The Great Wall of China 221 BC-1644 AD (Fortress 057)

The Great Wall of China 221 BC-AD 1644

DR STEPHEN TURNBULL, a leading authority on Far Eastern hinory, has an MA in Theology and an MA in Miliary History. in addition tD a PhD from Leeds University for his worit on Japanese religious hittory. He has tr.lvelled enensively in Europe ""d the Far East and also runs a well-used picture library. His work has b en recognl2ed by the awarding of the Canon Prize of the British Association for Japanese Studies and a Jap3l1 Festival Uterary Award. He is a leCt1.lrel" in Japan Religion at the University of Leeds.

STEVE NOON was born in Kent, UK, and attended rt coli ge in Cornwall. He has had a life-long passion for iIlunration. and has worked as a professional artist ';ncc> 1985. Sceve has provided award-winning illustrations fo..renowned publishers Dorting Kind I y, where his interest in historical illustration began.

Fortress • 57

The Great Wall of China 221 Be-AD 1644

Stephen Turnbull· Illustrated by Steve Noon SeN'

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Preface

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Out of all the monuments of military architecture in world history. the Great Wall of China is the best known but the least well understood.To stand high on one of Its remote sections and see this great scone dragon twisting along the ridges both to the horlzon behind and - so excitingly - to the distant horizon In fronc. is to experience a thrill that no other fortified suuctlJre on earth can provide.The Great Wall 0 C Ina has been recogn zed for ce turies as the largest fortified en ty ever ui ye has I'CflUlned poorly studied until comparatively recent times. It IS therefore both impresslVl! and elusive; pre:scnong an appearance that can sometimes seem to be very simple and repetitive, yet at other times complex and baffling. Even though its construction is well recorded, the mythology and political propaganda that has grown up around the Great Wall often tends to obscure any straightforward examination of either its historical record or the attendant archaeological evidence. From the myths of its unbroken construction history and unbroken length, and from the tales of human bodies befOg used to build it. to the notorious nonsense about being visible from the Moon. the Great Wall of China Is far more than just a defensive structUre: It IS a national icon. Once despised as a symbol of all that was wrong with anna.. the Great Wall now aCtS as a symbol of all that is right with it. Built from the dust of China and. in many places sadly. retuming to It. the Great Wall has often been more pillaged than preserved and now faces greater threats to Its continued existence than ever before. In today's commercial world, where the Great Wall's role has become one of attracting visitors to China instead of persuading them to stay away. a journey along its diverse ramparts easily reveals its vulnerability. but it also provokes more questions than it provides answers. It Is !he purpose of this book to give a concise account of thIS gnifitent yet daunting edifice based on the best and most reliable evidence available for its history. construction and usage. In this conteXt I would like to thank Travelsphere lid. whose excellent tour of the Ming Great: Wall provided my personal introduction to the subject. Professor Richard Merriman, with whom I walked several sections of the Great Wall, provided valuable insights into the geology of the Wall and its environment. I am also greatly indebted to William Lindesay. who probably knows more about this surprisingly fragile monument than almost anyone else on earth. and is doing so much to help preserve it so that future generations may be able to experience the greatest military wonder of the world.

Contents Introduction: raiding and trading

4

Chronology

8

Design and development

9

TI'te Grut WalII and it$ bulklers • The constr1.Ktloo of !he Great WlIII The .uucnnJ met ~ fwwra 01 d'le Grut ~

The Great Wall as a strategic defensive system I'1obile -ma ..cI salic ~ • The

f'1in& Grot

W.-

a ndp

[()O

~

The Great Wall at the operational level Oefend;fll me Great YQlI •

~

and ..~ e vlherin&

30 36

. ArtiI\ery on die Gr&r. ~

The Great Wall from end to end

41

The living site

49

lif!! MId de.un on

me Grut W~

• Gu¥difll the. Great Wall

Operational history From boredom

to

52

boIales • The Grot Wall in modem 'III1r'fart'

Aftermath: the Great Wall as a symbol

58

The Great Wall today

59

Bibliography

63

Index

64

ntroduct· on: raiding and trading

The classic image of the GreacWall of China. as shown in this panorama of the Badaling section In 1987. (Photograph by Ian Clark)

4

The Great Wall of China ow s its existence to the history of the interaction betw n th settled agricultural communities of China and their predominantly nOl)1adi neighbours to the north. Nearly half J' the territory that makes up modcrn hina is desert, mountain or arid plateau, and for much of the country's history peoples whose culturc and languages were vcry different from those of the ethnic Han Chinese occupicd these lands. Some conducted agriculture on a small calc, but the vast majority lived lives that were sustained by what is known a pastoral nomadism. 'I astoral' means that they herded vast flocks of domesticated animaJs, mainly sheep, aCT open grasslands, rather than confining them within orrals and feeding them ha. omadism' refers to the need to move around to seek renewed pasturelands while the ones the had just left \ Ie regeneratinG. The life of a nomad "\ ia5 a high] mobile one where ·'115 at h rnanship were Great!, p ·zed. Children 1 moo to :ride at a very early a e, and the wh Ie experience of their lives acted as a training for future \ ars, ,,>hen rapidl moving mobile units would mid settled communities or enga e them in battle; highly skilled mounted archery was the nomad' greatest asset. For 2,000 years the setUed agricultural civilization of the Chinese Empire was regularly threatened, hara sed, invaded and sometimes even con4u red by thes northern nomadic tribes, and the reason why this happened pr yoked a debate that IJegan centuries ago in the Chinese ourt and still. continues in academic circles today. To the early emperors the nomads were just naturally warlike, uncivilized and even sub-human. The Xionb'Ilu for example, ac ording

to a hi torian of the Han dynasty, bad an inborn nature to go off plunderill
The Grear Wall ar Shanhaiguan is an Impressive fora-ess complex builr round the l"amous Rrsr Pass Under Heaven: a huge garehou>e complex pror.ected by a courryanl. On txlp of irs wide bardemems is a majes .c gate-tower with a tiled double roof and colourful eaves. This view Is from the west.

5

One of the nomad warriors whose raids on China led to the Great Wall being built as one response to the threat they posed. Rapllily moVing mobile units would raid se ed communities or ~e them In Imrie, whem highly skilled mounted archery was the nomads' greatest asset.

6

In other words, the nomads needed either t trade or Lo raid, and wben raiding \ as seen to be easier than trading, the boundaries between the two activiti b arne blurred. R I ted and unche k pillaging easily d loped into contr 1 from a distan ,as exemplified by th relations betw n th Xiongnll and the early Han dynasty, Control from a di tance could dev lop into the a cupation of palclles f territory, so that the invading forces directed any economic exchange. The culmination of such a rrocess was the c nquest of China itself and the setting up of dynasties bas d on what were already quite sophisticated nomadic empir s. This dramatic chan e happened remarkabl frequentl in Chinese tIDtor from the time of the Wei dynast, who ruled mu h of northern China <.luring the 5th and 6th enturies AD. Th Kitan Dao dynast} (AD 916-1125 and th Jurchen Jin d 'nasty (1126-1234 had their on in in Manchuria, where heir predominantly pa toral nomadic cultur also included en ugh elements of Jed agIicuJlure to pr pare them for th t k of governin hma through the us of taxation and the like. The Yuan dynasty 1279-1368) \'\'<15 establi hed by Kublal Kh n, grandson of ,enghis Khan, who laid the foundali n of the vast Mongol mpiIe_ The Yuan wer overthrown by the native hinese Ming dynast, but th Millg were I lose control in 1644 to another northern conquest dynasty: the Qin' (Manchu) dynasty, who ruled until 1912 nd came from the same ethnic st k as the JurcheD Jin.

This long catalogue of failures by the Han Chinese to defmd themselvC$ against the nomads undcrllnC5 why the control of [heir northern neighbours, whether by diplOmatk or military means, became the chief preoccupation of successive emperors. It IS aim important to realize that the Chinese did not only have to deal with sporadiC raids by 100000Iy organized groups of nomads. The nomad threat was also expressed through several major campaigns conducted against their borders by the armies of .....eU-organizcd step~ empires who already controlled dC"doped eronomia Their ambilions went much further than mere plunder, 'I he long-lasting threat from the north provided a considerabh.' challenge that was constamly changing and developing. II was never one that could easily be met on purely military terms, because the direct approach of launching retaliatory campaigns into nomadic territory was dangerous and costly. The Han Emperor Wudi achieved some suc~s In 119 lIC when he mounted an expedition into the Xiongnu homelands, but there are few other similar e:1C.3I1Jples_ Impro\'ed wt'aponry for Chinese infantrymen to enable them to brea!.. the impact of a nomad charge was another possible counter-measure, but such small-scale tactics \\ere only effectivt' If the enemy hOrsemen aIIo","-oo lhemsel\"es to get ncar enough 10 the Chinese lines.. Chinese ca\OII~n were sometimes useful against the raiders, but the)' nel-er attained the nomads' 1("\'('15 of skill at horsemanShip. A more str.1tcgic approach was required, and a historian of the Song d)"nast}', Ouyang Xiu (1007-72), recommended the follOWing wa}' of dealing with the nomads: Our Chinese infamrJlDen are at their best In obstructing strategic passes, while the barbarian cavalrymen are at their best on the flatlands. Let us r('SOlutely stand on guard lat the strategic passes) and nOt dash off in pursuit of them or strive to chase them off. If they come, we should close strategic passes so that they cannot enter; if they withdraw, we should close strdtt>gic passes so that they cannot return. One fascinating aSpKt of the abcwe quotation is of course the lack of reference to anything resembling a Great Wall ("o1.'n though, in popular belief, such a barrier designed specifically to keep the nomads out had been in existence for 1,200 years and had been rontinually repaued and maintained throughout that lime. This is one of the great myths of the Great Wall, so that it is possible to read cardess accounts of nomads 'raiding through the Great Wall', when no such structure actually existed in the specified location at the specified time. In fact the building of a physical barrier between the Chinese and the 'barb,uians' was but 011(' option among a range of policy choices that successive dynasties could exercise in response La their gre:Jtest preoccupation. Contrary to popular belief. 11 was an option exercised on very few occasions in Chinese history, but when it was put Into operation It was carried out on a grand scale and, unlike military expediliom into nomad territories, it left behind a physical legacy, It is this physical leg.lcy of impressive lengths of disparately construt1ed ramparts, built centuries apart with often little reference to each other, which we now call the 'Great Wall of China',

/

7

Chronology 121 Ie

Unification of Chi~ under the Qin Emperor

215 Be

1382 1429 1442 1449/ 1474

Meng rlan ordered to buIld defen<:es: the Qin Great ~r Han Wudi's expedition JgVnSt the Xiongnu leads to H,m Great Wall Rise of Northern Qi dynasty, who built some walls Mongols ride through the Juyongguan Pons fall of Zhongdu (Beijing) to the Mongols founding of the Ming dynasty Ming defeated by Mongol Ann)' ilt Karakorum First military structure built 3t Jiayuguan Wall built at Shanhaiguan First use of tenn chong cheng in a Ming document Ramparts built in Liaodong Ming Emperor captured in the Tumu Incident Wall completed in Ordos area

1482

Mongol raiders defeated beside the Ordos wall

1530

Breech-loading cannon ordered for the Great Wall Building recorded at Ib.daling

119 Ie AD SSG

1211 1215 1368 1372

IS39

1540 1550 1567 1570 1626 1644

1617 1793 1900

193] 19)7 1984

8

Rebuilding of Jiayuguan rOrtr"e$s Altan Khan attacks Beijing Qi Jiguang tr.ronsferrec:l from toan:aJ defente to Gn!at W;i]1 construct:lon Probable date of commentement of Jinshanling section The Gn!at Wall is depicted on.fohn Speed's map of China Mmchus enter Beijing Qing Emperor- deodes not to restOn! the Great Walt lord Macartney's mlulOn describes the Great Wall Old Dragon's Heild desuoyed dUring Bolter Rebellion Japanese atclck Shilnhiliguiln Jilpallese defeated ilt Pingxingguan Deng Xiaoping prllises the Grear Wall

Design and development

The Great Wall and its builders The fir t binese ruler to have exercised the policy option of uilding walls a ainst the nomads is commool. belle ed to have been the fust emperor of a unified China: in Shihuangdi, the tyrant who reigned from 246 to 210 Be and who is arded in death by the famous arm of terracotta ,"varriors. Ying Zheng, as the Qin Emperor was knowLl before hJs successful unification in 221 , was the ruler of the kingdom of Qin, one of a number of neighbouring states wh s wars with one anDther gave their name tD the 'Warring States Period' in Chine e history. Qil1 Shihuangdi ertainly cDmmanded the vast resources 0 wealth and manpDwer that would be n eded fDr such an enterpris I but dJd he really build the first Great Wall? The evid nc for both claims: that tl1 wall he built was the Ii cst f its kind in hines hist ry and that it was in any nse 'greater' than any walls that had preceded it is remarkably pOOL One characteristic of the military interaction between the warring states that the in conquered had been the erection of bQ[der walls between them, both as phy ical barriers to invasion and a1 0 as definin boundary markers. At least nlne such walls are known. They were built between c.369 and 279 Be, and were of considerable length and manned by bar er guards. In addition to th walls the kingdoms of Qin, Zhao and Yan als built walls to provide protection against the nomads of the nei hbouring eppes, 'or were ~ ails e first long barriers n kind' Chine e hi tory. References to imiJar terpIises o back ~ r as 656 Be. It is now generally ai'reed that Qin hihuangdi did not con truct something that was campi ely hate er it was original on the Chinese scene. that he uJlt after his unification of hina, it was firmly in the tradition that he himself had followed during the Warring States Period, The common acceptance is that he took the existing structures built by his rivals and augm nted them to produ e one great unified barrier in much the same way that he had produced one great unified empi re, The process began after the Qin Emperor had su ces fully expelled the Xiongnu from the bend f th Yellow River 1n 215 B', TIl key historical ref renee is fDund inShi Ii 'the records of the grand historian'), the first syslema·c hlnese historical t After in had unified the wodd, I len" TIan was sent to command a host of 300,000 ... and built a greal waU, constructing i defiles and passes ac ording to the configuration of the terrain. It started at Lin laO, crossed the Y, llow River, wound northwards touching ount Yan and ended to liaodon a reaching a istance of m re than 10,000 Ii.

