Great Wall of China | Definition, History, Length, Map......./Learnwithmukamil

                       

             

                     The Great Wall Of China

 

The Great Wall of China, also known as Wanli Changcheng in Chinese or Wan-li Ch'ang-ch'eng in Wade-Giles romanization, is a massive wall that was built in ancient China.

The Great Wall really consists of several barriers that were constructed over around two millennia across northern China and southern Mongolia, many of them parallel to one another. The Ming dynasty (1368–1644) built the largest and best-preserved portion of the wall, which spans approximately 5,500 miles (8,850 km) from Mount Hu near Dandong in southeast Liaoning province to Jiayu Pass in northwest Gansu province. As it snakes across the Chinese countryside, this wall frequently follows the crestlines of hills and mountains, and around one-fourth of its length is made up entirely of natural obstacles like rivers and mountain ridges. The tiny remaining portions are made up of ditches or moats, with the majority of the remaining distance (about 70% of the overall length) being a real constructed wall. The wall is still one of the more spectacular constructions, even though large portions of it are now in ruins or have vanished entirely. a planet. In 1987, the Great Wall received the UNESCO World Heritage designation.

The fortification system's earliest major components date to the seventh through fourth centuries BCE. Shihuangdi (Qin Shihuang), the first emperor of a united China (during the Qin dynasty), linked many existing defence walls into a single system in the third century BCE. Traditional thinking held that the wall's eastern terminus was Shanhai Pass (Shanhaiguan), located in eastern Hebei province along the Bo Hai (Gulf of Chihli) shore, and that the wall's total length, excluding its branches and other auxiliary parts, was approximately 4,160 miles (6,700 km). Aerial and satellite images, however, as well as government-sponsored research that started in the 1990s, revealed portions of the wall in Liaoning. After some time, surveillance revealed that this wall ran continuously through much of the province. 2009 saw the announcement of the Ming wall's expanded overall length.

 

The construction's past

 

The various boundary defences and castles of several Chinese kingdoms gave rise to the Great Wall. These kingdoms likely worried about defence against their close neighbours for numerous centuries as much as they did about the possibility of barbarian assaults or invasions. Early morning moon rising over China's Great Wall

 

Moon rising over China's Great Wall

 

The state of Chu began constructing a permanent defence system around the 7th century BCE.. Other states imitated Chu between the sixth and the fourth centuries. A substantial perimeter wall was progressively built in the southern region of the Qi state using existing river dikes, recently built bulwarks, and inaccessible mountainous terrain. The Yellow Sea's coastlines marked the end of the Qi wall, which was primarily constructed of stone and earth. To prevent invasion from the realms of Zhao and Qin in the southwest, a wall system was erected in the Zhongshan state. The Hexi ("West of the [Yellow] River") and Henan ("South of the River") walls were two defensive lines in the Wei state. A defence against the Qin state and western nomads, the Hexi Wall was built. It was expanded from the dikes on the Luo River on the western boundary while King Hui (370–335 BCE) was in power. It began in the south near Xiangyuan Cave, east of Mount Hua, and finished at Guyang in what is now the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. In King Hui's final years, the Henan Wall, which was constructed to defend Daliang (the capital, now Kaifeng), was rebuilt and expanded. Additionally, the Zheng kingdom constructed a wall system, which was later restored by the Han empire after Zheng was subjugated. The southern wall, which was primarily constructed as a defence against the Wei state, was finished by the state of Zhao, as did the northern wall.

 

The Qin empire flourished politically and militarily to become the greatest among the seven nations when administrative reorganisation was carried out by Shang Yang (died 338 BCE), although it was regularly ravaged by the Donghu and Loufan, two nomadic peoples from the north. As a result, the Qin built a wall that began at Lintiao, followed the Liupan Mountains to the north, and ended at the Huang He (Yellow River).

 

In an effort to protect the kingdom from attacks by northern factions like the Donghu, Linhu, and Loufan as well as by the Qi state in the south, the Yan state constructed two distinct defensive lines: the Northern Wall and the Yishui Wall. As a line of defence against its two primary competitor nations, Qi and Zhao, the Yishui Wall was widened from the dike of the Yi River. It started southwest of the nation's capital, Yi City, and terminated in Wen'an. The Northern Wall was constructed by the Yan state in 290 BCE along the Yan Mountains, beginning in the northeast in the Zhangjiakou region of Hebei, across the Liao River, and continuing to the ancient city of Xiangping (modern Liaoyang). It was thisThe final section of the Great Wall built during the Warring States era (Zhanguo).

 

Shihuangdi, the first Qin emperor, finished annexing Qi in 221 BCE, uniting China as a result. In order to facilitate internal movement and administration, he ordered the demolition of the fortifications built between the former states. Additionally, he dispatched Gen. Meng Tian to join the existing wall parts and to guard the northern border against raids by the nomadic Xiongnu. The so-called "10,000-Li Long Wall," Qin, Yan, and Zhao (2 li equal approximately 0.6 mile [1 km]). This construction phase lasted for nearly ten years and started around 214 BCE. On the project, tens of thousands of soldiers and conscripted labourers toiled. But after Shihuangdi's passing, the Qin dynasty collapsed, and the wall was mostly abandoned and neglected.

