The Great Wall Of China Research Paper

There are many wonderful man-made structures in the world today, new and old. Twenty-two centuries ago, a poet by the name of Antipater made a list of the Seven Wonders of the World. All of these structures were wonderful and man-made, but there was one structure that belonged on the list that wasn't on it: the Great Wall of China. It is the longest man made structure ever created and can be referred to as the Eighth Wonder of the World.

The Great Wall of China isn't one continuous wall; it is several walls that have been connected over time. The wall was built completely by hand and extends over 4,500 miles long across the northern boarder of China. It wasn't built in a straight line because they believed demons from the north would be able to pass through the wall. They thought demons only traveled in straight lines
and therefore couldn't cross crocked lines; so the wall was built with several curves and turns. It is said that the wall resembles a sleeping dragon; and the dragon is an important symbol of China. It took around two thousand years to build. It is about twenty or thirty feet high and fifteen feet wide. It is also the only man-made structure that can be seen by the naked eye from outer space. The original ideas for the wall was to keep out invaders from the North, to keep the people busy building so they wouldn't cause trouble for the new empire, and to keep the people in. The small states of China each built its own wall to keep out invaders; but the major portions of the wall were built, connected, and repaired during the dynasties of Qin, Han, and Ming.

During the time known as the Warring States Period in China, was when the individual walls were first being constructed. This time period lasted from 475 B.C until 221 B.C, about 2,500 years ago. There were seven main states that had become more powerful and had continues wars with each other during this time: Qi, Chu, Han, Zhao, Wei, Yan, and Qin. Each of these states built their own walls to help protect their boarders and keep out neighboring states and northern raiders. These walls were constructed by a method called hang-tu. They would first form the outside of the wall with bamboo or wood, and then they pored dirt into the forms. They packed the dirt down layer by layer so it would be able to hold large amounts of weight and wouldn't sink or settle. Soon these states of China would be united and under the rule of the Qin; and it is during this period that these walls would be connected to start The Great Wall of China.

In 221 B.C. a young boy came to rule the Qin that had gained control over all of China. Zheng proclaimed himself First Sovereign Emperor of China, or Qin Shi Huangdi, and then began to unify the country. He ordered the walls the Qin, Zhao and Yan had built to be connected into one great wall. He had all other walls destroyed. He ordered as many people, peasants, slaves, and criminals, to work on the construction of the wall. People were often sentenced to years of hard labor working on the wall. It took three-fourth of China's population to work on the wall; the population was over 3 million people at the time. It is estimated that every third man was sent to work on the wall and only three out of ten returned. Those who died were buried in the wall itself; an estimated one million people working on the wall died. All of these people were forced to work all daylight hours, sometimes that meant up to sixteen hours. Base camps were set up for the workers and the soldiers who protected them. They also set up routs to reach the wall for supplying building materials, food and water. They used the hang-tu method and brick or stone to build the wall. Other then just a wall, they built watchtowers.

The towers were 40 feet tall, 40 feet square at the bottom, and thirty feet square at the top. They built them as close as they could together; no closer then two bow shots so the archers could cover all the ground in-between. The towers stood out a few feet from the wall so guards could lean out and pick off attackers at the edge of the wall. Within the towers, there were three levels connected by ladders; some even had rooms with doors. These towers were built first and then connected with the wall. The towers communicated and sent warnings by way of smoke signals and bonfires. The number of columns of smoke or fires started depended on the amount of attacking enemies; the messages were sent from tower to tower. The towers served as an important part of the wall and were built all a long the wall. The Qin wall stretched all along the northern boarder of China, from the yellow sea to the Dobi Dessert, and took around ten years to build; it extended even further and was repaired during the Han dynasty.

After the Qin dynasty ended the next dynasty to add and repair the wall was the Han dynasty in 206 B.C. At the beginning of the dynasty the wall wasn't worked on very much; the first few hundred years there were a few sections added but never made repairs or took care of it. By 141 B.C., the wall was crumbling and the emperor, Wu Di, thought it was time to start building and repairing it. Between 121 B.C. and 101 B.C., they added a major section to the wall. They extended it three hundred miles in the west and added more fortifications. The Han used the same basic design except a few modifications. They modified the design by adding layers of branches and layers of sand mixed with water. This made the wall harder, like concrete. They also added beacons every 1.7 miles, towers every 3.3 miles, forts every 10.2 miles, and a castle every 33.3 miles. These added structures not only helped protect china but help protect the Silk Road.