In several locations the slope was so steep that the final section of bricks that makes the parapet of the Great Wall was laid parallel to the slope of the mountain. This was done solely to save time, and even though the structure has survived for four cenwrles, it still presents an amazing Sight.This wall at jinshanling is a striking example, and the scale may be gathered from me people in the foreground.

9

Meng Tian. the general commanded by the Qin Emperor Shihuangdi to built the wan II chong cheng. Meng Tlan's resulting creation, even if no, as extensive as is populal'ly believed, nevertheless provided a rich folk memory of the size of the wall and the suffering it caused.

In thiS brief passage w lind the £loVO kc phrases that were to be re-used tbroughout h' tory to descri Qin Shihuan di's enterprise as wetl as aU ther walls that f II wed it. I'be first i cllan ell 11K (I ng waU or great wall) and the otber is \l'LlII Ii (10,000 Ii, one Ii being halI a kitom e. Put the two phrases together, an Qin Shihuan dJ i~ aedited with building the Ii II'nJlli cllll11, c1WIl:, n ex-presslon ften used in modern Chinese Hterature for what is now comm III understood as Ule Great Wall of China. Tn tbls vlew, th in Emperor'. wall provided both the prototype, the route and the actual foundations for what we see today, which is th result of later 'repairs' or th' 'rebuilding' of Qin hjhuangcli" original. Before c nsidering lhe likely accuracy of this claim, w must put out of our minch an vi ual image of th mighty stone edifice near Beijin o , That dates from the tin dyn '(1368-1 , and any defences built b' Mcng Tian \ ould have been much simpler constru 'ons (beaten earth inIorccd with wood. nother passage in the l/i}i tells us b w MCT1° TIan 'utilized the natural mountain barriers to establish the bord r defences, scooping out the all. and constructing ramparts and building installations at oilier poin where ilie w re needed'. This impHes a very sensible form of civil engineering. Meng's wall tor walls) augm nted not only any surviving barriers from the \-Va.-ring States Period, but also supplemented what nature herself had provided. This attitude had a long phil rhical tradJllon behind it because to the ancient Chinese rulers frontiers were the creation f Heaven, not of man, and the c.xerci of virtue by a wise ruler would brino uncultured peoples into submissioo. It w s nly when rude nomads refused to recogniz such a profound c ncept that it was I necessary add to Heaven' 1ft. On this basis one cannot envisage I ng TIan sending his 'great wall' sweeping uTln essaril - alan' mountain rid as the lin' \-\Tere to d , It is therefore not unreason bl t condud that, given til r urces availabl 't Qin Shihu ngdi and his w II-known ruthl ness in applying them, a WflIJ II ott chang cheng could indeed have been bullt, particularly jf one regards 'WOII Ii' as indicating 'very long' raU1Cf than a precise mea~ure of distance. In facl over 1, ars later in 1 77 a certain u ng was to write a poem at the tratC1!:ic Gubeikou Pass notin iliat he w once aoain 'ro in the 10,000 Ii U of th Qin mpcror'. Th re may lla n nothing 1 ft f the wall i Lf, b t as a olk memory it still had the power t a poet' im gination as h passed through an area that had n a vital d fensive concern for many c nturies, and in whi h there had once been omething very pedal, whate r it actually was. In spit of all his en terprise and assets, the reign of Qi n Shihuangdi was a short on , but his suc eSSOTS in the much longer-Jived Han dynast were to foUOI his example by placi.n some of their faith, at least, in the defence provided by Ion walls. Emp ror " udi s e. pedition again the Xiononu in 119 Be r presented a differ nt approa h, and when pace wiili h ,'jononu wa proposed rious argum n . were put fon ard in favour of negotiation . It was poinled ut tbat the oth r alternative to war - the er i n of bard r defences - w not a good option because ..v I1s decayed Without constant mainlenan and lheref re represenled a long-term commitmenl. Yct even with Lllis apparenLly half-hearted dedication to a chollg chellg the Han emperors were to produce another versi n of the Great Wall. They did it by utiliZing what remained of the Qin and \l arlin'" tates walls and ddino exten i ns of their 0\ n. 0

l.

10

The oeaten brickwork is fouod 00 the upper surfaces of the Wall where the fin:u 'skin' has ;I gende camber and the joints ;Ire d5 watertight as possible..The highcn grade of Ming waIJ was called 'horse road Willi', and had pavemems of carefully monared and cambered brick or stone so thar rainwater drained away [0 avoid erosion. Here the three layers of rammed infill. secondary brick and finished surface can be seen in a damaged section 3t Jinshanllng.

m extent thi \ a nalural proc 55 that arose out of their w twaId , an ion along ~ hat was to become known as the ilk Road, but the new b rd r defences relied on much more tllan just walls, A minister under the Wendi 1mperor, who liv d between 202 and 1-7 IJ , recommended that the fronti r area shou.ld be Ionized with familie resettled there to w rk the land, and as many as 50,000 or ,000 men may have been involved in tbese tlllltian agri ultural wlonies). 'Hi h w
II

The Han dynasty Great Wall with a detached signalling tower, c.1 00 Be Under the Han dynasty the Great Wall extended OUt into the Gobi Desert. It was made from rammed earth reinforced with twigs. Here we see a section of the wall ·th a detached signalling tower jUst be in
Xu Da (1332--85) led some VIctOrious operations against

the Mongols. and was then charged by the Ming Emperor with bu~ding defences that: were to grow Into die Great WalL The rst: phase of construction contained no elements of lineu defence.. It was 1l1St:ead regionally based. involving the fortifica on of strategic mountain passes and the construction of individual towers in frontler areas,

me

12

cwigs and earth.A horse is tethered ready for a mounted messenger.There are twO signalling beacons. e crew have raised one beacon to warn of the approach of nomad raiders. who are being mon° ored by crossbowmen on the Great Wall. The one on the rower is in action and black smoke from wolf dung is pouring oULThe second lies ready. The inset pictUre shows the tower crew loading the signalling fire basket with wolf dung using chopsticks.

gunpowd r. After 1126, when they lost Kaifeng to the Jin, they were known as the Southern Song and ruled from Hangzhou. But China was even more fragmented than this, because far away to the west the Tangut Xi Xia ruled. The celestial kingdom was ripe for in asian by a powerful army, and JUSl such an enti la, not far beyond its borders in the shap of the Mongols. The Jin emperor had long been concerned about the Mongol threat and had strengthened his north-western border with a line of fortifications c nnecred by walls and ctitches. But when Gengbis Khan rno ed against them in 211 s ond e 'tracti 'onal rou e' of the Great all, p~ ved line, constructed far to be hopelessly ineffectiv The longols m ved on two fronts separated sometimes by over 32Qkm et ept in constant communication ""ith each er through highly mobile scouts. G ngbis Khan took personal command of the eastern army that headed for the strategic Juyongguao, the pass that protected Zhongdu from the north-west. Juyongguan is now the ite of one of the most frequently visited stretches of the present Great Wall of China, but in 1211 there was nothing to stop the Mongol advance except some minor fortifications. The invaders descended into the plain around B ijing, where they plundered extensively but made no attempt to besicg the capital. In 1213 another angol incursion headed once again for Juyongguan, ps. which the Jin had no\> reinforced with elite ec rding to some reports the gates 'were sealed with iron and the surrounding countryside for Okm around wa scattered. with iron caltrops. till there was nothing resembling a Great Wall, but the Jin res' tance was so fum that it forced th ongols into a large detour to find another pass. More raids followed, one of which reached FengZhou nd gave the Mongols their first Sight of the sea. Even after the loss of Zhongdu in l215 the Jin continued their long rivalry against the outhem ong until the Jin dynast came to an end when their last emperor comrn1 d suidde ill 1234. Looking north~ aIds hom behind their supposed barrier of the Yangzi River the Sou ern Song dynasty smirked as the contemplated the destruction of e northern upstarts who had once humiliated them, but as an ambassador from the Jia reminded them, the now had an even worse neighbour to fear. It was not long before the Southern Song discovered exa Iy what he meant, and in 1279 Kublai Khan eliminated the last remnants of the Song dynasty. China wa united once again, under the first emperor of tl1 Yuan (Mongol) dynasty.

~_';':".~~-"'~·=-"-'Tlhe

Han d nasty Gr:eal:Wall with a detached signalling towe , c. IO~"BC

13

Stone drainage spouts were placed only on e inside of the walls so that vegetation growth. which would provide cover to raiders, was InhIbited on the enemy side. This example is on the inner courtyard of the First Pass Under Heaven at Shanhaiguan.

14

\ dynas thal was 01 two eneraUon removed m a man ,'h Ih ed in a felL lenl on th ppe:s, and whose d endants n w conlrOlled empire th l mbraced Ru ia, Korea and P rsia, ''''as unJikely to how much interesL in building a Greal all. Th it famous 'uropean visitor \-far 0 Polo. who nev r mi ' d a trick, makes no mention of on . But no w II. T at or othelwis , would hav~ prevented the Yuan from falling Lo the Han hin se peasants' r 'olt that resuJte 10 the foundin' f the Ming n in 1368. The Mongol \ er driven back L the steppes fr m whence the had come, bUl r m that moment on the st r 0 'Pical contrast between the 'settled' ,lin nd the 'bar arian nomad' 1 ng Is meant, little, and relations between th n w Chinese pir and tbe ently ousted on t k a dramatically different turn. The :Vlongol conquest of Chilla was a recent m m )ry of a real event, not some hypothetical threat reinforced by poradic raiding. There wa very likelihood that the Moo 01:> would return to ( restor their monarchy, 0 Min" deJiberati n a ut th if border polid became mall of acute d ate and crudaJ d j i n-makin . Aim 'it all the 0 ible options - diplomacy, trade, military itions and bor r ontrols - were to be consid r d and put inLo 01 ration irl oe way or another CT the next 2-0 years. The early days of the Ming ascendancy saw orne victorious military ampaigns a 'ainst the Mongols under Geo ral u Da (B 2-85). Th e campaigns were 0 successful that it 10 ked as thou h the fin' migbt even can u r the ~[on I h rtlands, bUl in 1372 ~Iin army suffered a crushing d f t a Karakorum, the andent lon"ol pitaL The Ming rev TSe was blame 00 nded su ply lin and a failure to urvi\'e on the st ppe rasslands wh re the longol were 0 much al borne. r.mperor Hon&, ' he founder of the dyna • began to think a ain. Il was in itable thaL lhe option of a pb ical harrier sh uld be discus ed, and of cour it was more U,ao merely dj cu sed, bccaus th~ end resuJt can b~ seen today. The earth walls of Lhe Warring tates Period; th already legendary wall Ii long wall of Qin Shihuangdi; the frontier defence sy t ms of the Han, the Sui and U,eJin were to pas inLo folk m mary beside the Ming dynasty's maanificent new creation: the reat Wall of .hin . Like Rom , th Ming Greal WaJI was not built in a da and the brick and t oe onstruetion \ 'jth which we are so famili r had to ",,"ait another centur}' bef re ev n bein tarted. The first phase of con trumon, \ 'hich w placed und r e supervi ion or Xu Da, ntained no el nts of linear d n . It was instead r~onall ' based. involvin th fortificati n trate!rtc mountain passes an the constru . n of individual towers in frontier areas. These tow rs wer builL close enough t gether to facilitat the sending f smoke sIgnals. The messa es thus relayed w uld then be con ed by fast horses to the Mlng capital at I anjin": clear evid n that an offens!v approach against the Mongols still had am life left in it. Th second Mlng mperor continued hI father' work, but he also ineJ>,'plicably pulled back several garrisons from the margin of the step , poor 'trategic decisi 0 that would Uow the:vi n ols to fill th acuum th J1 ted. Iso, his late father' poll ' f pladng I yal s ttlers around e border - all minor

ro alty in the Ming' e - almo t resulted in til ~lin dynasty dj solving into a civil war:. But the HongwlJ Em r r' fourth n gained a victory anu bee me til Vi ogle £m perOT in 1-102. Th new emperor quid:! announced a surpe" ing chang policy. Th capital was to be moved from Kanjing to Beijing. '10 som it was a I Id strategy that indicated a finn resistance a ainst any J\longol challenge. To others the m ving of tbe capital within a hort distance from the unstable frontier was all act of madness. The VangIe Emperor. how vel', used diplomacy as well as military force again t the MOI1"ol , and achiev d a certain t
The walkways along the tops of the wall were often wide enough to allow five people [Q walk side by side. Where the slope is gentle the walkway slopes with it. This example is in Mutianyu, where loopholes may be also be noted

15

Where the Great Wall gets steeper steps are introduced, and the steeper the sections the narrower the steps become, as shown here at Huangyaguan, Some flights of steps are so steep that it is useful to use one's hands as well as one's feet when ascending.

