，到了元朔年间（公元前128～前123），匈奴不断入辽西、上谷、渔阳杀掠吏民，武帝命卫青、霍去病统兵大破匈奴。为了有效地阻止匈奴的突然袭击，除了抗击之外，必须要加强防御工事。

汉武帝不仅修缮秦城，而且新筑长城。长城工程规模的宏大远在秦始皇长城之上。武帝主要修筑了河西走廊的长城。《史记·大宛列传》：“汉始筑，令居以西，初置酒泉郡以通西北国。”这是从元狩中期开始从甘肃的永登（古令居）筑长城至酒泉。元狩二年（公元前121），武帝令骠骑将军霍去病出陇西，击破匈奴。匈奴的昆邪王杀休屠王，并率4万人来降，武帝在河西设置武威、酒泉两郡，从那时开始了河西长城的建筑。

《史记·大宛列传》又记载武帝元鼎六年（公元前111）令从骠侯赵破奴破匈奴，“于是酒泉亭障至玉门矣”。同年又完成了张掖、敦煌两郡的建置。太初四年（公元前101）又从玉门以西，“列亭障至盐泽”（今新疆罗布泊），前后不到10年的时间，1 000多千米长的河西长城即告完成。

汉武帝进一步发展和改进了长城的布局，建筑了许多亭障、列城，把长城内外的广大地区有机地构成一个防御工程体系，相隔一定的距离，择险要地形，修筑列城、城障，以烽燧相连。

为了抗击匈奴的掠扰，发展西域诸属国的生产，保护通往西方交通干道，武帝时又开始了从敦煌、楼兰以西列城、烽燧的修筑。

汉昭帝继武帝执行了抗击匈奴的路线，“元凤元年，匈奴发左右部二万骑为四队，并入边为寇；汉兵追之，斩首获虏九千人，生得瓯脱王，汉无所失亡”。于是匈奴“即西北远去，不敢南逐水草。发人民屯瓯脱”（《资治通鉴》）。昭帝还修筑了东段长城，发民屯垦，于“元凤六年春正月，募郡国徒筑辽东玄菟城”（《汉书·昭帝纪》）。

汉宣帝继武帝、昭帝以后继续筑城屯戍，使西域诸属国生产得到进一步地发展。地节三年（公元前67）派侍郎郑吉在渠犁筑城屯田，神爵二年（公元前60）以郑吉为使都护西域骑都尉，设置西域都护府于乌垒城，以管理西域乌孙、大宛、康居、桃槐、疏勒、无雷等36属国。

以后西域属国发展为50个，“自驿长至将相王侯，皆佩汉印绶，凡三百七十六人”。

2. 漫步西汉万里长城

秦始皇万里长城规模已经很大了，而西汉长城较之秦始皇长城更有所发展，并筑了外长城，长1万千米。西汉是历史上修筑长城最长的一个朝代。

西汉长城东起辽东，西抵盐泽，其东段大抵是修复秦时故塞；阴山以北则增设亭障，河西走廊至西则是新筑。

其形式除城墙外，还有列城、亭、障、烽、塞、堑、壕、天田、土垄、塞墙、坞等，沿长城全线，五里一燧，十里一墩，三十里一堡，百里一城塞，烽烟相接，万里相望，形成一条严密的防线。

（1）西汉长城西段

西汉长城西段自内蒙古额济纳旗苏古诺尔湖畔起，沿额济纳河南下，至甘肃金塔县境循北大河向西折转，沿北山山地南麓和疏勒河畔，直至敦煌县西北小方盘城。再向西经罗布泊、孔雀河畔延伸，不再筑城墙，而是绵延的烽燧。居延地区的长城和烽燧是为了切断匈奴与羌人的联系，屏障汉通西域的交通要道——河西走廊。现存长城遗址有30余处，包括塞墙、烽燧、都尉治所和侯官的治所。西段的西汉长城基本上用夯土筑成或用土坯垒砌，夯土层间常夹着芦苇，以增强自身抗风蚀的能力，也有一些地段是内外两侧用粗石板垒成，中间填塞砾石，或仅用砾石压紧柴枝垒起。

西汉长城在历史上曾有力地阻止了北方游牧民族对南部农耕地区的侵扰。同时，从西汉长城遗址中曾发现了汉代的许多文物遗存，西方国家的毛织品、葡萄、瓜果等物品也沿着这条“丝绸之路”万里长途输入到长安和东南县郡。因而，西汉长城在保证“丝绸之路”这一国际交通干道的畅通和中外文化艺术交流上也起到了重大的作用。

（2）西汉长城中段

西汉长城中段指内蒙古商都以西至额济纳旗之间的西汉长城，西汉初年所筑的“外城”采用复线形式，分布在秦长城北面的草原上。这两道长城，南北相距5～50千米不等。其建筑采用夯土筑与石块垒砌相结合，或利用山岭峭壁作为一侧墙体。在此段长城沿线还发现了许多汉代农具，说明当时守军也从事农业生产。

（3）西汉长城东段

西汉长城东段指内蒙古商都以东至辽东半岛的西汉长城。河北省承德地区的西汉长城位于秦、燕长城以南，明长城以北，构造仍然是“因险制塞”，城墙体与墩台配置而成，多为土筑夯打。内蒙古赤峰地区的西汉长城分布在战国时期燕长城和秦统一后的秦始皇长城以南。辽宁境内的西汉长城遗迹是自辽宁阜新市往东，经彰武、法库、开原，然后折而向南，经新宾、宽甸，进入朝鲜境内。从这段长城附近发现的遗迹来看，均属战国时燕国和汉代特征，说明西汉长城是利用燕长城基础修缮的。

3. 河西走廊汉塞的防御体系

河西走廊汉塞沿线设置的有障、坞、燧、关，它们共同构成了完整的战争防御体系。

所谓障，就是塞边的小城，一般被建造在特别险要的地方，既可自我防护也可观察敌人。郡守下面专职军事的都尉和侯官都在障里驻扎，以便有了敌情随时准备战斗。坞，有的叫做堡，有的叫做壁，还有的说是坞壁等，它是作为一个附属建筑而修建的，是为了很好地服务于障，更大地发挥障的力量，替障解决后顾之忧。它们一般被建造在障或燧的旁边，这样的建筑模式是前代长城设施中从来没有的，是汉代的一个历史性的新创举。燧，或者叫做烽燧，它的平面呈方形或圆形。它的边宽或直径为10米左右，高数米甚至十几米。汉代时称这种土筑的高台为亭，所以也命名为“亭燧”。目前在甘肃省酒泉、张掖、武威地区已经发现了汉代的烽燧共300多座。关，一般是修建在塞外城墙内侧的驿道上，是丝绸之路上的重要通道。现在我们知道在河西四郡那里就曾经设立有著名的4关，即人们耳熟能详的玉门关、阳关、金关、悬索关。在驿道上还设立有众多驿站，以供来往的军民休憩。汉朝时河西走廊的长城边塞有着很重要的战略地位，防御了北方匈奴的侵犯，并加强保护丝绸大道的顺畅无阻。同时西北地区大力开展军屯和民屯，也对开发西北地区的发展有着极其深远的历史意义。而这一切辉煌的业绩和宝贵的建筑，由于当地气候干燥、人烟稀少的特殊环境而很奇特地比较多地被保存了下来，为后人研究当时的历史提供了大量珍贵的资料。

