The Wall of the State of Qi the Great Wall Built along the Mountains

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The State of Qi was a great power in eastern China during the Spring and Autumn and Waring States Periods（722 BC-221 BC），which had a fairly vast territory.According to the investigations of the historians，the State of Qi was located in the north part of Shandong province; in its south there was the imposing Mount Tai, the first of the Five Holy Mountains, and it was neighboring with the States of Chu, Lu, and Song; in the north it was facing the State of Yan across the vast Bohai Sea; in the west was the State of Zhao, separating by a river; and in the east there was also a vast sea. The capital of the State of Qi was Linzi.

In the east and north of Qi was the vast sea, and in the west there was the surging ancient Yellow River. Only thesouth border of Qi was comparatively unsafe, and although there were the magnificent Mount Tai and Yishan Mountain, they couldn’t stop the fierce attack by the enemies. Therefore the State of Qi built the walls along its south border. In The Commentary on the”Waterways Classic” Li Daoyuan of the Northern Wei dynasty cited the BambooAnnals:”In the 20th year of Huicheng reign of Liang(the twenty-eighth year of Weiwang reign of Qi, in 351 BC), the State of Qi built a long wall as defense.”

Citing TheHistory of the State of Qi, Zhang Shoujie of the Tang dynasty wrote in the Historical Records of Justice,”To pro-tect from the invasions of the State of Chu, Emperor Xuanwang (342 BC-324 BC) of the State of Qi had the wall built on the mountain range, stretching over 1,000 li fromthe sea in the east to Jizhou in the west.”The Commentary on the “Waterways Classic”: Wenshui also said that “Wenshui River went out of Mount Tai (the present-day Yishan Mountain, Daxian Mountain) in Zhuxu County(in the east of Linqu in Shandong province today), and therewas a long wall on the mountain, which starts from Daishan Mountain(i.e. Taishan Mountain) in the west and ends at the vast sea in the east, stretching about 1,000 li. This wall was built by Tian.”Although the years of the Great Wall construction in the records above were different, they could still make one point clear,i.e. the State of Qi had already built the wall to protect its territory.

The wall of the State of Qi started from the north of Pingyin County in the present-day Shandong province, going eastward and passing the northwest of Tai’ an County, the north of Laiwu County and Yishan Mountain, and thenit ended at the sea between Dazhu Mountain and Xiaozhu Mountain which were located from the east of Angiu County to the south of Jiaoxian County. The wall of the State of Qi has a total length of over 500 kilometers. The Mulingguan Pass that was famous in the past for its connecting the south and north of the present-day Shandong province was just situated on Yishan Mountain.