16

Beijing he was promptly locked up. Over the next few years, which culminated in the emperor's restoration in 1457 after a coup, a major programme of repairs to defensive works was undertaken. By 1471 government opinion was moving decisively in favour of the building of a secure border 'wall between the Ming and their greatest enemies. The main initiative came from considerations of the security of settlers in the Ordas Desert region 'within the loop of the Yellow River. A fierce debate in government circles, conducted far from the reaJlty of the area itself, concerned money. Walls were expensive, but so was war, so Yu ZijW1, a pro-wall enthusiast, proposed that 50,000 local people should be relieved of tax obligations and set to work during the spring, a time when nomadic attacks on their homes were unlikely because the enemy horses v'/Ould be recovering from the winter. An w1expected victory against the Mongols provided a \l\indow of opportunity and the wall-building project was completed in 1474. According to the official report, the wall was 1,700 Ii long and had 800 strongpoints, such as watchtowers, along its length. It had taken 40,000 men to build it over the space of several months. There were still some officials who remained sceptical about the project but, follo,ving an incident in 1482 when a group of raiding Mongols was trapped against the fortifications and cut to pieces, its supporters gleefully made the announcement that everyone was waiting for: walls 'workedl

ver the course of the f Ilo....' in century mare wall building w undertaken to capitalize upon the succ of what had originally be€n seen as a stop ap m ure. But th overall debat about th nature of ing defence policy ra ed n for years. S n ible decisi n-making was hampered b)' political infightin& factionalism and a woeful lack of understanding both of the dynami s of steppe politics and the milltary capacity of their en mies. Up until the end of the 15th century the Ming had been very lucky that they had not had to face stron rr unified leader hip among the Monaol . But instead of e.,,
WlI Sangui. the commander of Shanha.guan, was the Ming general who allowed the Manchus to march through the Great Wall. In April 1644 the rebel leader U Zicheng breached the defences of Beljing and overthrew the Ming dynany. jUst outside !he GreaI Wall were the Manchu armies..The First Pass Under Heaven WolS opened to them, and they obligingly defeated Li Zicheng in banle. But they then rode on to occupy Beijing and pm claim the Qing dynasty.

17

Qi Jiguang (1528-88) was a Ming general who had made his name fighting Japanese pirates off the south-east coast, and was already experienced at dealing with short-sighted government officials when he was given the task of extending the GreatWall.The Ming government turned down many of his proposals because of their cost.

18

In most cowers the room entered from the walkway is a gloomy cellar-like structure composed of interlocking brick arches. as in this example at Jinshanling.

conquest was ironical in many ways. While the Ming had spent a century ignoring the Mongols, the Manchus, whose provincial base of Manchuria began just through the First Pass Under Heaven of the Great Wall at Shanhaiguan, had absorbed them into their growing empire. '""'hen the :\1anchu army entered China as conquerors they did not fight their way in through a bitterly defended Great Wall. Instead they marched through it with the permission of the Ming general WU Sangui, who saw an alliance with them as a lesser evil than submission to the rebels that the Ming were unable to control alone. The Manchu conquest doubled the size of China overnight, and its multi-ethnic empire provoked many changes, some of which had a direct bearing on the newly completed edifice through which the Manchus had passed with such impunity. Once the dust of conquest had settled the new dynasty had to decide what should be done with the brand new Great Wall of China. It did not mark a physical boundary - not that it had ever been intended to - nor could it proVide a Jast line of border defence when the actual border was hundreds of kilometres further north. And it was certainly not a dividing line between civilization and barbarism now that the 'barbarians' were in control! As to the Great Wall's future military usefulness, the major threat to the Qing 'was perceived as coming from the south via the maritime powers of Europe, so when the Kangxi Emperor responded in 1677 to a report recommending repairs to the Great Wall, his tone was decidedly negative. Repairs would be too expensive, and even if the Wall were to be restored it was too long to be garrisoned adequately. The removal of building material was nevertheless forbidden, but apart from this one positive note the long saga of building and repairing the Great Wall of China came to an end within only a few decades of its completion, and its long sluw return to the dust of China began. Unloved and neglected, it lay across the mountains like a stricken dragon until it was 'discovered' twice: first by European visitors, and second by the Chinese themselves. It was to be temporarily stirred from its military slumbers during the 20th century, but apart

Some bricks on me Great Wall were munped with the name of d'teir maIcers and can still be seetl roday.lhis example is on the Jinshan~ngsecnon.

(rom this th part it played in Chinese life became that of a symbol whos meanings were constantly changing, a role that it has maintained to this day.

The construction of the Great Wall Whenever in binese history th dect.sion to build a border ddenc Wa5 made, the style of con truction of Lhe r lting walls, forts or barriers would depend upon several fact rs. The elemen f cost and military strategy have already been m tioned, and on other very 1m nant factor v the local avallabili of raw materials, because C . eSt' border walls \\-ere buiJt in a number of different eographica1 en ;ironments. The nature of these environmen is reflected in th dif~ rent styles of wall that appeared in different places, and three general typ of wall construct! n may be iden iii d. They are: 1. Rammed earth rci nforced with vegctable mattel'. 2. Dry tone \Nalling. lin-fired brick and stone walls bound togeth using mortar. Thc first two types are associate with the early \' alls of the Wa ring Stales Period, the Qin and the Han. Th third type only make an appearance during the Min.,- dyn , \ here the two arlier fo.rms are still representcd in certain lower grade sections. T, '0 other minor meLbo may be noted. The use of sun-
In desert areas me soil was gravelly. reqUiting a large quantity of vegetable matter ro bind it rogether; so layers were created by using piles of fine branches within a swrdy shutter ng 0 horizonal wood"" poles (usually of poplar wood) held together wim pegs. The sandy gravel mixture was poured on top and rammed at the edges using hand tools.The whole layer would be compacted by men pounding away from above. In this section In the arid desert of Xinjiang we see the protruding branches that lndicaa! the different layen.

19

Where there were plentiful deposits of loose stOlle around was sensible to use th is material for wall building. A sult3.ble stone. simply prise
AIlOVE

20

RIGHT The most cient fonn of wa.IIin& in China was hongtn (rammed Or IAmped earth). whereby successiVC! layers 0 loess were compacted widun removable wooden shlJlIeling much like that used to confine modem concrere while it sees. The laye~ produced by ramming were about 20cm thick, and could be built up to 6m high. Two workmen are shown here ramming the mixture down.

\I hatcvcr different pr rna, havc he n involvedramntin . quarryin' dr in or bricklaying - very type of h' II erived. u1timatel . from i UIIOunding n 'ronment: ei r the stone of and nt Chinese mountain r the 'dust of hina'. his la r ra' matcrial was loes , a \\>;ndbIQ\vn dCpo it und in great abundan and derived f m glacial day and outwash. It ha accumulated "er a \ t aTea f Wna 0 er the past t. 'ears since the La ·t Icc A
horizontal w d n poles (usuall a poplar wood) held tocrether with ropes and pegs. The andy ray I mLxtur was p ured on top and rammed at the edges using hand tools. The \\'hole layer would be compacted just like the city walls by men pounding aw from abo ·e. finally, the frame .vould be removed and the whole surface ted with oU clay to provide a smooth face as it dried in the sun. Thi m th fa e has disappeared over the centuries from the surviving example 0 th t th 'ore of the wall with its layers of n'vigs can now be seen. Ln some cases the p plar framework waS Left in place to provide e 'tra strength. If supplie W re plentiful, the poles would not need to be r -u d,. nd it is interesting to r nd d ril ti n from 1298 of local people pulling til wooden reinfor ements from Old ections oftl1e wall where the inner core had be n Xp05 d by rain. The nturi s-olcl wood was extremely hard and mad excellent sp ar h fts. WI1cre ther were rlenliful deposiLs of loose stone around it was sensible to usc lIlis material r I' the work. The introduction of better quarrying tools enabled tile pI' duclion of rough-dressed stone blocks that could be used to build stone walls ,"lith ut m rtar. Dressing was not always neces ary. suitable stone, simply prised from the rround, ould be arranged very effe tivel by an e:~. p erienced dry ton waUer, who would use small stones to lock til larg r ones together to pre 'ent a mooth a face a pos 'ble to the en my. Prop rly done the w 11 could 1 ery t I tru tur up to 6m high. with b ac n tower being built v n hi h r. TIl Ming dyna'it all at th natural nvi~ nm nt on rand scale and also to overcome the constrain to be found in an immediate localit. tone was quarried near to the line f the wall an used to build a stron structure together with the kiln-fired bn ks Ulat provided the. lin s greate t ontribution to the Great Wall lands pe_ TIl

The mortar used to hold the bricks together was composed of lime. day and rice flour. The addition of rice flour increased both the strength and the fusion properties of the monar, and in some places on the wall the bricks have eroded faster than the mortar berween them. Here we see bricks and mortar on a damaged pampet at Jinshanling. I\8OVE lEFT

ABOVE RIGHT Stl'ong foundations for

the GreatWail were very important. and in many places there was a layer of volcanic bcdr-ock beneath the surface. which could provide a base, but this method does nOt appear to have been chosen automatically. Instead an artificial base was usually made from large dressed granite blocks. Here we see bedrock. stone and brick at a cower near ShanhaJguan.

How the Ming Great Wall was built cross section through the wall and stages of construction c.1570.

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How the Ming Great Wall was built - cross section through the wall and stages of construction c.1570. In this plate the successive stages of building the Ming Great Wall aJ'e shown in one composite section. although in reality each stage would be completed individually

with sections between towers probably being the ·unit'. The stages are: I. Levering the foundation stones into place. 2. Ramming down the infill as the stone walls grow. 3. Bricklaying using scaffolding.

bricks, \ hich were about four times as lar e as a modem house brick, were produced b the thousand from numerous kilm, some of whieb still e.xisl. In the firing praces clay loses water and the silica starts to fuse with new chemicaJ products. D h drahon is th m 51 important factor in producing a good brick. In Wng China aU this was brough to perlection b encasing the kiln in earth for insulation and firing its huge stack of bricks for seyen days at temperatures of up to 1150 degrees Cel ius. me modem bricks are fired for anI' a few bour , and thi old pr r uc ri' with considerable strength. ~ s ha e hown that th ric' u d in h Great' all could withstand a tr of a ut 2 kilonewtons bef re fracturin o - about the arne as mod m reinforced concrete. her firin the kiln was cooled by pouring water 0 er it an its precious con len of bricks - ebaraeteristicaJly blue because of the reduced ox gen firing - was care.full remO\-ed. me bricks on the Greal a were stamped with e name of their makers and can still be seen toda . A similar stren th was Iso found in the mortar ll5ed to hold the bric' together. It \Va om osed of lime, day and a 'secret ingredient' - recent!. reveaJed to be rice fl UL The ddition of rice flour increased both the strength and the fusi n propertie 0 th mortar, and in some places on he \ all the bri k.s hav er ded faster tban the 000 r betw n them... tone bl " brie' and m rtar wer combined to produce a unique and dramatic structur There is a opuJar tory about the self-confidence of th architect I Kaizhan, \ ho calculated e aetty how man. bricks would required to build the fortr of Jia uguan and ordered that precise number. His master insisted he all w for some more just in case', so the architect ordered one more brick. Thal xlra brick is proudly displayed in its unused condition on the fortress wall today! A cross section of th re t all shows that it is wider at its base than at its top to give stability. Strong foundations were very important. and in many places there was a layer of volcani bedrock beneath the surface that could provide a base, but thi method doe:. not appear to have been chosen automatically. Instead an artificial base w u ually made from large dressed granite blocks

In most cases the first sections of the Grea Wall consisted of dressed stOne blocks cemented together around the core, which was filled as the height increased. At some point b '00 woold take over. as shown here in a section at luowenyu.