20世纪以来，尤其是1949年以后，相关专业的研究人员经过周密考察和重点发掘，使得长城边塞的面貌终于重新展现在人们面前，也日渐成为人们所熟悉的景物。遗址中出土的数万枚珍贵的汉代木简，也为对于汉塞防御制度、屯戍制度等的研究提供了宝贵的资料，值得庆幸。

4. 屯田与长城的修筑

屯田，是发展生产积极备战政策的一个重要组成部分，与长城的修筑密切相关。自秦始皇筑长城、设郡、徙民实边已经开创了这一制度。汉承秦制，西汉诸帝也都大力推行筑城、屯田、徙民实边的政策。特别是汉武、昭、宣帝时期，采纳桑弘羊、晁错、赵充国等人的建议，进一步发展了始皇徙民实边的政策，大力开展屯田。在长城、亭障防守地带以及荒僻区，以守防士卒和移民共同开垦田地，兴修水利，进行耕作备战。

赵充国是武帝时几次远逐匈奴的大将，极力主张筑城、屯田。汉武帝两从其计，采纳了筑城设防和屯田的建议。昭帝进一步实现了桑弘羊的筑城、屯田政策。他即位的头半年“后元二年冬，匈奴入朔方，杀掠吏民”，于是立郡“发军屯河西”。

宣帝时期发展了汉武以来的西域屯田，在西域诸属国的中部地区于神爵三年（公元前59）设立了西域都护（都护府治乌垒城，遗址在今新疆轮台县境内），以管理当时50属国的行政事物和屯田工作，于是西域屯田便大力发展起来。除鄯善、车师、轮台、渠犁等主要地点外，在乌孙的赤谷城也是重要的屯田地区。在设都护以前，武帝时这里已设置过使者校尉领护，并已有了城障、烽燧和防守官吏了。在居延发现的汉简中有一条简上证明了这一事实。

秦、汉屯田为抗击匈奴和巩固防务提供了物质条件，以后各代除了军屯，还有民屯。屯田对全国各荒僻地区的开发、生产都起了积极的作用，追溯其源与万里长城的修筑是分不开的。

5. 长城下的英雄：卫青与霍去病

卫青的一生可以说是充满了传奇色彩，他的母亲原本是平阳公主家的女仆，私下同平阳县吏郑季私通，生下卫青。少时卫青便被送到生父郑季家抚养，但由于身份的原因，郑家人根本看不起他，对他任意羞辱。稍大后，卫青不愿再受郑家的奴役，便回到母亲身边，在平阳府里做了一名骑奴，依然过着低人一等的生活。曾经有人预言他日后一定会做官至封侯，他苦笑着说：“我是奴隶所生的孩子，以后不受鞭打责骂就满足了，哪里还敢奢望能得到封侯！”

后来，卫青的姐姐卫子夫为汉武帝临幸，被招入宫，卫青便被带入宫中当差，汉武帝很快就发现了卫青的军事才能，至此，他的戎马生涯正式开始。元光五年（公元前130），汉武帝任命他为车骑将军，率万人骑兵，同其他将领分兵向匈奴进军，从此他踏上了征战沙场为国效命的道路。后来他的姐姐卫子夫生了太子，被立为皇后，于是卫青也越来越受到汉武帝的信任和器重。

元朔二年（公元前 127），匈奴贵族集结大量兵力进攻上谷、渔阳。武帝决定避实击虚，派卫青率大军进攻久为匈奴盘踞的河南地（黄河河套地区）。卫青率领4万大军从云中出发，采用“迂回侧击”的战术，西绕到匈奴军的后方，迅速攻占高阙，然后又率精骑，飞兵南下至陇西，形成了对白羊王、楼烦王的包围。匈奴白羊王、楼烦王见势不好，仓惶率兵逃走。汉军活捉敌兵数千人，夺取牲畜100多万头，完全控制了河套地区。卫青立有大功，被封为长平侯。

元朔五年（公元前 124）春，汉武帝命卫青率领3万骑兵从高阙出发，出征匈奴。卫青率大军急行军六七百里，趁着黑夜包围了右贤王的营帐。这时，右贤王正在帐中拥着美妾，畅饮美酒，已有八九分醉意了。忽听帐外杀声震天，火光遍野，便惊慌失措，只带了几百壮骑突出重围，向北逃去。汉军俘虏了右贤王的小王10余人，男女15 000余人，牲畜几百万头。汉军大获全胜，高奏凯歌，收兵回朝。汉武帝接到战报，喜出望外，派特使到军中拜卫青为大将军。

家奴出身的卫青如今变成了大将军，朝中官员无不巴结奉承。这时，平阳公主寡居在家，要在列侯中选择丈夫，许多人都说大将军卫青合适。汉武帝知道后当即允婚。这样一来，卫青与汉武帝亲上加亲，更受宠信。但卫青为人谦让仁和，敬重贤才，从不以势压人。

卫青一生与匈奴7次作战，用兵敢于深入，奇正兼擅；为将号令严明，与士卒同甘共苦；作战常奋勇争先，将士皆愿为其效力。最后卫青病死于元封六年（公元前105）。

霍去病是大将军卫青的外甥，18岁时即以皇后姐姐儿子的身份被选为侍中。因为喜欢骑马射箭，元朔六年（公元前123）随从大将军卫青出征，率800轻骑兵袭击匈奴，斩匈奴2 000多人，封为冠军侯。元狩二年（公元前121）升任骠骑将军。前后６次出击匈奴，其中有两次建立了赫赫战功。在元狩二年，霍去病以骠骑将军之名率万骑出陇西，越过焉支山（今甘肃山丹东南）奔袭千余里，斩杀匈奴近9 000人，缴获了休屠王用来祭天的铜佛像。同年夏，再出陇西、北2 000余里，越过居延泽，进军祁连山，捕斩匈奴３万多人。这次战役沉重打击了匈奴右部，造成匈奴内部分裂。匈奴浑邪王杀休屠王，率部４万余人归汉。汉朝将归顺的匈奴分别安置在边塞之外空旷的地方，并按照匈奴的风俗设置了5个属国，又在河西走廊地区先后设立武威、张掖、酒泉、敦煌4郡，由此加强了与西域的直接交往，对西汉势力的增长和抑制、消灭匈奴的势力起了重要作用。