The Silk Road was a part of China's trade rout. This rout was chosen to move along the "shadow" of the Great Wall because it was the safest place to travel during that time. The Emperor made sure to always have the entire wall guarded by soldiers to protect the wall and the rout. It took thousands of soldiers to make sure the whole wall was well guarded. The soldiers were more like modern day police for the rout along the wall. They were normally stationed permanently to guard the wall; this meant they needed homes nearby. They built their homes and raised livestock and gardens. Eventually small towns sprang up near the wall and the wall became even more important for protection. After the death of Wu Di in 87 B.C., the wall was not added to or repaired anymore, but it was still guarded and the trade rout continued. Around 220 A.D. the wall was attacked in several places and overran by the northern barbarians and about 300 A.D. they took control of the wall. It was a long time until the wall was worked repaired or added to. There were a few dynasties that made some minor repairs, but the dynasty that made the biggest repairs and improvements was the Ming dynasty.

The Great Wall that we see today is mostly from what was built during the Ming dynasty.
The wall was mostly deteriorated by the time the Ming started to rebuild and repair it. It had been almost a thousands years before the Great Wall had been worked on; the last time was around 87 B.C. and now again around 1368 until 1644. The first emperor of the Ming dynasty was Hongwu; he decided rebuild the Great Wall. They started rebuilding the part of the Great Wall that protected Beijing; only twelve mile long. They first made repairs to the towers of the wall; they built them taller and stronger. Inside these towers, they put food, fuel, medicine, and weapons. After building the wall over 2000 years, there were 25 thousand towers that had been built. They also built double gateways next to the towers and places of military importance. Near these gates they built their most heavy fortifications; attacking enemies had more trouble attacking the gates then the normal part of the wall. The enemies of the Ming also had more trouble, then in the past, attacking and breaking through the regular part of the wall. The Ming used brick to layer the outside of the
wall.

They still used the traditional hang-tu method but layered the outside of the wall with brick and paved the road on top of the wall with brick also. Using brick made the wall more durable and even more beautiful then it had been in the past. These bricks that formed the outside of the wall and the foundation were made in kilns. Wooden molds were made and dirt and water were mixed and packed into the molds to harden. After the bricks hardened, the molds were removed and the bricks were then placed into a kiln, like an oven, and then the fire was started. The brick sat in the kiln until the fire went out; when removed, they were ready to use. They used thicker layers of earth inside the brick; approximately eight inches thick. These newly improved walls were about fifteen to twenty-six feet tall, twenty-one feet thick at the bottom, nineteen feet thick at the top, and the road was about thirteen feet wide. Building the Great Wall during this time was still done my humans. A few techniques were used to make the process a little quicker and better then in the past. They had wheelbarrows to move dirt, stone, and other building supplies; they had a pulley system to move the dirt and other supplies to the top of the building site; ovens to bake the brick; and shovels and tools to pack, or smash, the earth tighter. The Ming also added drains in the wall. These drains allowed rainwater to leave the wall and kept the wall from breaking down from water getting in-between the bricks, freezing, expanding, and cracking the bricks. Around the time of the Ming dynasty, gunpowder and rockets had been invented; so cannons were stationed along the wall and rockets were used for improved signaling. Although the wall had been improved greatly compared to previous dynasties, it eventually began to fall during the Ming dynasty also.

The last great emperor of the Ming dynasty was Wanli. It was during his time when the Great wall was worked on the most during the Ming dynasty; but it is also when it began to go down hill again. When Wanli's most trusted advisor died around 1590, Wanli's interest in the wall and governing China were lost. He began spending money on various projects and gifts for his family instead of spending it on the Great Wall for protection, adding, or repairs. His lack of effort to govern China correctly and waste money caused the funds to pay the guards to protect the Great Wall to run out. Without pay, the guards eventually abandoned their posts at the wall. After Wanli died there were three more Ming emperors who succeeded him; they did not have the funds to pay guards either. Without guards at the wall, the northerners eventually broke through parts of the wall and China was taken over once again and there was no need for the Great Wall. This wouldn't be the last time the wall would be destroyed.

Once again in the 1960, the wall came under pressure by the Chinese government. Do to a Cultural Revolution, the government thought that old-fashioned, cultural tradition were worthless and should be eradicated; this even meant the Great Wall. The wall had already been falling apart from years of neglect but the government was determined to erase all ties to the past. Dynamite, heavy digging equipment, and other ways were used to destroy hundreds of miles of wall. This destruction didn't last for very long; in 1984, Deng Xiaoping, the new leader, decided to start rebuilding the wall. Over the years they continued to rescue the wall; hundreds of miles were restored. Eventually the Great Wall became a great symbol of China.

The wall was no longer a part of military strategy; but instead a tourist attraction. It is now one of China's main tourist attractions and brings in millions of dollars a year of revenue. Hundreds of people go to China just to see the Great Wall each year. The people of China came to except the wall as a great symbol that tells the story of their history.