23

walkways are usu fly crenellated. At Badaling the crenellations are found only on the enemy side, while here at Mutianyu they are on both sides.. lEfT The

Kiln-fired bricks were the Ming's greatest contribution to the Great Wall landscape. The bricks were produced by the thousand from numerous kilns, some of which sriU exist.The kiln was encased in earth for insulation, ItS huge mck of bricks fired for seven days at temperatures of up co I 150 degrees Celsius. This photograph Is of a mock-up of a brick kiln in the Great Wall Museum at Shanhaiguan

RJQ-fT

24

brought to the location,
Signalling and observation were also carried out from a large number of del3ched rowers, most of which were on the 'friendly SIde' of the Great Wall. T ey could act as rallying points if the Wall was ever breached, bm the primary function was to relay sIgnals back from the Great Wall as qUicldy as possible. This example is at Huangyaguan.

rainwater gathering' traps w the rna' concern. The stone draInage pouts were placed onl) on the inside of the valls so that ,,"eaetation owth" hich would provide co er to raiders, was inhibited on the eacm, ide. Th wal1."Ways along the laps of the wall were often wid nough to allow fi pol to walk itle by side. \Vhere tl1 lope is gentle the walkway slopes with it. s it gets t €r r steps ale introdu oed, and the steep r til ections the narrOw r the steps be ome. Some fUghts of tep
The structural and architectural features of the Great Wall Th I og stoOl' and brl k dragon that was the 110g Great \·\1a11 wa interrupted al I1g its length by num rous towelS, gate\ a s, water gates and forts, and was v rlooked by hundr ds of detach d beacon tower. purs, some quite xtensive, protruded from the 'Nail at certain point and ran along neighbouring ridges. The most common arch itectural features to be found along the wall ar the l wers, located at arious distances apart from each othet. Their functions ma be summarized observation, 'gnailing, defence, shelter and storaae. TIle main criterion for pacing the tow rs \\'<1 the need to an, signals ai en from the next t W T along, unimped by geographical fonnations. Tl1e particular "lIlnerablli of the sector, the tecpness of the lope between the tower and the location of minor peaks along a ridge could al 0 inflllcnce the decision abollt where to build them.

Pan. of the Si ma tai section. shown here In a distant view, presents a

slope of 70 degrees at a height of 2,OOOm above sea level. and the rClsulting 'wall' is only SOem wide with a sheer drop on each side.

2S

Spurs, some quite extensive, protruded from the wall at certain points and ran along neighbouring ridges, as in this excellent example at Huangyaguan.

26

The towers vary more in size than in overall function. early all are square or rectangular, while round ones are highly unusual and may have been experimental designs. While the upper surface of the solld Wall served as the central floor of the tower, this was always extended outwards to give a larger space. The resulting tower platform was usually offset - on the inside of the Wall it could protrude for Sm and on the outside for about l.Sm. This would allow fire from croSSbOV'lS or guns to be delivered from loopholes or windows along the surface of the Wal t. Many towers have survived intact or been very well restored. Others have lost their roof sections or upper floors, so that their inner structure can be accurately described. The larger towers had roughly square-shaped central rOOms that could be used as a commander's headquarters, but in most towers the room entered from the walkway is a gloomy cellar-like structure composed of interlocking brick arches. Some \'Vere just this one storey with a flat roof and a parapet. Others had an upper storey with a pitched roof and battlements. The door lintels were of stone, and holes can clearly be seen where bolts and hinges were fitted for the wooden doors that once enclosed them. The introduction of the more elaborate styles of towers to the Great Wall is credited to Qi Jiguang, whose report on existing sections of the Wall stated that the soldiers had no protection against heat or rain in summer or the sleet and snow of winter, while ammunition and 'weapons lay exposed to the weather. Some of the new ones, which housed between 30 and 50 men, incorporated the

Cutaway reconstruction of a tower on the Ming Great Wall c.1570. The towers were very important components of the Ming Great Wall.This example is fairly typical. The upper surface of the solid Great Wall serves as the central floor of the rower, extended outwards to give a larger space. The resulting tower platform is offset to allow fire from

crossbows or guns to be delivered from windows along the surface of the Wall.The roughly square-shaped central room could be used as a commander's headquarters. It is a gloomy cellar-like structure composed of interlocking brick arches. There is an upper storey with a pitched roof and battlements. Wooden doors are fitted. The entrance from the 'friendly side' gives access only on to the walkway.

Cutaway reconstruction of a tower on the Ming

Great Wall c.1510.

27

The blJCf" tower.; on the Great hen olt Huangpgu.tn. Nod

~l. u All

2.

upper

stOfq" And

pitched roo&..

'luxury' of stone platfonns to sleep on, heated by coal fires. The larger towers wcre like mini·castles that could withstand a siege. Somc cven had access only by means of retractable ladders, and as they were well stocked with weapons, ammunition, provisions and signalling materials their garrisons could hold out inside their towers for longer than any enemy might be expected to endure outside. Other towers were uSl1'd primarily for storage, but aU the lowers shared one vital function: signalling. which will be described in a later section. Signalling and observation was also carried out from a large number of detached towers, most of which were on the 'friendly side' of the Great Wall. They could act as rallying points if the Wall was ever brC'lChed, but the primary function was to relay Sigllills back from the Great Wall as quickly a.~ possible. By the end of the Ming dynasty there were literally thousands of them, and although most were not physically linked to tll{' Great Wall by spllrs they were an integral p,trt of the 'defence in depth' that the entire system represented. Their value was nonetheless sometimes questioned. In 1554 the gO"ernor general of Datong expressed concern that if the ~'Iongols attacked in force the crews of the nearby towers could not help in the defence of the Wall. if the Wall was then hreached the crews would take flight and nee. He therefore propos...--d 10 build more towers across lhe Wall in 'enemy territory" - 20 or 30 IXIccs away from the Wall and 300 paces apan. Funds were made available and some were actuall}· built, but in 1574 we read that 'if observation towers arc tOO far outside the border wall the crews feel isolated, and in the casc of an 3t1;}(\; they dare not shoot an arrow!' The simplest entrances to the Great Wall did not allow access through it but onl}' on to the walkway. These portals were open only on to the 'friendly' side, which led to a steep flight of steps on to the wall itself. Adjacent to the most massive giltehouses there was also a long slope leading directly on to the wall: a uscful but vulnerable asset. lkcause the Ming Great Wall wa~ not in any sense China's 'border' the long !larrier was never seen as the medieval cquivalent of .. totally hnpenetrahlc razor wire frontier. Instead thcre wcre certain places when.' the wall could be crossed. Water, as well as people, had to pass through the Great Wall at certain places, and some elaborate water gates and bridges have survived; but the most elaborate examples of crossing places along the Great Wall were to be found within the strategic mountain passes, likejuyongguan or Gubdkou, that provided the main invasion routes for centuries. Here, in addition to the Great Wall, were multiple gates, extra fortifications, barracks and frequently complete towns with nourishing markeu crilmmed Into the narrow flat land of the pass from where the adjacent sections of the Great Wall soared off along the mountains on either side. These 'garrison towns' became Important commercial centres. The actual galCS in the fortified passes were of course wry tightly controlled. Typically they funnelled visitors into arched tunnels through the wall under a fortified gatehouse. More elaborate examples were multiple gatt'wa~, often turning through ninet)' degrees through a totally enclosed inne., courtyard. Guards on the parapets above could monitOI all traffic, and with the proVision

of strong w d n "at any unwelcome visitor could be trapped within the courtyard and ubjc cd to murderous fire. Gateways like these became military hubs, nd barracks, amlOuries and horse yards were bwlt against th inner urface of the wall. One outstanding xample is the fortified gatehouse of Shanhaigllan that bears a noti e datin from ::VUng times prodaiming that it i the 'Fir t Pa s nd r Heav n'. n top of its wide battlements is a maje ti gate-t w T with a tiled double r of and colourful eaves. On it~ west m sid i a wid ramp .jvin I at e to the wall.-way, while on the eastern side is an en t d u ard. TraveU r pa 'sing through go into a dark tunnel under th teh u it I, and then have to tum through deare t I \' th c urtyard. Two other towers lie very near to Ule areal ~atehousc. Th r i I \' r)' lar e comer tm"er to the souUl Ulal forms an n I with th t \\ n wall _ The more cIa ral Jia 'ugu n, far awo} at the \-\ ern e.\.'tremity of the ~fin(J real" all, pr ents lh appcaranc f a fantasti medienl castle. An earth-waUe foft wa first built here in 1372.. ddition w re made in H95 and 150 ,and then the wbole edific was rebuilt al' und 15-10. Its walls wer n all}" doubled ill heiuhl, in some cases by adding brick oune to the existing rammed earth walls. The main castl i ITa Loidal in hape mea urin 6- m in circumference. It has two ate. Th t m at i ailed Guan huamen (Briuht Gate) w . e the w m on i the Royuam n (Gat for Conciliation with Remote P pi ). B th at ar ent red thr ugh narrow arched passa es. n top f th actual hou ar me ry irnposin three-slorey r Ii just in front of the eastern gate at groun towers. whil a imil r tru level. Each 1 . lik fant tic .hin e tempi, oJonnaded with pillars and v,'ith curve roofs. fher are al wide access ramps on their north m ides and a tower at each of th four corners of tile inner fortres and in th middle f both the north and ouLh walls, The walls, cmbrasured on their out'd fa are 1O.6m high, ~m thl kat lh bottom and 2m wide at the lOp. Outer wall of a les er height em,ircle it on every ide but Ule east, and on the west the passage through tht uter w II makes an extra protective gateway on th 1 more \lUln r bl id. Th r at Wall lor Ii d n th walled towns and villages around it as p rt of the a rail d f>n iv y t m. The rural population lived mostly outside these towns, but at lh PI r ach f 11 m raid r they were required to move inside for lheir protection. T a farm r thi wa easier said that done. It was difficult to abandon field. at sh rt notic , whatever the strategic plan might have said,

A curved ~ giving ac.cess to die Great Wall on die Jlnshanling section. Note the usc of stone as a foundation. and the survival o' die Glrved block dlat once took die hinge for a door:

Barracks. armourles and horse yards were built against the Inner surface of the Great Wall at passes. This restored example of a Ming barracks is at Huangyaguan and now houses a hotel

29

The Great Wall as a strategic defensive system Mobile enemies and static defences In on sen

It is n t surprising that among the options erdsed to control the nom ds sh uld be the building of walls, because in pre-modern China walls were everywhere. Hardly a village xisted that did not have some form f wall round it, and a dty without a wall was as inconceivable as a house with ut a roof. It is therefore perlecU understandable that a cultur that so valued walls for the defence and delineation of it property should consider eJ tending the principle beyond merely enclosing a village Or a city to en losing a section of tenitory, particularly when the nomads who represented the main threat to that territory depended upon unhindered mobility f r their ucces . The presentation of a static defence against a mobile enemy had som very sound reasoning behind it. 11e ongols, who were the finest exponen of nomad ....'Mfare, worked on the prindple of 'advance separately - attack united', and nearly always moved in widely eparated columns. \"./hen faced by an enemy force or by a fortified to\-Vil these columns c uld reunite at remarkable speed. The superior mobility of the Mongol army th refore proVided them with ecurity similar to that giVen by concentration less mobile armies, and this was something that the . tence f a lin r bam r like the Great Wall c uld hinder. One reason why the existence of linear barriers could provide a d f nee against the Mongols Ii.es in the refutation of a very common myth about nomactic armies. Contrary to their popular Image, nomad armies' movem Dts wer never conducted at a gallop except at the final moment of closing with an enemy. The fongols may have had a highly mobile arm:1', but lhe fighting troop were always foUowed by a huge and cumbersome upport mechanism in the form of heir families and flocks, The sheep were herded while the people

The larger tOwers had roughly square-shaped central rooms that could be used as a commander's headqlr.1J"te~shown here In

mis ruined shell of a tower

30

at Jinshanlong,

and their tents were transported on carts that moved very slowly compared to the rapid cavalry. The cavalrymen's hors s also had to have suffici nt time to graze from the grasslan s that the. passed through. As fodder is more compact than growing grass. grazin is a much longer pro 55 if the animal i to receive the same nutritional alue. There was also the question of the large numbers of horses the Mongols took on campai1ffi. This s st m allowed fast remounts in the battle situation, but all th horses had t be fed, and horses not being ridden would require on I} marginally less energy than the current mount. The enormous amount of gras that a Mongol arm would consume meant that the army had to keep moving to yield fresh supplies. The system adopted by the Mongol armies was to move their animals in the moming, graze them during the afternoon and rest them by night. The Mongols' military movements were therefote not merely lightning-fast sweeps out of the sunset. That tactic was just the culmination of a longer and slower process, and the final charge a alnst an army or as ttlement was merely the death blow. During the Chinese campaign of 1216-17 the averaae daily mar h was only 23km. The above consider ·ons lay behind the deciSion by the Chines to build a succession of barriers that broke up the pa em of the nomad armi • ad ances by diIecting them in wa that were most fa ourable to the deIende of that territo . It therefore allowed defendin commanders to practise the sound military prindple of econ my of forces but the uilding of the Great all, of course, was intended to do more than merel_ hinder the advance of an enemy army. It could also stall hi progress completely by providing a genuine defensive arri r that he would either have to break down, besiege or abandon, and the exp ri n e in the Drdos during 1482 appeared to confirm tbis, Prom he time of Genghis Khan's first ampaigns onwards the ogo15 had disliked walls. When they attacked the Xi Xia early in the 13th century the need to conduct sieges against fortified positions greatly hindered their progress until

The largest towers were like mini-casdes that could withstand a siege. Some even had access only by means of rerralDble ladders. and were well stocked with weapons. ammunition, pro ·sions and signalling materials. Other toWeJ"S were used primarily for storage. This Is the so-called Store Tower at Jinshanling. which was acwally the commander's headquarters for the sector.