霍去病用兵注重实际，不死守兵法。汉武帝曾叫他学兵法，他说：“用兵要根据具体情况制订作战方略，不能单学兵法。” 武帝赏赐他宅院，他又说：“匈奴不灭，无以家为。”在打仗时，他也总是英勇无畏、身先士卒，经常率领部队担任大军的先锋。但是因为霍去病从小在豪富之家和宫中长大，自恃显贵，因而不能抚恤怜悯士卒。在塞外的时候，汉武帝曾以膳食数十乘犒赏他，到撤军时，他抛弃了大量的美味佳肴，但是军队中的官兵却因吃不饱而面带菜色。

霍去病一生4次领兵正式出击匈奴，都以大胜回师，灭敌11万，降敌4万，开疆拓土，战功比他的舅舅卫青还要壮观。在完成了这样不世的功勋之后，霍去病也登上了他人生的顶峰：大司马骠骑将军。然而仅仅过了两年，元狩六年（公元前117），24岁的霍去病就去世了。

四长城的发展——东汉至金长城

1. 被历史湮没的东汉长城

在建武初年的时候，光武帝刘秀为了大举平定中原诸多叛将和反汉的势力，东征西战，因此没有时间和精力来关心北边的发展以及各种隐患的出现，而几次派去抗御匈奴的军队又连连失利，匈奴更加猖狂，烧杀不止，抢掠不息。光武帝内忧外患，焦躁不安，于是派遣将军开始在晋阳、广武、常山（治元氏，今河北元氏西北）、涿郡（今河北涿县）、渔阳大量屯田以充实边郡，准备抗击匈奴的侵袭。建武十二年（公元36），中原终于基本平定，光武帝也终于有精力将视线向北方转移了，逐渐致力于北边的建设。

光武帝为保卫都城洛阳，防御匈奴侵犯，于建武十四年（公元38）修筑了四条长城：其一位于今山西离石县至陕西咸阳东南之间；其二位于今陕西高陵县东至山西安邑县之间；其三位于今山西太原至河北井陉县之间；其四位于今河北定州市南至临漳县之间。

然而东汉时候修筑的长城大多已经被历史湮没，找不到它们留下的印痕，直到今天，考古专家依然没有发现并且能够真正地证明它的存在。

2. 北魏与东魏长城

（1）北魏长城

北魏王朝统治了黄河北部的广大地区。北魏王朝的统治者原为鲜卑拓跋部，本来是以游牧骑射为生，但在统治了以农业生产为主的中原地区之后，经济得到了发展，国力一时强大。这时在王朝的北部有另一支强大的游牧民族柔然和东北部的契丹族仍处于奴隶社会阶段，奴隶主贵族不时南下扰掠。因此，北魏仍然采用了秦汉时期防御匈奴的办法，修筑长城。

据《魏书·明元帝纪》记载：明元帝泰常八年（423）筑长城于长川之南，起自赤城（今河北赤城县），西至五原（今内蒙古自治区五原县），延袤2 000余里。又在太平真君七年（446）发四州10万人，筑畿上塞围，起上谷，西至于河，广袤皆千里。即从今北京居庸关，向南至灵邱，再向西经平型、北楼、雁门、宁武、偏头诸关而达山西河曲县。当时把这道长城称之为畿上塞围，是因为它环绕于首都大同的南面，用它来保卫首都之意。

（2）东魏长城

534年，孝武帝投奔宇文泰，权臣高欢随即立元善见为魏孝静帝，从此北魏王朝分作东、西魏。东魏迁都邺后，曾修筑长城。《资治通鉴》上载：东魏武定七年（549），高欢筑长城于肆州北山，西自马陵（今山西静乐县），东至土蹬（今山西崞县），四十日而罢。这段长城当在吕梁山脉中，呈西南至东北走向，长75千米。

3. 北齐、北周与隋长城

（1）北齐长城

550年，高洋篡东魏帝位，国号齐，史称北齐，据有今河北、河南、山西、山东等大片领土。北齐北有突厥、柔然、契丹等游牧民族的威胁，西有北周政权的对峙。为了防御，北齐便大筑长城。据《北史》记载，北齐天保三年（552），自西河总秦戍（今大同西北）筑长城，东至于渤海（今河北山海关）。天保六年（555）皇帝下诏，征发180万人修筑长城，自幽州夏口（今北京居庸关南口）西至恒州（今大同）900多里。天统元年（565）自库堆戍东距海2 000余里间，凡有险要、堑山筑城，断谷起障。《北史》上记载，齐前后修筑东西走向的长城共1 500多千米，30千米设一戍，并在险要地方设置州、镇共25处，用以驻兵防守。并在天保八年（557）初，于长城内筑重城，自库络拔（今大同西南）至坞纥戍（平型关东北），长200多千米。天统元年（565）又把坞纥戍的重城向东伸延至居庸关与外城相结合。

为了防御北周，北齐还修筑了南北向长城。《资治通鉴》上记载，北齐河清二年（563），司空斛律光率领步骑兵2万人，修筑长城100多千米，即今尤关、广昌、阜平之间的长城。

在南北朝时代，北齐是筑长城次数最多的王朝。

（2）北周长城

557年，宇文觉篡西魏帝位，国号周，史称北周，据有河北、山西、山东等地。为了防御北方突厥、契丹等，北周把西魏原来的北部长城加以修缮。北齐和北周分立东西，但北周比北齐强大，557年，北周灭北齐。其后突厥屡屡骚扰边境，北周因此又修缮了北齐长城。

（3）隋长城

581年，杨坚统一了中国，国号隋，结束了自东汉末年以来400年间封建割据的局面。为了防御突厥、契丹、吐谷浑，文帝即位之初就开始修筑长城。在隋朝的时候，面对各种局面，隋政府虽然采用了远交近攻、离间突厥内部各汗的战略并取得了很大的成功，但突厥仍然是他们的心头大患，在没有办法的情况下，也只有筑长城了，于是隋在短短的37年间，先后7次大规模地修筑长城，每次都动用数十万甚至上百万的民夫。

隋朝修的长城，多见于史料记载中，却很少有地面遗存。其原因大概有三点：

第一，修缮的多，自己新筑的少，而且又多是在秦汉长城的基础上进行修补。因此，人们仍然认为它们是秦汉长城。

其次，修筑的工期短，修建的质量差，大多不打夯，经过风雨的摧残有的变成了小土堆，有的已荡然无存。

最后，也可能为明朝所筑的长城叠压覆盖，见不到当年的痕迹。

4. 唐、宋、辽时期的长城

（1）唐代

唐王朝国力强盛，疆域辽阔，无需恃长城作屏障，仅是为了防止奚、契丹等部落的滋扰，对个别地段有过利用或修缮。渤海国与高丽相峙，曾筑有同中原形式相仿的长城。随着辽、北宋、西夏对峙局面的形成，又有大部分长城在契丹势力控制下。

