The origin of the Great Wall

The story of”Meng Jiang n u’s biter weeping”makes many people mistake that the Great Wall was first built in the Qin dynasty（221BC-206 BC），but in fact the Great Wall building could date back to the 7th century BC，in the Spring and Autumn Period（722 BC-481 BC），and building walls for defense was even much earlier.Maybe it was because that at the early beginning when the human being had cons-cience，they had understood the importance of protecting themselves，therefore after the primitive people entered the clan society，the various clans dug channels and built walls around their living place as their means of defense.

After China entered the slave society，the slave owners were more and more indulged in the creature comforts，resulting in their expanding crisis-conscience and strong demand of perfect defense system to ensure the security of themselves and their wealth.After King Wu stroke King Zhou（King Dixin）and founded the Zhou dynasty（1046BC-256 BC), he granted the lands together with slaves to the princes and dukes in a large scale, while the princes and dukes who got fiefs all built walls to protect their estates and defend against the intrusion of other ducal states.

In addition, in order to fend off the attack of the nomadic tribes in the north, they also build a series of forts in line in the strategic positions on the border area to defend themselves.

It is said that the momentum of history was ever thus: the empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide.A dynasty as strong as Zhou also could not escape the destiny of being doomed finally. The Zhou dynasty(1046BC-256 BC) declined and the ducal states had an increasing gain in power, which 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 at last, and the unified centralized country came into being gradually. In the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods (722 BC-221 BC) the frequency and fierceness of wars rendered the people into an abyss of suffering. The original defense means of all ducal states were far from satisfying the military demands now, thus the idea of connecting the beacon towers, forts, river valleys, cliffs, moats and roads with walls came into being, which finally led to the formation of large-scale defense system in the border area. This kind of defense system, different from the forts which could only defend a city or a place, was a long line of defense to protect a broad area.

No matter how long these defense systems lasted, they formed a long line of construction in the whole, it was called”Long Wall”(the Great Wall). That was the rudiment of the”Ten-Thousand-li Great Wall”.

All the ducal states built walls along their borders most prone to be invaded. Some walls were built to defend against the invasion and annexation of other states, such as the States of Chu, Qi, Qin and Zhao; some were built to fend off the nomadic tribes such as Xiongnu, for example the north borders of the States of Qin and Zhao. Among them, the walls of the States of Chu and Qi must be the earliest parts of the Great Wall ever built, while the one of Qin and Zhao were much longer, their defense measures also much stricter.

hancheng

See author's posts