31

they a quireUlTencter of the next target on the Mongols' own teID1S was aJm t inevitable,

The Ming Great Wall - a ridge too far?

The Mlng Great Wall runs aero"" pretiPltOuS moumain ndges covered with vegetation and loose rocks where no anny would think of

crossing. like this dramatic 'switchback' on the jinshanllng section, where one feels that in such places the Great Wall exists only to defend its own existence..

32

The ~[ing Great Wall \ as therefor n extension fa ouod priocipl that had served hiM for man} centuri . In andent China \"all d town had been the empire's finest in ranee polic, a the Y1ing dynast}' applied th' tried and t te method to a much larg r d fensible space. But it is difficult to link this comm n-sense approach to the dedsion to build the reat Wall a ross precipitou mountain ridges covered with vegetation and loose rocks wi, re no army would think of crossing anyway. Furthermore, hi trial records show that all Inva. ions or attempted in asians of hinese territor began al ng the major routes that were often d fine b r mountain passes. Th ~1ongol advance ofju 'on uao "--as fortified, against B ijin a in 1213 is a case in point. The I gates were sealed and caltrop, were scattered. This comparati\- I imple solution alone persu ded the longols to make a very wid d our, even though the slopes up which the reat Wall of China \'\'<1 later to b built we.re th n completely undefendedl So why did the Ming go to su 11 trouble and expl.mse to fortify that wh.ich apparently never needed to be fortified? This is an interesting qu stion that prings to one's mind when walking a10ng the dramati 'switchbacks' 00, sa , the Jinshanling section, where on feels that in such plac s the Treat \ 'all exists only to d end its O\\'n e istence. eraJ theori may be put fOrward to explain th presence of tl1e Great all where common sen may sugge t that it was not n ede
u porl for this th ory is provided by th e.. tence of spurs from th Great" all t i Jat towers, often at a considerable di tam away, and b' h observation of tmpS in the Greal all. By 'gaps' I 0 not m an l;mre sections that were never com I , but small ps ~ her the Great v all hits a 'dead end' at a very t p slope or even a sh er c(ill face, such as the 'yellow cliff' al Huangyaguan. Th imatai sector may 1 ast a \'\'al1 that rises at an angle of 70 degrees, but the builder~ of the (}rcat Wall were n fools. There were places where to build an easy link w uld prove to be as mu h to an attacker's d aota e as it was to a d fender's, so it w I ft as a rough sera, ble up a narrm' m untain path, which uld be defende m I' asily. 1 he is another wa of loolting at the Min "I' t Wall, and that is as a det Trent. If we regard the provision of dc~ nces acr the mountain p a the ke. clement f the real all ystem, th n we may see th addjtjon f lines tadjating from Ulem up the bill ides in a slightJy different licrht. The uhelkou section is a v y good exanlple. The area through which the modern road trnv I' i quite wide, and I ngths of wall illld tow I' cern to be all around. Climb but a short di tance up, walk a little way along unUl lh vall y disappears from view, and Ule 19ht of the Greal all apparentl} headin to infinity in th directions is one that r okes fcelin a f awe. this can done t the modern VI' I, what micrht have been th effects on a ho "I inv der? Would not the sight have both in "midated him and r Olinded him of the t miJitar}' resources po's ed by the laIld h w so presumptu 1I Iy thinking of inva in ? Might he not ha been persuaded, like 'Proud Edward' at the Iland of the Scots, 'lac lhink again'? Y t th re were occasion wben the Great Wall ctuaily did play the role of a form, d barrier. A we wW sec in the chapter on operational hi tory, when Allan Khan attacked Beijing tn 1550 he cr ed the Great Wall thr u h brokendov'n ections - e idence indeed that the in .....
The simplest entrances to the Greac Wall dId not allow access through it but only on to the walkway. These pon:;als were open only on to the 'friendly' side. wh,ch led to a Reep flight of seeps on to the Wall itseJ . This example IS at utianyu.

33

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forts and towers to the rear, and considerable support mechanisms built into the 'front line'. Also, just like the Maginot Line, the Great Wall was tactically effective but strategically weak, and many decisions about it were made for purely political reasons. The Mongols could not hope to cross an intact Great \Vall, but somehow they always found some way round it, while the Ming's Manchu conquerors were simply invited in through the front door. Gu Yam"'ll (1613-81) later commented 'it was not that the terrain was not precipitous, nor was the wall not tall enough; it was not that there were not enough soldiers or the grain was inadequate. The rule of the country, however, could not last long because the rulers had lost the heart of the people.' In the last resort, any defensive system is only as good as the political and military climate that sustains it.

The Great Wall occasionally hits a 'dead end' at a very steep slope or even a sheer cliff face, such as here at Huangyaguan. These were places where to build an easy link would prove to be as much to an attacker's advantage as it was to a defender's, so it was left undeveloped.

35

The Great Wall at the operational level Defending the Great Wall

This wom staircase on to the walkway at Mutianyu shows how much the Great Wall was used over the cenwries.

36

TI1e ;trategic weakne s f the reat 'Vall stood in marked contrast t i upcrb op rational strength. At a 1 attlefield level Its formidable tower', rapidly traversable walkways and solid gates were virtually impregnable lo a pred minantly cavalry-ba d enemy. But Lhe str 19t1l of the Great Wall as a defensive 'ystem depended up n much more than mereLy bricks and mortar, no matt r how impressive th ir combination rna hav looke l. Without lhe men to rd it the Great Wall was use I ,bu we must not theref re imagine that its walk....ra were constJllUy throng d by oldlers gazing northwards in the hope of spotting a fongo1 raid- L than third of a ~ard' tim would ha\'e been spent on military duties. Most f h' day would have been nt workin in the ficltli nearb ; because one crucial aim of the Great \ all y tem was that its oarrisons hould be self-sufficient in food. The border ttlers cani d out farming, and high r-rankin soldi w r allowed to have their famili with them. Tevertheless, th d I depressions worn into the flights of steps that lead from the fields to the Grear Wall's battlements show thal considerable activity went on along the Wall. Much time would be spent bringing in supplies, cleaning and repairing weapons and tower maintenance. When defence was requir d bows, particularly eros ws, and later urn r used. Spears, halb rds and 5\ ords were the main edged weapons with which to repel a raiding party, while stones could be dro ped fro the pertures alan the parapet_ The zlwll qiallg (transverse walls) proVided a useful series of d nsi e barri if an enemy gain d access to the walk-way. and even if some towers might be I st, the strongest tow rs \vith lheir retra abl rope ladders w ult! provide a formidable barrier until reinf r' ments arrived. An laborate variation on the rope ladder, although one apparently used onLy in the detached tow r , was a wooden platform on which on man could stand, fastened by t 0 long ropes to two winches which would be wound up to take him to safe . :Min.g dynasty 'ree mmended equipment lis for a five-man crew in an individual watchtm,-er rna not ha e differ much other than in cal for the garrison 0 a wer on the Great \ all. It lis ~ a bedstead, a fir pi \\ith a cauldron, n water jar, five cup and five saucers, rice It d vegetables, thr 'big guns', and linall wolf dung and a brazier for signalling, a ital duty to whJch we will now turn.

Signalling and intelligence gathering n of the 010 vital fuDctlOns of the towe n the Great Wall wa i nailing an importan e und rline<J by the {act that, h n er the idea of a I n , n lJ into abe nce indi\;dual beacon to\ 'eIS continu to be built and used. me of dl most abundant and alnable data for militaf} life OD the reat Wall may a rained from the numer u references LO signallin o stations. Durin • the Han dynasty.' h n towers ollSisL of rammed rth, signals were ntaining dry n t made from a brazier on top of a tower but by using a bask , 0 d nd grass. The ba kel was fasten cI to the end of a pivot d weep up to about 1001 long. A the sweep was mounted on top of a Wwer that m. y have been over 1Sol high the bea on could be swung high into the sky when raiders were spotted. At night it would be the flames gi en ff that were recognil. d. By clay adding wolf dung to the combustible mixtur pr duced thick black Sol k . ntemporary dOl; ments describe the si nailing towers as urrounded b, their ""n defensive barri r , and including Ii ing quarters for the crews and stabtin for their hars . Th Size of the crew d pcnded upon tb i portance f th site. Those imme 'at I, djaceot to the Han Great ""all w uld have been well d fended. Addltional duties included operating a courier} m which had t r place signah In the case of fog). a ricultural work and k pin r OIds of ob I\ ti n and actions taken. Und r the Ban there were tw '{>Cs of si n Is r uired: a regular 'all dear' and a ri of '..'aIning me a o . Should the regular signal fail to appear, the crew of th n t tower in the chain would !nve tigate the matter. J th tower came und r tta ., two signals meant that the nemy numbered 2 men, three signals m ant a raiding party of up to 100 men. It has been timated that 10, 0 m n would hay be n needed to man the extensive network of Han beacons, walch towers and 51:: ·tions of wall, I tal ne their reserves and upport personnel. Under the early Mlng an even more elaborate system of si nal towers was cre. t . Liaodong, for example, had no Ie than 2.71 towers in all. A text by n I i jiguang mentions the use of wol dung for smoke signal, but notes that it w difficult to obta.in in the south, and a the account goes on to m ntion a bl k fla... and a \ hit fla cannon and, m lanterns we rna, prcsum th t Lh e items p ~;ded n alternative way of ignaJlinn. ne other vital fun ion carried out from th security of the reat Wall an towers was the thenng of I. intelli nee. This could tal. the form of mounted patrols or "., th more hazardous m th of sp}'ing deep within the I n r I territories. In 1449 om agents en pen lratcd the M n '01 camps and carried out a assinations. In 1450 a group ent r d a Mongol camp and started fire in various locations '- ....... ju t t Jet the Mongols know that the horder W
One of the most valuable functions of the towers on the Great Wall was signalling. Fire would be used by night. Black smoke. produced by adding wolf dung to the combustible mixture. was u.sed during daylight. This lIIunra on is in the Great Wall Museum at Huangyaguan.

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.

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Artillery on the Great Wall ari us fonns of cann n were mounted on th Ming Great '" all. The longol, it was said, were afraid of 'maoical guns' a mewhat optimisti tat ment in "jew of the Yuan dynasty' en u iastic adoption reanns. The Yuan , 'ere in fact the fust rulers in the history th \ odd to make usc of mctaJ.. ba lied cannon. which appeared in Chinese I es decades bt'for similar weapons were in employed in urope. Ibesc pri ith e Chinese cannon were dearly lu~ as defensive i n , because a :vt..ing edict of 1412 rdeled the stati ning of batten . f five cannon at ea h the frontier pa s as a fonn of garn on artillery. orne desi ns a Chine e CanJl0n saw very long rvice. For example the' ruching tiger cannon', which dates from 1368, was still being used against

37

DefendU18 a wall using crossbows and spears. This is nor a=1ly the Han dynast)' Great: Wall but the defeat: of the ·cerracotta.' army of the Qin emperor by Xiang Yu in 207 Be. Nevertheless, we see similar weapons being used from behind similar rammed-earth walls.

The curious zhang qiang (transverse walls) are unique to the GreatWall at Jinshanllng. They extend halfway across the walkway and provided defences against a sudden occupation of a section of e wall by a raiding party.