（2）宋代

据史料记载，为了御防契丹、西夏，宋王朝曾于边境营造成串的堡寨，但终未形成严密的防御体系。这一时期，长城的修建几乎陷于停顿状态。

（3）辽代

辽是契丹人在中国北方建立的一个区域性王朝。907年始建国，947年建国号辽，至1125年被女真人攻灭，历时210年。

辽代修筑的长城，文献记载甚为简略。据《辽史·太祖本记》记载，太祖开平二年（908）“筑长城于镇东海口”。在今大连市金州区南关岭仍有城墙残迹，还可以采集到铁镞等遗物。据此认为辽朝镇东海口长城即在此地。

5. 走近金长城

金长城形式奇特，别具一格，规模非常庞大，是继秦、汉长城之后的中国古代第三条万里长城，历史上往往将它称为“金界壕”、“金壕堑”或“金边堡”。

在11世纪末，兴起于中国东北地区的女真族完颜部逐渐强大，建立了各部落联盟。1115年，完颜部首领阿骨打称帝，国号为金。1125年强悍的金人终将辽灭掉。1121年蒙古兴起，多次派兵攻金，金为了抵御蒙古入侵，开始组织人力修筑“金界壕”军事防御工程，于1138年动工，到1198年竣工，历时60年。金长城东起呼伦贝尔盟，西到大青山，全长5 000多千米，位于今内蒙及黑龙江境内，是仅次于万里长城的古军事防御工程。

金长城的防御体系由长城界壕和边堡关隘组成。长城界壕的主要结构是挖一条堑壕，阻碍战马冲越，堑壕内侧垒筑长墙。边堡关隘是金朝戍边军队的驻屯地，按形制和地理位置的不同，一般分为戍堡、边堡、关城三种。金代长城是适用于草原地形地貌类型的防御体系，如其墙、壕并列，主要是为了防御骑兵，主、副墙及戍堡、烽燧的配置、设计都更为合理。金长城现仍存数百千米，横亘于千里草原之上，向远方延伸至草原深处。

齐齐哈尔段长城是金长城最早的一段，主墙高大完整，上置戍楼，墙面有驰道，可供车马通行，墙外有护壕，以护主墙。根据需要往往在主墙外修有不连贯的第二、第三道墙壕，加强了防御的功能，在墙内侧有屯驻军兵的戍军堡。

在扎兰屯市境内的金长城，全长140多千米，全都是单墙单壕，今城墙绝大多数湮没在沙草之中，残址一般高2米，最高处有8米左右。在墙外15～20米处有壕堑，宽2～6米，深3～4米，墙内每隔10千米左右，设有一个用夯土筑成的方形戍堡，边长约180米。历史上称它为泰州边壕或长春边堡，还有一部分史籍称它为“成吉思汗边墙”。

五独领风骚——辉煌的明长城

1. 明长城修建的历史背景

明长城是中国长城中最为宏伟的。在明王朝统治时期，统治者不惜花费巨资，前后用了200多年时间，动用大量人力、物力，重修、改线、增筑了万里长城。

明代花费如此大的力气去修建长达万余里的震惊世界的军事防御工程，是有极其深刻的政治原因和历史背景的。

经过元朝后期的多年战争，明朝在建立时国库空虚，粮尽财绝，军事上也明显实力不足，与蒙古元朝余部进行数次交战均以失败告终。严峻的事实使得明王朝认识到，以他们的力量是难以消灭元朝余部势力的。如何才能稳固自己刚刚建立起来的统治地位，朱元璋始终奉行他在明朝建立以前的治国之策——“高筑墙、广积粮、缓称王”。“高筑墙”是巩固自己实力、伺机进攻的一种长远的军事战术方法，扩大到保国守界方面当然也有修筑城墙坚守边疆的战略企图了。到1368年朱元璋取得了政权后，便开始了长城障塞的修筑工程。

经过十几年的苦心经营，明王朝北方的边务实力有所增强，便开始了对元朝残余势力的进攻。洪武二十年（1387）二月，大将军冯胜率领10万大军对北元纳哈出部进行征战，大败北元，瓦解了蒙古的残余势力。残存的蒙古贵族们纷纷向明朝称臣归顺。但是，他们并不安于臣属于明王朝，北元的蒙古贵族与明王朝之间常常出现激烈的冲突。1390～1396年，明王朝向北元各部发动了多方征战，基本上奠定了边境的稳定局面。在甘肃境内，自明朝前期平定河西，设甘肃卫主持防务后，河西相对稳定。随着几次明王朝有力地征伐，其北方主要在河北、山西、陕西境内的边患得到了缓解。但是蒙古部族的被迫西迁，却使甘肃的边患连连。

在弘治、正德年间，明王朝为了防止蒙古的侵扰，再次商议修筑边墙之事。明朝初年在北方设立了辽东、宣府、大同、延绥四镇，以后又增设了宁夏、甘肃、蓟州三镇，加上固原和山西的太原，叫做“九边”，统统布有重兵，分地防御。

1421年明成祖朱棣迁都燕京（今北京）后，曾5次亲自带兵征战漠北，也并没有从根本上解决巩固边防的问题。但是，明成祖从几次亲征的过程中真正体会到了北部边陲之地不加强防御体系是不行的，他对加强长城军事防御体系、修筑长城加倍重视起来。明成祖死后，明王朝因连年征战，军备日益匮乏，早已没有力量组织庞大的远征军去打击北元的蒙古残余势力了。明英宗继位后，明王朝历经景帝、宪宗、孝宗70多年后，开始走向衰败，宦官当权、政治腐败，经济上土地高度集中，有权势的地主、官僚阶级大量侵占土地，而且不交纳田赋，出现了经济危机。广大的农民衣不遮体、食不果腹，甚至出现了“鬻男卖女”的情况，更多的农民结队流亡。走投无路的农民不堪忍受繁重的剥削和压迫，纷纷揭竿而起。内忧外患，强敌压境，明政府只能把加强北方边陲地区的军事防御工程作为最重要的国防措施去实行。对明朝来说，修筑长城、扩建城堡、加强纵深防御是防止北方游牧部族侵扰的唯一手段。所以明成祖以后的每一个皇帝都对修建长城保卫边陲极为重视。