 

The dynasties of the Han and Yuan

 

The wall was strengthened as part of a larger offensive against the Xiongnu during the rule of the Han emperor Wudi (141–87 BCE). Beginning then, the Great Wall also aided in the expansion of the Silk Road commercial route and the exploitation of farmland in northern and western China. The Hexi Wall, also known as the Side Wall, was built between Yongdeng (now in Gansu) in the east and Lake Lop Nur (now in Xinjiang) in the west over a 20-year period beginning in 121 BCE. The strongpoints erected along the wall, according to Juyan Hanjian ("Juyan Correspondence of the Han"), included "a beacon every 5 li, a tower." A castle is every 100 li, a fort every 10 li, and so on.

 

During the reign of Liu Xiu (Guangwudi), who ordered the restoration of four parallel sections of the Great Wall in the region south of the Hexi Wall in 38, the majority of the wall's construction during the Dong (Eastern) Han Dynasty (25-220 CE) took place. The Great Wall was used for protection as well as to centralizedly manage trade and transportation.

 

The Great Wall was extended and maintained under the Bei (Northern) Wei dynasty (386-534/535 CE) in order to stave off invasions from the Juan-juan and Khitan tribes in the north. A portion of the Great Wall was constructed south of Changchuan in 417, the eighth year of Mingyuandi's rule (409-423), from Chicheng (now in Hebei) to Wuyuan (now in Inner Mongolia), extending more than 620 miles, according to Wei shu: Mingyuandi Ji ("History of Wei: Chronicle of Emperor Mingyuan") (1,000 km). As an addition to the Great Wall, a smaller and thinner rammed earth wall was constructed around the capital during the reign of Taiwudi (423-452). It formed a circle around Datong, extending from Guangling in the east to the eastern bank of the Huang He. The Dong Wei dynasty constructed a portion of the Great Wall in what is now Shanxi province in 549 after moving its capital to Ye in the east.

 

The Bei Qi kingdom (550–577) sponsored many large construction projects that were nearly as wide in scope as the building projects of the Qin dynasty in order to reinforce its northern boundary and prevent invasion from the west by the Bei Zhou. Three years after the construction of a segment on the northwest frontier in 552, the emperor ordered the hiring of 1.8 million labourers to repair and expand other segments. Between the south entrance of Juyong Pass (close to modern Beijing) and Datong, building took place (in Shanxi). A new fortification was built in 556 and extended to the Yellow Sea from the east. The Great Wall in modern-day Shanxi was expanded the following year to include a second wall. It started near Laoying, east of Pianguan, continued past Yanmen Pass and Pingxing Pass, and ended near Xiaguan. Emperor Wuchengdi of the Bei Qi ordered the repair of a section of the Taihang Mountains in 563. That is the section of the Great Wall that is still standing today and is located around Longguan, Guangchang, and Fuping (in Shanxi and Hebei). Repairs were made to the 557-built inner wall in 565, and a new wall was created that began near Xiaguan, ran to the Juyong Pass in the east, and then connected to the outer wall. Around 900 miles (1,500 km) worth of portions were restored and added during the Bei Qi period, and villages and barracks were built at regular intervals to guard the additional sections. Emperor Jing began a huge reconstruction programme on sections of the wall located in the former Bei Qi kingdom in 579, beginning at Yanmen in the west and ending at Jieshi in the east, in order to stop invasions of the Bei Zhou kingdom by the Tujue (a group of eastern Turks) and the Khitan.

 

The Great Wall was improved and renovated seven times under the Sui dynasty (581-618) in an effort to protect the nation from Tujue assaults. The realm became significantly more powerful militarily after the Tang dynasty (618-907) took over from the Sui, defeating the Tujue in the north and advancing past the ancient boundaries. As a result, there was no longer a need for maintenance or expansion of the Great Wall as a defensive structure. However, the Liao and Jin peoples in the north posed a persistent danger during the Song era (960–1279). The Song emperors were compelled to flee south of the Great Wall's lines, which were constructed by the Qin, Han, and Northern dynasties. The Liao (907-1125) and Jin dynasties thereafter ruled over a large number of regions on both sides of the wall (1115–1234). Repairs to the wall or its additions were no longer possible when the Song emperors were forced to flee even further, to the Chang Jiang region south of the Yangtze River. Once (1056), during the Liao era, some minor repairs were made, but only in the region between the Yazi and Huntong rivers.

 

Work on two defensive lines at Mingchang began in 1115, following the establishment of the Jin dynasty. The historic wall there—previously known as the Wushu Wall or Jinyuan Fort—ran westward from a location north of Wulanhada, then went through the Hailatu Mountains, turning to the north and then to the west again, until finishing at the Nuanshui River. The Inner Jin Wall, also known as the Jin Trench, or the new Mingchang Wall, which was built south of the previous wall, was the second of the lines. The Sungari (Songhua) River served as its terminus. It began at a bend in the Huang He River in the west.

 

The Mongols ruled over all of China, as well as other regions of Asia and parts of Europe, during the Yuan (Mongol) dynasty (1206–1368). However, several forts and crucial locations were renovated and garrisoned in order to regulate commerce and to lessen the threat of rebellions from the Chinese (Han) and other nations. The Great Wall was of little relevance to them as a defensive construction.