38

lh Japan in Korea in 1592. It was tted with a curious loose metal coUar with two legs that it needed no external camage for laying. Another was the 'great general cannon', of which several iz.cs existed, and an account of 1606 notes a range of 8 0 paces. The nthusiastic d~cription continues: A single hot has the power of thunderbolt, causing everal hundr d casualtie among men and horses. If thousands, or tens of thousands, w re placed in position alon the frontiers, and eery one of them manned b oldiers well trained to use them, en [we hould be] invindble.

A partially ruined seaion of the Great Wall lying beyond the much-visited Badaling section. (PIIotograph by Ian CJar\c;)

From the early 16th century onwards a different type of cann entered the Chinese arsenal, and this one came from Europe. It was known as th lana z1li, which means 'Frankish gun', 'the Franks' being a general term for an inhabitants of the lands to the w . Instead of being rammed do"m from the mU22.1 , ball, powder and wad wer introduced into the r ecb inside a sturdy container shaped like a large tankard with a handle. A In tal r wooden wedge w driven in behind it to make as tight a fit against lhe barr 1 opening as could reasonably be expected, and the gun was fired. The main disadvantage was 1 aJ
r

A cannon emplacement on the Great Wall at Mutianyu with a reproduction iron cannon. Real cannon would not have been cemented into their carriages!

39

The in attributed their success in holdina the anchus at bay lit ide the Great WaU to their uperiority in fir arms of aJl sort·. In 1621 'th noon were br u hr to the fr ntier of the empire, at the rders with th artars anchus) \ ho ha ing c me wilh troops close to th Great \,vaJl \ 'ere o terrified b the dama e they did when they were fired that they l k to flight and no longer dar d to come near again'. This wa omething f an exaggeration, but :Jurhachi, the fOUl1der of the Qing dynasty, made great efforts to obtain guns of his own, and by 1640 it was report~d thal his successors had forged 60 cannon 'too heavy to carry round'. Otl er rebels again t the :vting had firearms too, inducting Li Zicheng, who e entually overthrew the dyna

40

Looking down Into the enclosed courtyard of the First Pass Under Heaven at Shanha.guan we see the narrow tunnel that was so well guarded.

The Great Wall from end to end As th pr \'iou pages ...'ill have made cI r, a hi oneal survey of lhe Great Wall of :hina r v J that here are severaJ 'great w 11 '. not just one. An . attempt

to 'join up' ~truetures that were built centuries apart, and to project on to them some con cious d . ioo by their design to build, or even add to, a notional Great .. all that had last d for 1, years, is totall. 0 lUi interpret the situati n. This is a particularly important point to consider wh n d cribin th geography of tile Great Wall, b u ach section has to b id ntifi not nl in enn of its location hut al a 'cording to when it ,\'as built. n, de cripaon Lhat follow can nly be a brief summary th main eature along the immense Great Wall. comprehensive Ust would r quire several entire books, and the photograph in 'hwarz's TtlC Great v.falJ nf 'lrina (see pag 63) will give the reader a good idea of the size of the task. This short gazell r will look at the Great Wall from east to wcst, the conventional way of doing so. As the Ming Great Wall is the most prominent survivor of hina's border defences, it is sensible to u· it a ramework by referring t the 11 mllltar garn oos or commands al ng th Great '·'Iall. Nine were r at d at the tim of the ~(ing dynasty' foundari n, and two other.> were added ~ hen the capital was rno ed [rom anjing to B ijin '. The border defences buHt t ther time wilJ be noted where they occur al ng the route. Th u n of wall building under th fing reflected the sWitin locati ns of th curr ot :\fong01 threat, wblcb was in tum ff ed by the pressure placed on them b \ II onstruction. u Zijun's u lOrd wall of the H70s naturally dir the nomads' attacks easm rds, and b the aTI. 1 the areas un er m tlhrcat we the Dat n an 'uanIu ommands, where no \ aIls h d then been lIL As the fortified baITi rew, the Monaols moved r und t the north-e t and easl of the capital where most of the building of the lat ~fin dynasty t k place. ther lines f de n were maintained in Uaod n t the a t and ansu in the west. There w r al inner and outer wall. spurt; and deta h I '01lS in a bewilderin pa n of construction and reconstruction.

The Xi:fengkou Pass. from an

old photograph CIken before this set: .on of the Great Wall was submerged under the waters of the Panflakou Reservoir. In 1933 the Chinese army he.ld the invading Japanese at bay at thIS spa

41

The first problem is where to be2in...o\1though the Great Wall bas its 'offidal' eastern teIminus at the Id Dragon's Head near hanhaiguan an extension was built further east through Liaoning province to the Yalu River (now the border with lorth Korea) at Dandong. This section came under the jurisdiction of the Liaodong Command based at Liaoyang. Ancient walls are believed to have been constructed here before the Ming dynasty. The Ming wall consists of a variety of styles includlng rammed-earth and dry-stone sections with many separate watchtowers. There is also an important rIver crossing at Jlumenkou, where the Great Wall becomes a bridge. The next section along - the jizhou Command (later subdivided into Jizhou, Chang and Zhenbao) - which runs from the shore of the Rohai Sea to juyongguan, indud some of the best-known portions of the Great Wall It also contains its offici I beginning, which is to be found at Laolongtou (the Old ragon's Head). This recen J rebuilt tower the original was destroyed during th Boxer ehellion project into the sea, making the peIfeer eastern terminus for Great Wall of hina. Its name is derived from the image of the dragon that i the Great all bending to drink from the sea. hart distance inland i the town of Shaohaiguan, which I built across the pass f the same name. The Northern Qi first fortified this very Important area and the Ming walls were begun in 1382 under Xu Da. The Great Wall at hanhaiguan is an impce stve fortress complex built round the famous First Pass Under Heaven, a huge gatehouse complex protected by a courtyard. The Great Wall then begin it dramatic ascent of th Yanshan Mountains, reaching a h Ight of S19m above sea level. Trave.lling west we encounter the Xifengkou ection, where the defences were built by Xu Da, but the Luan River has now b en dammed to form the Panjiakou Reservoir, SO the Great aU disappears

The Great Wall at Shanhaiguan from the Old Dragon's Head to the Yanshan Mountains c.1 580. This plate shows the Great Wall from the place where it touches the waves of the Bohai Sea to its first ascent of high ground. Laolongtou (the Old Dragon's Head) projects inco the sea and a signalling tower sits on top of it. The barracks for the guards lie just inland behind the Cal m Sea Tower. The Great Wall runs along the coast for

I..aolongtou (the Old Dragon's Head) proje= inco the sea. This recently rebujl£ tower (the original was destroyed during the Boxer Rebellion) derives its name from the image of the dragon that is the Great Wall bending to drink from the sea.

a short distance then heads inland to cross the river, where a fort defends it.. It then reaches the town of Shanhaiguan, which is an impressive fOfuess complex built round the famous First Pass Under Heaven, a huge gatehouse complex protected by a courtyard.Two outer walled sections protect the town to the east and west. After another castle the Great Wall then begins its dramatic ascent of the Yanshan Mountains.

43

lot it to ~m rg on th far side. There is an iot

LeaVing Shanhaiguan, the Grear Wall begins a dramatic ascent of the Yanshan Mountains at Jiaoshan. reaching a heighr of 519m above sea level.

slin o

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section not far away at I.uow nyu. Til next major pass is the 'yellow cliff' of Huangyaguan. This fine locallon takes its name from the near vertical cliff on the eastern side of th pass thr ugh which Lhe Ju River tlows. Qi Jiguang \0\ once in command h r , and hi tatue stands neA1 to a lion of the Ming wall that dal from IS6 . Huangyaguan shoVl many interestin atures of wall constroction, including s veral spur and an isolated watchtower called the Ph enix Tower that Ii s beyond the wall. There are als certain pia es wher ther~ is no wall at aU, be ause to build anrthing "'ould have helped an enemy. Instead the natural cUf Ie integtated into the defence layout. Ttl next major roule through the Greal Wall' the strategic Gubeikou Va s, through wh.i 11 passes the road to the ing emp rors' summer palace at hengde. ubeik tl is rea hed fits nn stretches: along the Great Wall by lraversing tv.; Simatai and jinshanllng. Simatai is n ted for it dramatic narrow ridg where th Great \ II ascends at 7 degrees. me tow are al."O very narrow because of the reduced spa e on whi h to build them, thal til whol section is someLhing of a tOUT de (i. e. Adj ining Simatai, and physi all connected to it by a footbridg aero' the modern reserv ir, is til stunnLngly undulating Jinsllanling section, built after 1570 hy Qi Jiguang. Towers of various size and shap foUm..• it switchbi:l 'k course. Some of them are amon Lh finest e.xamples of the towers designe by the famous encraJ. n several sections of til battlem nts ar three se of loopholes for firing fr m standlO , kneeling and prone [ itions. Here also we find the ZIWl1X qiang (transver walls) that extend half\.I1a TOSS U, wa.lk"vay. M ving fmther round to L1le north of Tleijing w encount r Mulianyu. This is on fthe rno t heavily restored ections ( f the Great Wall, but the w rk has be n don exceptionally well. Its 22 watchtower hav been built at regular intervals and ar)' trom being complex structures to simple beacons. Amon these, the rno 1 famous is virtual castle made up (rom inteT onnect watchtowers. wa from the r tored sections the walJ makes several dramalic twi ts and tums. Unllke Hucmgyaguan, where cliffs wen~ allowed to be part of the defences, the emphasis here is on proViding 'Ill unintenupted line of communica i n. Thi 11
A ~trong tower on the GreatWaJl at Mutianyu.This example has an upper storey with cwo levels of loopholes and merlons. There is a pitched roof and prominent drainage spoun.

Jt is one of the Idest relics of the reat Wall. A preserved section of the Qin Great Wall, constructed out of dry stonework, is lo be found south of 11 hhot. The real Wall built under th Jurchen Jin dynasty dates to the 12th or 13th centm . The Jurchen people had a different way of buiJding their b rder defen es, 'I he began by digging a ditch and using the earth excavated fr mit to build an earthwork parapet. Pin xm guan, anmenguan and 'in ·wuguan were vHal passes along the Inner r at all that fell under the jurisdi 'on of the Taiyuan ommand. Long r he ~ling Great Wall \ cas built G neral Yang Ye of the on dynasty won an important victory in the Yanmenguan a ain the KHan. In 1644- the rebel lead r I i Zi heng won a victory at . 'in \'uouan. Th Inner and uter Great Wal15 rejoin lust before the pass of Pian n, and the YeUow River, which form the rd I between hanxi provin in the ast and haan.xi to the wcst, is soon cr , Here Yu ulin built his suc ful wall in loIN to di ide the Ordos plateau from the fertile loess land to the south nd ea t within Ih broad loop of the Yell \'II Ri er. In time thls trrew to be a doubl defcn 'e line under the Yansui Command l>a u at Yulin, where ther is also a prominent eparate beacon lower called th Zhenbei (Pacify the orlh TC)\o',cr, th bi 'ge along the Great Wall. Vulln wa. of great importance t lhe Ming.

Mount Badaling, the most popular tou -sr site on the GreatWall OOiIY and the one invariably chosen by vi~- 'ng pornitians for theIr photOcall. lies just to the nonh of

Juyongguan. Building took place there in 1539 and 1582. (Photograph by Ian Clark)

45

Jiayuguan, the great castle at the western end of the Ming Great WaJl, c. 1644 Dating from 13 n, Jiayuguan is perfectly integrated into the Great Wall system. This reconstruction shows it from the south. \

Two spurs from the Great Wall come Out to form the outer wall of the castle.The Great Wall then continues on its way from the south· western comer.The main castle is trapezoidal In shape and has two gates.The eastern gate is called the Guanghuamen (Bright Gate) while the western one is the Royuanmen (Gate for Conciliation with Remote Peoples). Both gates are entered through identically shaped narrow arched passages through courtyards with a 90·degree tum. On top of the actual gatehouses are some very imposing three-storey towers while a similar struCtlJre lies just in front of the eastern gate at ground level.The western gate has an ;additional line of defence i the shape o the outer wall. which is here anomer narrow passage with a gate tower above it.To the east is a temple and even a theatre for the troops guarding the GreatWall.The commander·s headquarters lie within the main c6urryard.

47

The zhong qiung (transverse walls) ar Jinshanling provided a usefu I series of defensive barrier's if an enemy gained access co me walkway.

llELO'IV LEfT

mow RIGHT A view of the Simatai section of me Great Wall. from me point where it joins me jinshanl1ng section and soars up from the reservoir. The line of the Wall rhat extends from rhis polnr comains some oI the most dramatic featUres along the sc:rucmre's entire length.