2. 九边十一镇

现在世人皆知的万里长城其实是明长城。明长城东起鸭绿江，西抵嘉峪关，全长7 000多千米，是整个中华长城史上最著名、最伟大、最灿烂的经典之作。它那高超的建筑技术，严密的防御设施，宏伟的建筑样式，浩大的工程建设，这一切都是前无古人的惊世绝笔。明长城翻越过苍翠的群山峻岭，穿过浩瀚无际的戈壁沙漠，以磅礴无畏的气势奔向大海！它比起秦始皇长城毫不逊色，是重要的文化遗产。

明代把长城划分成为九个防守段，称之为“九边”，每一边皆设有镇守（总兵官）把守，称之为九边重镇。后又为加强京城的防御和保护十三陵，于1551年在北京的西北部增设了昌镇和真保镇，这样就有了十一镇，构成了九边十一镇的防御格局。

十一镇长城的范围、总兵驻地如下：

（1）辽东镇长城

位于今辽宁省，是京师最有力的左臂，东起丹东附近的鸭绿江畔，西至山海关，全长约970千米。总兵驻广宁（今辽宁北镇）。

（2）蓟镇长城

分布在河北省、天津市、北京市等范围之内，是京师的重要屏障，东起山海关，西至慕田峪，全长约880千米。总兵驻三屯营（今河北省迁西县内）。

（3）吕镇长城

是从原蓟镇中增设的，东起慕田峪，西至紫荆关，全长约230千米。总兵驻昌平。

（4）真保镇长城

也是为加强京师防务而增设的，北起紫荆关，南至故关，全长约390千米。总兵驻保定。

（5）宣府镇长城

位于河北省西北部，东起居庸关，西至西泽河（今山西大同东北），全长约570千米。总兵驻宣化。

（6）大同镇长城

位于山西省的北部边界地区，东起镇口台（今山西天镇东北），西至丫角山（今山西偏关东北），全长约335千米。总兵驻大同。

（7）太原镇长城

又叫山西镇长城，位于山西省东部和北部，西起保德、河曲的黄河岸边，东至和顺县黄榆关，全长约800千米。总兵驻偏关。

（8）延绥镇长城

也叫榆林镇长城，东起府谷县黄河西岸，西至花马池（今宁夏盐池县），全长约1 000千米。总兵驻榆林。

（9）宁夏镇长城

位于宁夏回族自治区北部，东起大盐池（今宁夏盐池县境内），西至兰州，全长约830千米。总兵驻银川。

（10）固原镇长城

位于宁夏回族自治区南部和甘肃省东南部，东起靖边与榆林镇长城相接，西至皋兰与甘肃镇长城相接，全长约750千米。总兵驻固原。

（11）甘肃镇长城

位于甘肃省境内，东起兰州，西至嘉峪关，全长约800千米。总兵驻张掖。

以上九边十一镇长城，共长7 500多千米，全线防守官兵97.6万多名（这只是某个时期内的统计数字）。长城的长度也只是一些文献上的记载，实际长度当远不止此。

3. 明长城——世界建筑史上的奇迹

明长城是中国历史上修筑的最后一道长城，是修建规模最大、历时最长、工程最坚固、设备最完善的长城，是世界上最伟大的古建筑工程之一，已作为地球上人类的奇迹载入世界文明的史册。有人计算过，若将明代修筑长城用的砖石、土方用来修筑一道５米高、１米厚的大墙，可绕地球一周有余。

长城的修建需要综合运用多门学科，比如数学、力学、建筑材料等，还有地理学，因为长城的选址要考虑到地势、水源等地理环境。所以，长城首先反映了其自身时代的科学水平，是自然和社会科学等多门学科发展的实物例证，从长城人们可以看出当时科学发展的历程。前人的聪明智慧和辛勤劳动创造发明的成果还可以为今天的科学技术研究提供借鉴。

长城是规模宏大而又艰巨的工程，其选择地形、规划设计、材料来源、劳动力的征用等诸多方面都是比较复杂的。明长城的修筑如同其他中国古代建筑一样，建筑工匠们在长期的实践中总结出了“就地取材，因料施用”的经验，正如著名长城专家罗哲文总结的“利用自然、顺应自然、缔造自然”，构筑成了世界建筑史上的奇迹。

明长城是由城墙、关、城堡、墙台、烟墩和驿传等组成完整的军事防御工程体系的。

城墙是长城工程的主体，墙体依材料区分为砖墙、石墙、夯土墙、铲山墙、山险墙、木柞墙、壕柞等型，随地形平险、取材难易而异。除蓟镇长城的墙身全部用石条、青砖砌筑，其余诸镇长城多采用土夯墙，仅敌楼包砖。铲山墙指将天然山体铲削成陡立的墙壁，山险墙一般依靠峻峭的山脊用砖石垒砌。柞墙指树林中的木栅栏墙。柞指挖掘壕堑后于一侧培筑土垣。城墙断面下大上小呈梯形，高厚尺寸亦随地势需要而异。城墙顶面，外设垛口，内砌女墙，或叫女儿墙，主要作用是保护守城将士的人身安全，防止不慎坠下墙去。券门暗道用以供守城士卒上下。

关城是出入长城的通道，也是长城防守的重点，建砖砌拱门，上筑城楼和箭楼。一般关城都建两重或数重，其间用砖石墙连接成封闭的城池，有的关城还筑有瓮城、角楼、水关或翼城，城内建登城马道，以备驻屯军及时登城守御。关城与长城是一体的。

城堡是屯兵以备战之用的。城堡按等级分为卫城、守御或千户所城和堡城，按照防御体系和兵制要求配置在长城内侧。间或有设于墙外者。卫、所城之间相距百余里，卫城周长3～4.5千米，千户所城周长４～５千米，砖砌城墙，外设马面、角楼，城门建瓮城，有的城门外还筑月城或正对城门的翼城，以加强城门的控守。城内有衙署、营房、民居和寺庙。卫、所城与长城的距离或近或远，在长城内位置适中、地势平缓、便于屯垦的地方筑建。堡城亦称边堡，间距5千米左右，城周长0.5～1.5千米，砖包城垣，开1～2门，建瓮城门。城内有驻军营房、校场、寺庙，边堡同长城的间距一般不超过5千米，遇警时可迅速登城。长城上的敌台和墙台，只能容纳很少的兵士，平时只是起到站岗放哨、遮风蔽雨的作用。真正有紧急情况，临时从远处调兵遣将恐难解燃眉之急，因此，在长城内侧沿线还建有许多城堡，实际上就是兵营。这些城堡根据本段长城的位置重要与否而有大小之分，但都建在长城附近，与长城构成犄角之势，一旦有急，招之即来。

在明代长城上，根据地形和地势隔不远就设置一个敌台，亦称敌楼。敌楼跨越城墙而建，一般是在高出城墙数丈之上用砖砌成的方形墩台，分二层或三层，四面的垛墙上均开有垛口。敌台上面，中间修有船形小屋，名曰楼橹。敌台和楼橹里面，可以驻兵以避风雨，也可以存粮和储藏武器，以备不时之需。楼橹环以垛口，供瞭望之用。敌台据长城险要之处而设，周阔十二丈，可容三四十名军士。敌台是明代抗倭名将戚继光于16世纪后半期修建的。《明史·戚继光列传》载，戚继光建议“令戍卒画地受工，先建千二百座”。这1 200座敌台只是山海关至北京居庸关一段，如果把万余里长城上的敌台数目加起来，那数量是相当可观的。

城台也是明代长城的重要建筑设施，城台是突出于城墙之外的台子，上小下大，略似马脸，所以叫马面。在需要重点防守的地方，约间隔150千米设一座，台面与城墙顶部相平。如台上建有房屋，就称为铺房，可供守城士卒巡逻时避风雨，使“兵夫得以安身，火器得蔽风雨”。墙台的外侧和左右两侧外沿砌有垛口，用于对攻城之敌进行射击。墙台起很大的防御作用，因“城墙正面不便俯视，恐其矢弹正面对攻，不敢眺望”。如果敌人进逼城下，城上将士若探身伸头射杀敌人，也容易遭受对方射击。若有了突出城墙的城台，进逼城墙脚下的登城者，就会遭到左右城台上的射击，而使登城无法进行。所以墙台距离一般均在两个城台能够控制的射程之内。如嘉峪关城及其附近的长城、城堡、墩台，就设置合理，布局得当，构成了较为完善的军事防御工程体系，为保卫明王朝西北的安全起着举足轻重的作用。

长城沿线还筑有许多烽火台，明代也称烟墩，所以常有“五里一墩，十里一堡”的说法。烽火台是报警的通讯设施，具有守卫和瞭望的功能，是长城防御体系中的重要组成部分。烟墩也称烽燧、墩台、亭、烽火台等，是一种白天燃烟、夜间明火以传递军情的建筑物。多建于长城内、外的高山顶，易于瞭望的丘阜或道路折转处。烟墩形式上是一座孤立的夯土或砖石高台，台上有守望房屋和燃放烟火的柴草，报警的号炮、硫磺、硝石，台下有用围墙圈成的守军住房、羊马圈、仓库。烟墩的设置有四种：一是紧靠长城两侧，称“沿边墩台”；二是向长城以外延伸的，称“腹外接火墩”；三是向内地州府城伸展联系的，称“腹里接火墩”；四是沿交通线排列的，称“夹道墩台”。大约每隔5千米左右设一台，恰好在人的视力所及范围内。

驿传也是整个长城防御体系中的一项重要辅助设施。它是人员流动或物资运输时重要的休息地点和中转点，还负责传递往来公文，起到上情下达、下情上传的作用。为了准确、迅速地传递情报，在明代长城沿线设有驿站、驿所等设施。在明代长城的西端最重要的军事防御据点嘉峪关城及其周围的墩台布防就非常密集，关内外共分东、西、南、北四路，纵横交错，相互信息通达，组成了强有力的通信网络，可以在敌人侵犯前，做好充分的备战工作。

4. 明长城上的烽火传信

明代的烽火制度主要继承了隋唐的制度。隋唐时代的烽火报警制度与汉朝烽燧制度相比较，有较多的改进。

唐代的烽火台建得更高更大，一般15千米置一处。悬空楼阁式的烽火台是唐代发明的。这种烽火台的台身为圆形，土筑，高高地建在土台上，台顶建圆形房屋。唐代的每座烽台上，都设有烟囱４个，火炬木撅４个，一旦有敌情，除燃放烟火之外，还必须向所在州县城堡报告，这种二者相结合的双轨制，是前所未有的一种创举。唐代烽烟举放的规定为：凡是有贼寇入境，步兵在500人以下者，放烽火一炬。若是骑兵，在500人以上3 000人以下者，放烽火两炬；3 000骑以上放三炬；万人以上放烽火四炬。其放烽火一炬者至所管州县止，两炬以上者至京都。凡是烽火，一昼夜须行1 000千米。由此可见，唐代烽燧制度组织得极其严密。

明代，烽燧制度除了放烽、燃烟之外，还加上放炮。明成化二年（1466）的法令规定：“令边俱举放烽炮，若见敌一二人至百余人，举放一烽一炮，千人以上三烽三炮，五千人以上四烽四炮，万人以上五烽五炮。” “烽炮”，就像现代的信号弹，不但有火光烟焰，还有很响的声音。这样既提高了士卒的警觉性和军情传递的准确性，同时也加快了传递的速度。在明代的烽火台上，置有各种火炮。有铜铸的小炮，叫火铳；铁铸的大炮，分别称为大将军、二将军、三将军等。明代对烽燧的管理有一套十分严格的制度。规定烽子、戍卒等均不得擅离职守，贻误军情。烽火台上要及时整理，广积柴草，昼夜轮流守望，接递通报要及时准确，违者处以军法。长城的出土文物中有一份明代的《兵守火炮号》，反映了边防报警、烟火信炮的制度：营寨墩堡发现敌情，入有敌兵十名以下，则白天烧烟柴一堆，放炮一个，夜间举火一把，放炮一个；敌在二十名以上，烟柴火把火炮各二；敌在百骑之上，烟柴火把火炮各三；若敌有千骑以上，则烟柴火炮接连不断。由此可见，历史上的长城和烽燧，在军事防御上有着相当重要的地位。而到了今日，这些古迹就是宝贵的历史文化遗产了。

到明代后期，悬灯、举旗与放炮相结合的报警方法，逐渐取代了烟火和放炮相结合的制度。采用了更详细周密的规定，使之能在声形的报警方法中传告敌人来自的方位。白天放炮举旗的口诀是：“一炮青旗贼在东，南方连炮旗色红。白旗三炮贼西至，四炮玄旗北路逢。”夜晚举旗无法看到，改为悬灯。据载，夜晚放炮悬灯的口诀是：“一灯一炮贼从东，双灯双炮看南风。三灯三炮防西面，四灯四炮北方攻。”这种放炮报警的传递速度比过去的点烟法要快得多，一昼夜可达3 500多千米。长城与烽火报警制度紧密结合在一起，共同组成了军事报警的防御体系，并在古代许多战争中起到了重要作用。

5. 明长城的历史意义

长城是个历史悠久的充满着神奇色彩的古代军事防御体系。明长城又是中国历代长城建筑中最坚固、建筑与使用时间最长的长城，它抵御了北方草原民族对中原农业地区的侵扰，有效地防范了元朝的反扑，巩固了明朝的统治。