48

B} 1403 It had bee me a fortifie citadel and part of the Great 'all ervcd al 0 as one of the Yulln dty wall . The Kingxia and Gllyu
The living site

Life and death on the Great Wall During happy times when individual echons of the Great Wall were intact, maintained and unlhreatened, the long barriers that channelled traveUers in certain directions proved highly condudve towards trade, and [rom the time of he llan dyn ·'s westwards . ansion e gates in the Great all provided a I s of security for merchants and trad rs alike. But that w s when the in ividual wall were finIshed, and no ·me, as more expensi e in human li\'es than the years wh n the barrie.rs \ ere being built.' ne man died for every ard of the Great Wall' intones a p pular work on the subject, whi h, although a hyp rbole sums ul the enormou· manpower r urces that I1lU't have beeT1 required to bulll it and the sacrlJi in lives that It entailed. Til harsh reality of Great Wall onstruction, whether wlder the Qin, Han, ortl1ern Qi, Slli or Ming dynas'li s, as experlenc d by thousand of peasants who c livelihoods were directly lhr atened by the nomads. These luckless people were 'generously' exempted from taxes in return for ears of backbreakin toil from which many died. in addition to anyin st nand bricks or ra min dOl n earth, there W 'Ie quarrying duti . timber cuttin', trench digging, all arried out r gardless of th burning SWl r fr ling cold and with the ever pr ent risk of a attack by the nomads whom the barrier was meant to exclude. Kor was it only humans that suffer dj quarrying and the stripping of forests and hu hes degraded the whole n ironment near the Wall. The Qin Emperor's massi e ci i1 engineering project left m re than just folk memories of i appearance. Ther was also a Ii eI folk tradition of the fate that befell many of th '300,000' men that Meng Tian is supposed t have taR n with him. In fa the unfortunat general wa indirectly one of the Wall's victim, because h c mrn.itted suicid. when Qil1 Shihuangdi died. His ate was actually ordered by the emperor's suce or, who wanted a potential rival out of th way, but a colourful explanation tells us thal he \ as full or reroors because in building the real all he must have 'cut throu b the veins of earth', and death was his pUnishment. for hIs constru 'on force, folk son s and tal about the building of the wall were current during the suc eding Han dynasty. One vi id e ·ample contain the words: t

If a son is born, mind you don't raise him! If a girl is born, f ed her dried meal n't you jusl see beside the Long Wall? o ad men's skeleton prop each other up.

A fibreglass Chinese soldier mountS guard upon the Great Wall near the Old Dragon's Head.

49

The Calm Sea Tower overlooks the Old Dragon's Head where the Great Wall ente,'s the sea.The original was destroyed during the Boxer" Rebellion in 1900.

Labourers build the Great Wall, carrying huge beams of timber and helping an ox cart full of stone on its way. From a bas-relief in the Great Wall Museum, Shanhaiguan.

so

From poems such as these has grown the legend that the bodies of the dead workers were interred within the structure so that their bones would provide extra reinforcement. This has been disproved, but actual grave pits beside the Wall teJl their own story, and it is a tale that persists in the popular legend of Meng Jiangnll. The story tells of a woman whose husband has been sent to a ,vall construction site in the far north. She is worried about how he will fare during the winter, so she sets out on a long journey to take him some warm clothes. \Vhen she arrives she discovers that her husband is already dead, and breaks down in tears. Her grief mysteriously causes the Great Wall to split open. The crack reveals her husband's bones, so she takes them back to his native Village for a proper burial. Other legends spoke of a race of 'hairy men' whose ancestors had escaped conscription by Qin Shihllangdi and whose skin had turned white from living in the densely forested mountains for so many years. These 'hairy men' would ask strangers if the Great vVall was finished and whether the Qin Emperor was stlll alive. Unfavourable answers to either question caused them to flee.

Guarding the Great Wall The lack of winter clothing suffered by MengJiangnu's husband could also affect the crews manning the to\NerS, whose daily lives were frequently miserable. In 1542 a note laments the plight of southerners sent north to man the northern frontier, 'where often eight out of the ten men crewing a tower died. This is almost certainly an exaggeration, but a high mortality rate among men who faced little military action must be attributed to a lack of food and clothing. In 1447 an order stated that fur coats should be supplied to the soldiers for the forthcoming winter. In 1465 paddet1 coats, trousers and boots were issued to 4,400 men. As for food supplies, in spite of the theoretical model of self-sufficiency through local settlements, food supply to the guards sometimes failed, even though the salaries of the crews were calculated in grain. Some crews received double pay as an incentive because of the particularly

dan erous nature of their postings. 10 1453 m n, observation crews deserted their posts use of a lack of food. hen raidin was Iil.:el)· I:he crews were nwilllng to lea'e heir pas t bunt for fil"C\ or draw water, and n bribed the. lonool to leave them alone. In a etas! ic application of bur aucratic reasonin , a subsequent truce with the Mongols in one area led the crews' commanding officer to cut th if salaries because bribes would no longer be neededJ Th accounts of dally life on the Wall and in the towers usually imply Lhat the crews were drawn from the regular army. But on at least tw occasions convicts were used. In 147 in haanxi province, where tbe population \ as hinly scattered, it \ as recommend d to use com,icts to man th towers and ensure communicatiOll5. In 1onvicts were t be drafted 'wall work', bu maybe this m ns only as construction work IS. It i not therefore surprising to bear crew under threat of attack ither abandoning th ir pos or fraternizln with the enem . The former behaviour will be discussed in a later section but the latter, which would be a s rl us matter duri.ng wartime, was nonnally enc uraged during p acetime, becau e if trade with the Moog Is was allowed there was u uaUy peaceful tTaffi around the Gr at all. The nomads were often on friendl terms with the tower CT \\S and souoht to tra e goods \ ith them. Th' was to everyone' benefit proVided it did nOl a too far and dJd not lead to the suspidon that the nomads were a berin intelligen e for future raids. In 1453 orne Mongol c me to the Grea all asking for mullon and wine and then beha ed u pidously b taking a do e look at the observation towers. In 1552 an offidal noted tl1at Mongols comin 1 to the newly permitted horse fairs had lom down can iderable sections of the Great Wall and destroyed many bscrvation tow r . The figure glv n was 'five to six tenths of the Great WaU' - an und ubted exaggeration, but one that cau d real concern. n other occasion tl1 crews were accused of lazines, timidity and ne ligence. Tribute missions from outside hina sometimes chos to ignore official crossing points and pa sed through unauthorized sections of the Great all as they chose, but the tower crews on gu rd hardly gave them second Ian e or even dared to question th if purpose.. Mongol espionage and op rtunism were hardI. necessary wben sll a ions like that pre ailed. In 1 ~ 0, just as .-\.Itan Kh n was about to a ck China, the military commander atong wrote: ur beacon crews and spies often go into longol territory to trade with th In, and have mad friends. The four ieftains ... ha, e incorporated ation towers f ur great border int their camp . Th Mongols replac OUI beacon crew as lookouts while ur oldiers replace th ir troops as herders, with the result that no strategic information on our defences can scape the Mongols.

A long line of worlcmen carry

swne up to the Great Wall, which IS under scaffolding. From a bas-relief in the Great

Wall Museum, Shanhaigu3n,

51

Operational history From boredom to battles

The entrance 00 a toWer on the GreatWaiI atJinshanling, located next co a portal giving access on to the walkway, which is here made very narrow to accommodate the staircase.

IlELOW lEFT

BaOW RIGHT

Ju River

t

The bridge over me

Huangyaguan, which

carries lhe Gre:at:WaIl across the pass from the cliff face.

52

Peacetime life may have been uncomfortable enough, but when trade was suspende and the nomads embraced raiding once again the temions along the fron .er rose a cordingly. There were a number of military skirrn.ishes along the Ming Great all, although some of the most physically destructive 'a acks' it experienced came from the peopl it was meant to defend. In 1576 an offidal in Liaodong complained that th 'Lu ' (i.e. the Manchus) and the 'frontier people' I.e. the Chinese settlers) had been systemati ally breaking down border defences to teal building materials. Their target included the Great Wall and also the signal towers, traditionally regarded as th 'eyes and ears' of the defence system, but often so pood constructed that the crews n longer felt safe in them, and at the approach of an nemy they dared not raise the alarm. So numerorn arc the reques 0 repair individual towers and sections of e Wall that one is forced to conclude that there was either some shoddy workmanship and poor ma.intenance about, or frequent vandalism. in ] 548 it was even suggested that old watchtowers should be torn down and the crews transferred to 'fighting towers' on the Great Wall; but for every report like this there 1s a contradictory report that praises the system. Another scandal concerned the treatment of Mongols who wished to come over to the Chinese. In 1563 a report on corruption and treasonable behaviollT among border troops m ntioned that they had wanton! killed [ongols who had come to surrender, hoping thereby to r eive $Om award for bra ryin battle on the basis of a made-up sto . Battle honours were dearly difficult to

(PlE'<"lCll.A ""'GIl Mongol raide.rs attack the pass of Juyongguan c.IS50 Juyoogguan was the most important pass leading to Beijing in the Inner Great Wall. From the time of the Tumu Incident in 1449 it was heavily fortified under the Ming dynasty. Uke other passes. Juyongguan was defended by a cou~rd re'quiring a 9Q.degree wm. but the outer

courtyard of Juyongguan was a semicircle tN.t surrounded the splendid gate toWer ~t was directJy connected to the Great Wall. In this plate some light Mongol raiders have arrived. They are the scouts for Altan Khan's advancing army. The Ming have cleverly allowed them into the courtyard and they are now being subjected to merciless arrow fire from the panpet above..

acquire. but any structure that was intended to guard a long, lonely and often nebulous frontier zone .....ould inevitably experience an operational history that consisted of long periods of boredom interspersed by the sudden and sporadic arrival of danger. In this the Great Wall and the i501ated tm...ers that complemented it as a defensi'-e s}"Stem suffered very similar experiences, because most actual fighting that oct:UJ'11!d .....as on a very smail scale. For example, sometime around 1500 the O'e\\' of one particularly flimsy tower prm-ol.::ed some Mongols, .....ho tool.:: their l'C\ mge by tearing OUt a number of bricks and lighting a fire on the windward side so that the crew were suffocated. After an armed clash in 1553 one Chinese soldier fled towards a nearby observation tower and had to be pulled up to SJfety by a rope. In 1555 20 ~~ongols approached a tower and tried to climb it using grappling hooks, but lust as one Mongol rakler reached the top the snorting of their horses woke the tower guards.. They bombarded the intruder ....i th atTO\\"S and rocks.so that he fell to h~ death and the othen WIthdrew. On two occasions in 1539 the cre¥.s of separate to",""t'fS were forced to fire 'resounding salvoes' to alert the army to come to their rescue. After another Mongol raid in 1553 the unfortunate crewmt"n involved felt 'Isoltrte(\ and helpless'. They lacked equipment and felt that Ihey were being made to 'tackle dragons with their bare hands". In contrast we have records of valour from 1547 when the sons of border soldiers who had died in battle w(':re promoted in rank. The tactical strength of the Mlng Great Wall has alread)' bee:n aUuded to, and this acrounLS for the paudty of recordS of any actual major fighting across its formidable rampam~. There is therefore an absence of operational history in Ihili "ein, which spcalo::s of its success at a tactical 1C\'e.I; but iLS overall strategic weakness is best illustrated by the major campaign of Altan Khan in 1550. His move against Beijing was enacted while the ~h1g were still embroiled in controveny about the correct policy to adopt towards the ~'Iongols. In June 1548 Altan Khan's anny had defeated a Chinese force, and on retiring successfully hom yet another advance in 1549 the Mongols bad shot an anow into the Chinese C'ilmp stating that if trade was not allowed they ,..·ould attack Beiling that autumtl. But when the attack came the line of the Great Wall held, and no Mongol att,l('k could penetrate it. Unfortunately, to reach the C
acrimonious debate rumbled on about whether to 'compromise' by granting trading rights to the Mongols or to take a further hard line. The political arguments resulted in the completion of the Great Wall system under the inspiring leadership of men like Qi jiguang, but it \·\,as then almost too late. In 1616 tile :Y(anchu leader Nurhachi openly attacked the Ming and captured part of Liaodong. FollO\'\Iing mhachi's death in battle in 1626 his son Abahai led expeditions against the Ming and broke through passes in the Great Wall on several occasions between 1629 and 1638 to threaten Beijing. In April 1644 the rebel leader Li Zicheng breached the defences of Beijing and ovelthrew the Ming dynasty. The last lvfing emperor hanged himself. Li Zicheng then marched east to confront Wu Sangui, the commander of Shanhaiguan, who represented his most immediate threat. Just outside the Great Wall were the lvlanchu armies. Wu ,vas placed in a dilemma, which he solved by allying himself with the Manchus. The First Pass Under Heaven was opened to them, and they obligingly defeated Li Zicheng in battle. But that was the end of their services to the remnant of Ming power, and they rode on to occupy Beijing and proclaim tl1e Qing dynasty.