明长城本身还反映了明代社会的情况，如社会政治、经济、军事的情况，生产力发展水平、科学技术水平以及国际、民族间的关系，人们的生活习俗，宗教信仰等。日本学者稻叶也说：“长城文化深湛而神秘，如果能探到这潜藏的宝藏，或许能揭示中国古老而珍贵的奥秘。”

明长城是中国历史上费时最久、工程最大、防御体系和结构最为完善的长城工程，它对明朝防御敌对民族的掠扰，保护国家安全和人民生产的安定都起到巨大作用。它充分体现了中国古代建筑工程的高度成就和古代劳动人民的聪明才智。

万里长城这座雄伟的军事工程，凝聚了无数劳动人民的血汗和智慧。特别是逶迤千里的甘肃明长城，六七百年来巍然伫立在西北朔风中，纵观历史风云变幻，见证了无数英雄儿女在西北这块多民族土地上谱写下历史的篇章。

六今天，我们行走在长城之上

1. 长城上的经典——八达岭长城

八达岭长城是万里长城的杰出代表，位于北京西北部60千米处的延庆县境内，是万里长城的一个重要关口——居庸关的重要屏障。

八达岭是燕山山脉军都山的主峰，是宏伟壮观的万里长城经过北京的著名地段，南通北京，北去延庆，西往宣化、大同，因“路从此分，四通八达”，故称八达岭。八达岭一带的地理位置十分重要，历来为军事要地，也是中国修筑长城较早的地区之一。修筑长城时，这里是设防的重点。人们今天在这里看到的城墙，改建于明代，沿山脊建筑。墙身高大坚固，墙体用整齐巨大的城砖筑成，下部为花岗岩条石台基，墙顶地面用方砖铺墁，石灰填缝，十分平整。墙通高8.5米，底宽6.5米，顶宽5.7米，可容5马并驰，10人并行。沿城墙修筑多处烽火台和敌台，敌台每隔0.5～l千米一座，高大雄伟，气势恢宏，显得井然有序。敌台上有垛口，下有射洞，便于瞭望与射击。整段长城从关城向南北两峰扶摇直上，盘旋在军都山的峰脊之上，不见首尾，逐渐消逝在绵延的远山之中。

在八达岭长城登城处的南侧，陈列着五门古炮。其中最大的一门，炮筒长2.85米，口径105毫米，铭文大字刻的是“敕赐神威大将军”，小字则告诉我们火炮的制造时间：崇祯十一年(1638)。另外还有四门小炮，俗称牛腿炮，是1957年整修长城时出土的。当时和这些炮同时出土的还有235枚炮弹，炮弹最大的直径125毫米，重6千克；最小的直径40毫米，重0.25千克。这说明当时长城上还有更大的炮。使用这些大炮时，将火药连同炮弹一起填入炮筒内，点燃引线使膛内火药爆炸，将炮弹击出。火药爆炸时的威力很大，最远射程500多米，这在明代可以算得上是先进武器了。

八达岭关城是军都山一带长城的中心。关城最初于明弘治十七年(1504)由副总兵纪广率领军队筑成。到万历十年(1582)戚继光重修。关城十分高大，城墙踞墙耸立，下宽8.5米，高7.5米，下部由八层花岗岩条石筑成3米多高的城基，上部用大块城砖垒砌，是万里长城上最壮观、最坚固的大型墩台之一。关城平面呈不规则四方形，顶部为长方形城台，四面建筑守城垛口，放置架炮搭弩。关城设东西二门，西门题额称“北门锁钥”，东门题额曰“居庸外镇”。城台两侧各建敌楼一座，由城墙沟通，与关城成犄角之势。

在八达岭蜿蜒曲折的长城中，有一段壮观奇景，人称“二龙锁山”，游人每每到此，不禁叹为观止。长城延伸至此没有修筑墙体，而是在悬崖峭壁的山巅突然终止，用绝壁山险来代替。而在绝壁的两侧，长城又继续延伸开去，恰如两条巨龙拥山而卧，真是名副其实的“二龙锁山”。

八达岭长城是所有长城路段中向游客开放最早的，1961年被国务院确定为全国重点文物保护单位，1987年被联合国教科文组织列入“世界文化遗产”。

2.“天下第一雄关”——居庸关

居庸关是京北长城沿线上的著名古关城，距北京60千米，距八达岭长城20千米，地形险要，是长城重要的关隘，国家级文物保护单位。

相传秦始皇修筑长城时，将囚犯、士卒和强征来的民夫徙居于此，后取“徙居庸徒”之意，故名居庸关。汉代沿称，三国时代名西关，北齐时改纳款关，唐代有居庸关、蓟门关、军都关等名称。此后各代仍称居庸关。

居庸关形势险要，自古为兵家必争之地。有南北两个关口，南名“南口”，北称“八达岭”。现存的关城是明太祖朱元璋派遣大将军徐达督建的。关城所在的峡谷，属太行山余脉军都山地，以险著称。大有“一夫当关，万夫莫开”之势，为北京西北的门户。居庸关两旁山势雄奇，中间有长18千米的溪谷，俗称“关沟”。这里清流萦绕，翠峰重叠，花木郁茂，山鸟争鸣。绮丽的风景，有“居庸叠翠”之称，被列为“燕京八景”之一。

历史上记载，辽太祖阿骨打攻打幽州就是由居庸关进入关内。金太祖阿保机攻打燕京时，驻兵于居庸关内，崖石自崩，辽兵被压死很多，还没开战便已溃败。元太祖成吉思汗到关外时，金人凭借居庸之险，用铁水浇锢铁门，在路上布下了上百里的铁蒺藜，并以精兵守护。成吉思汗问臣子扎八儿可有办法，扎八儿说黑树林中有一条间道，路小只能过一匹马，若马衔尾疾走，一夜可到。成吉思汗就叫扎八儿前导，从晚上入谷到天亮已到南口，金鼓之声好像从天而降，金人还熟睡未醒。

元代时，居庸关是大都（北京）通往上都（今内蒙多伦）的重要交通大道。因皇帝经常过往，因而，在关内设有行宫、寺院、花园等建筑。现存的云台就是元代修建的过街塔台基，当初上面建有三座喇嘛塔，元末明初时被毁。明正统四年（1439）在上面重修佛殿，名泰安寺，寺于康熙年间焚毁，此后只剩云台保留至今。

到了明代，朱元璋拨巨款修缮，为居庸关建起水陆两道关门，南北关门之处都有瓮城，增强其军事防御功能。关城外南北山险要之处，还筑有护城墩6座、烽燧18座等防御体系。居庸关进一步成为军事重镇，居庸关的建筑设施也达到了最为完备的程度。其关城防御体系自北而南由岔道城、居庸外镇（即八达岭）、上关城、中关城（即居庸关城）、南口五道防线组成，而居庸关则是指挥中心。负责关城守御的是隆庆卫，配有盔、甲、长枪、弓、箭等军械和火器。不仅关城建筑完备，还设有衙署、仓储、书馆、神机库、庙宇、儒学等各种相关设施，文化内涵极为深刻。元、明、清三代皇帝都从此关经过，作为政治地位和军事要塞是独一无二的。

1961年，居庸关云台被国务院公布为第一批文物保护单位。1982年，居庸关又以其重要的人文和自然景观价值，划入八达岭—十三陵风景名胜保护区，成为其中重要的景点。

3. 长城博物馆——司马台长城

位于北京东北部120千米古北口境内的司马台长城，始建于明洪武初年（1368），是至今保存最完整的一段明长城。整段长城构思精巧、设计奇特、形态各异，它集万里长城众多特色于一地，形成了一段“奇妙的长城”，且有长城博物馆之称。

司马台长城沿刀削斧劈似的山脊修筑，蜿蜒曲折，惊险无比，尤其是天梯和天桥两段。天梯是单面墙长城，坡陡墙窄，最窄处不足半米，呈直梯状沿山体上升，两侧是陡峭悬崖，俯首下望，令人瞠目结舌。天梯顶端便是天桥，长不过百米，只有一块砖那么宽，约40厘米左右，两侧的悬崖绝壁更是令人不寒而栗，到这里的人都说：“过天桥难，难于上青天”，这里是明长城中最险要的地段之一，也是最惊险刺激的地方。

司马台长城的敌楼和城墙建筑形式奇特多样，最大的一个特点是敌楼密集，在全长5.4千米的城墙上，共建有敌楼35座。两楼相距最近的43.8米，最远600米，而其他地方的长城一般都在100～200米之间。若按明代修筑长城的规定，每500米修筑敌楼一座，此段长城应该说是一个例外。从外观看，敌楼有单眼楼、双眼楼、三眼楼、四眼楼和五眼楼。有单层楼，上下相通的双层楼和三层楼。它们均为空心敌楼，大小不一，形态各异，是按驻军的官衔等级、驻防人数以及地势险要程度分别建造的。从内部结构来看，有砖结构、砖木结构、砖石结构；又有单室、双室、多室之分；房间布局有“田”字、“井”字；楼顶形式多样，有平顶、穹窿顶、八角藻井顶、覆斗顶；就连门窗也新颖别致，有边门、中间门，有砖券和石券，还有技艺精湛的雕花花岗岩石门。这些在万里长城中较为罕见，也是吸引游人驻足的亮点。

司马台长城虽以山势险峻雄奇为主景，但长城脚下的鸳鸯湖却赋予了这段长城以灵性，清澈的湖水造就了一派碧波荡漾、湖光帆影的宁静景致。鸳鸯湖是由冷泉和温泉汇聚而成的，湖水冷暖各半，从不结冰。在炎热的夏季，到这里荡舟湖上，让人暑气顿消，神清气爽。

司马台长城不仅有绮丽的风光，更是一座研究长城历史文化遗产的宝库。近年来，这段长城上发现了许多文物，有明代守城将士使用过的铁炮、石炮、铁镞、铁铳、手雷、三眼铳、铁弹丸、火药勺等，还有士兵用过的生产生活用具，如锄头、铁铲、菜刀、铁灯碗等。这些文物为研究明代长城及明代历史提供了很有价值的实物资料。

著名长城专家罗哲文曾这样说道：“中国长城是世界之最，而司马台长城是中国长城之最。”

4. 一枝独秀——慕田峪长城

慕田峪长城位于北京市怀柔县内，距北京市区约73千米。这段长城得到了很好的保护。

慕天峪长城的历史十分悠久。据文献考证，距今1 400多年前的北齐时代，这里就曾修筑过长城，而今天的慕田峪长城则是明初朱元璋手下大将徐达在北齐长城遗址上督造而成的。明朝初年赶走元朝统治者的时候，徐达和元兵曾大战于此。打败了元军之后不久，明朝就开始了修筑长城和关隘的工程。明朝之所以选择在慕田峪这个地段修筑长城，那是因为“元人北归，屡谋复兴”，而慕田峪一带地势十分险要，是分段防御中最为重要的地段之一。为了更好地加强对明王朝首都北京城的防御，明朝中叶以后，特地从南方调来了抗倭名将戚继光任蓟镇总兵，全力督修北京北部的长城，而慕田峪长城又是修复过程中施工最精细、造型最别致的一段。

慕田峪长城的构筑有着独特的风格，这种独特的建筑风格在整个长城建筑中是极其罕见的。这里敌楼密集，关隘险要，城两侧均有垛口。它西接北京昌平区的居庸关，东连北京密云县的古北口，自古以来就是军事要冲，被称为“危岭雄关”，与居庸关、镇边城等关口构成一个完整的防卫体系。

慕田峪长城处群山怀抱间，气候湿润暖和，适合林木生长。清人有诗云：“慕田有谷异寻常”，“千树桃花万树柳”，实为长城又一大奇观。春季，群芳争妍；夏季，流水潺潺；秋季，满山红艳；冬季，白雪皑皑。在中外享有“万里长城慕田峪独秀”的美誉。

结束语

终于走完了悠悠几千年的长城发展史，我们掩卷之后，深深地思索着长城发展的艰辛。让我们再看一眼今天那静默地穿越历史隧道，饱经战争风云的长城，我们应该说些什么，想些什么呢……

一部艰难曲折的长城史就是一部伟大的中国史，我们在陪同着长城一步步地朝前走着，我们深刻地感觉到长城是中国古代劳动人民创造的伟大奇迹，是中国历史上璀璨的瑰宝。万里长城不仅是中华民族的骄傲，更是整个世界、整个人类的珍宝。长城对于保护关内人民的生命财产安全，发展北方地区的经济文化，稳定中原地区局势，促进中西方陆上交通等方面都起过相当重要的历史作用。历史发展到了今天，在多民族统一的和平昌盛的社会主义国家里，古老的长城似乎早已失去了它本来的最重要的军事意义，只是作为人们凭古吊今和欣赏自然风光的旅游胜地。它就好像一位戎马一生，如今却垂垂老矣、英雄无用武之地的老将军，无奈而又安静地看着自己的子民们过着属于他们这个时代的生活，用自己的语言告诉着人们历史的真相，见证着中华民族的发展历程!

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This is one of a series of books created by the Encyclopedia of China Publishing House from material in their 73-volume Encyclopedia of China. The books are about aspects of Chinese history and culture that are of most interest to non-Chinese readers. Berkshire Publishing Group was commissioned to edit and publish the series in English and Chinese as an adjunct to the China Encyclopedia USA, an online edition of the shorter Encyclopedia of China. Ebooks are available to subscribers, and are also sold separately.