The Great Wall in modern warfare Strangely enough, 'we have to wait until the 20th century to read of the next militalY operations involving the Great \·'Vall. In 1900 foreign forces quelling the Boxer Rebellion destroyed part of the Old Dragon's Head where the Great \Nall meets the sea. Shanhalguan saw some fighting during the internal upheavals of the 1920s, while the second Sino-japanese War of 1937-45 and the bloody struggles that preceded it from 1933 onwards saw the Great \'\'a11 playing the role for which it had originally been designed: as a physical barrier to battlefield-level warfare. Following the establishment of the puppet state of Manchukuo (the name the japanese gave to their possession of Manchuria) the japanese planned to invade China itself, but across the mo~t direct route to Beijing lay the curious phy~ical barrier of the Great \Nall of China. The Japanese attack concentrated on Shanhaiguan, which controlled a few kilometres of flat land between the mountains and the ~ea. \Nithin the town was the gateway known as the First Pass Under Heaven. On 1 January 1933 a fierce attack by ea, land and air began. A Chinese army under He Zhuguo defended their historiC position for three days before being defeated. Following this success, units of the japanese army attacked other passes of the Great \'Vall in February and March 1933, but there the defences held, and the japanese defeat at Xifengkoll was regarded as a national humiliation. Equally strong resistance was mounted at Gubeikou, and the only way the japanese were able to overcome the Chinese defence was by advancing from Shanhaiguan.

When the Chinese resisted the Japanese invaders in 1933 they used the ramparts of the Great Wall as a means of moving infantrymen rapidly from one sector to another, JUSt as the Ming builders had planned. This photograph is of the battle at Xifengkou in 1933, where the Japanese advance was successfully stalled.

55

A Manchu a.ttack on the Jinshanlmg section o(the GreatWall c.1630

56

When the Chines hit back they used the ramparts of the r at aI.I as a means of mo ing infantrymen rapidly from one sector Lo anoth r, just as the Ming builders had planned. Much fighting took place acros the reat Wall at the major passes. In September 1937 th Chinese gained their first victory ov r the Japanese at Pingxingguan. The following month Japanese forces were ambushed as they mad uSe ofthe pass at Yanmenguan, which was occupied by a hinese force which th disrupted lhe Japanes communicatIon. Fighting al' took place at ian ;rjguan. hanhaiguan re-entc the tory in 1945 after Japan had formally surrendered, wh n he remaining Japanese troops who were entrenched there refused to lay d wn their arms. On 30 ugust, supported by shellfue from the Soviet Union's Red nn', e Chinese under Zeng Kelin Irilled 3,000 Japanese soldi in less than thr hours, and the Chinese ag was hied a ve the Fust Pass ndee Heaven for the fi time in 12 years. But this was not the last that hanhaiguan was to see of conflict, and three y ars later the red flag of the Chinese Communists was to be flown from the Great \ U when their arm entered Shanhalguan in triumph. 'I he events in olving the GreaL Wall, whi h had played the defen ive role all tted to it in a manner of which the Millg dynasty would ha e been proud, is remembered today in The March of the Volunteers, the narty. The original version \ovas reintroduced in 1982. These de elopments, f course, Lake us m a consideration of the reat" aI.I as a miJita institution to its rote as a national s rmbol, a vital topic to which we \-\':ill now turn.

A Manchu attack on the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall c.1630 In this plate Manchu troops under the leadership of Nurhachi's son Abahai have forced their way on to the wall by using scaling ladders. in spite of the rocks, bullets

At Shanhaiguan there is also this very large comer tower. which forms an angle with the town walls. The original was built in 1587 and destroyed by Japanese artillery fire In 1933.

and arrows poured down on to them. They have secured a length of the wall, but the Ming guards are mounting a fierce counterattack using the curious zhang qiang (transverse walls) unique to the Great Wall that extend halfway across the walkway.

57

Aftermath: the Great Wall as a symbol The Great Wall's symbolic role has been every bil as important in history as its

military role. and there is insufficient space: here to do justice to the topic. 'T1le Great Wall's popular image is it ver), powerful ant'. It Is also it highly marketable cOmmodity. TIle symbolic role at the Greal Wall begins ~nturic$ ago \'lith the folk memorit5 of the ancient Qin Great Wall and the hated emperor who built It. The folk lales about thE' death and suffering of liS labou~ ha\'\" already bet'n mentioned, and that awful memory was to result in the Wall of Qin being seen

as a symbol of despotism. cruelty and ultimate political failure. When the )'{ing began to build walli of their own they look gre<Jt care to distinguish their efforts from those of their cruel predecessors,. but the similarity of the approach and the huge costs in human and fmanc:ial terms was not lost on the succeeding Qing d)'nasty. Some of rbei.r scholan mocled the Ming for being no better than the ancient tyrant. 8y contrast the exemplary Tang dynasty had eschewed wall building in favoUI of a pos.ith'e forward policy - just like the Qin.g. of course! The knowledge thai there was some sort of physical barrier In the diStant country of China reached Europe quite early In its history and, with charming arroganCt', il was naturally conduded thai Europeans must have built it! The assumption was lI1a
58

legendary barrier that Alexander the Great ....·as supposed 10 have erected to confine Gog and Magog, who are first mentioned in Ihe Book of Ezcl.:iel (38, 1-6) in the Old ·Iestamem. 'l1le confining of Gog and Magog Ix'hind a barrier occurs in lhe Koran (Surah 18, 92-98) and Arab travellers .....ere said to have seen the actual wall v.'1th which the story was to be associated. From tbe 16th cenlury onwards quitt' detailed descriptions of the Ming Greal Wall are to be found in European writings. Maps.soon augmented writlen descriptions, and the Great Wall appears on the map of China produced by john Speed in 1626. A. mission led by LOrd Macartney in 1793-94 appeared to confirm the grandeur of the edifice. Later visitors echoed his praise, culminating in the famous claim that the Great Wall of China could Ix'seen from the Moon. This tedious pIece of nonsense apparently origh1
The Great Wall today

In 1778 the eminent lexicographer Dr Samuel Johnson urged his friend James Boswell to visit the Great Wall of China, because his children would then have a lustre reflected upon them from bing the offspring of a man who had gone to view that unique edifice. II is a sentiment shared today by thousands of pathetic elderly gentlemen like the present author who embarrass their children by wearing T-shirts that proclaim 'I walked the Great \lVall of China', even though the total length restored sufficiently to walk on is a mere 35 km out of the 4,500km that remain. The rest is wilderness, not counting another 2,200km that have disappeared without trace, and it is a brave man who attempts to explore beyond the restored sectioos. :--Jevertheless, a visit to the Great vVall is a uniquely exciting experience, and I cannot imagine anyone being disappointed. A guided toUT is probably the best option for most visitors. Most trips to China take in a visit to the Great Wall, usually Badaling or Mutianyu, but walking tours visiting several different sections are also available. An interesting alternative is to join one of William Lindesay's 'Wild Wall Tours', which feature camping by the Great Wall or stayi ng in other accommodation close by. In choosing a set tour the visitor should look very carefully at the itinerary prOVided. There will usually be one day in Beijing, which is weU worth doing, but any tour that takes in Shanhaiguan, Huangyaguan, Jinshanling or Sirnatai wiD give a good mixture of

A tower looms out of the mist on the Great Wall at Mutianyu.

S9

ABOVE The yellow diff of

Huangyaguan. $eeIl from the Great Wall across the valley as the evening sun sets. OPPOSITE PAGE The approximate

locations of the surviving sections of the walh bullt by differenc

Ch,nese dynasties thac go co make up the $CrUcwre known as the Great Wall of China. (© Copyright Osprey Publishing Ltd)

60

s les along the Ming Great alL] travelled on such a tow with the excellent Travelsphere, whose organization was superb and hose itinerary gave a great d al of wall for on's money. With every year that passes travel in China gets easier and the Great Wall b comes more acce sible, so any toun t advice in these pa es will be out of date almost before it is printed. I will therefore confine myself to a bri f survey of the most important sectiom of e Great an and suggest t the reader consults the latest editions of the Rough Guide or Lonel PIm1et volumes on China, r do an internet earch to find the latest in ormation on the a cessibility of the more remote sections. The Old Dragon's Head is very attractively situated on the coast. The barracks complex adj cent to it has been rebuilt and houses historical displays. Shanhaiguan combines dty waUs and e Great \i all in a fascinating ememble. The First Pass Under Hea en Is very impressive, and although i western side has been landscaped to within an inch of it life, it makes a dramatic contrast with the gloomy inner courtyard. There is a small museum within the gate tower, whit the re ently refurbished Great Wall Museum down the road is excellent and provides a fine introduction to he subject. The walk up to the Van han ountaiDs provides a super view of the wall making its wa to

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The view looking down from the Jlaoshan section of the Great Wall cowards che sea across che fields cowards Shanhaiguan.

ABOVE LEFT

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rainwater and a hole or dropping

rocks an! seen here ac Mutianyu. are the slope of che brickwtJrk

62

the sea. ome itinerari include a gimmicky boat trip across the Panjiakou Reservoir to see the ed s of the subm rg d Xifengkou Great vVaU. IIuangyaguan also mat.: an excellent visit. The wall oars up on ither siele of the pass and can be climbed \\lith moderate effort. The Img barracks have been re tared and now house museums and a botel: the pedect place t sta· the ni ht on the Greal \Vall itself. The Gubeikou, 'lmatai and Jinshanling secti ns are partl. restored and pro~ide the whole pcct:rum of reat Wall constTu 'on through their crumb!" s tions and broken lowe hat look Like cutawa sections. L ng bikes in either direeti n are pos ible. Mulianyu provid the finished producL AJI til restored bTi kwork is very neat! done, and the plain interior of the variou towers are very atmospheri . Mutlanyu also has ome of the m t attractive landscape Immediately around it. Badaling is the pia e most tourists visit if their holiday includes just one trip to tJ1C Great \Nall and, althOLIgl1 famously cr wdecl, a short walk takes one away from the hordes.]uyongguan is not far away, and may b combined with a visit to Badaling. The pa ses at Pin xin uan, Zijingguan and -iangzi uan contain preserved reatm of Great Wall onslruetion. anmenguan and ulin are also of great inter t, bUI are not of asy ace to the independenl tra eller. orne touTS incorporate Jiayuguan within a long ilk oad itinerary.

Bibliography

Thue is a great shortage of scholarly work on the Great Wall of China. Arthur Waldron's l'Ssential Tl/I' Grear Hilll o{Cllilltl: from History to M)'11l (cambridge: 1990) covers its hist0f)' very well, particularly on the political squabbles during the ),.fing dynasty, and I acknowlroge the uS{' I have made of it. HiS discussion all Ihe Great Wall as myth is detailed and valuable bUI lacking in fieldwork observation. Nevertheless, interested readers should consult his work for the political history of the Great Wall that J have not covered here. ~iuch information about life on the watchtowers, and by extension the Great Wall itself, is contained in an important article by Henry Senuys entitled 'Towers in the Northern Frontier Defenses of the Ming' in MillS Studies 14 (1982), pp. 9-77. Most of my references to local interaction between guards and 1\'lol1g01s comes from this work Good background to the hiStorical events may be found ill the relevant volumes of TIlt' Cambridge Hi.\tory orC/lbm. There are also references to the Great Willi in David A. Graff jl"ledit'Va/ C/lillrse Wur(arl!: 300-900 (London: 2002). Any book on the subiect by William Lindesay is worth reading, and his classic A/Qlle 011 t11~ Great Wall (London: 1989; paperback edition 1991) should be compulsory reading for anyone planning a visit, if only to realise how lucky we arc today. He has also written TIlt! (ireat Wtlll (Hong Kong; 1999) and ·11,e Grmt H'all: Cllina's Historical H'olllier ami Mankind's Most Formidable COflstnimOI/ Projecr (Hong Kong; Odyssey Guides, 2002). His small book TI'e Grear IVIIII in the 'Images of Asia' Series (Oxford: 2003) is an v.cellem onevolume gUide to the Wall's history and construction. For a remarkable \'isual tour of the Great Wall from end to end in high quality artistic black and white photogrdphs see Daniel Schwarz n,e Gmll Wil/l of C/lina (London: ZOOl). Th(' weird and wonderful world of Chinese siege weaponr)' is covered in my two volumes on Siege Weapons of the Far F.ast in the Osprey New Vanguard Series. Se\'eral books in English have been published by the Chinese Great Wall expert Luo Zhewen, including the large format SplI/lIlilIg '/Ie Ages: Cilbra's Imlllorttli Drusoll by luo Zhewen and others (Beijing: 1994). Luo Zhewen's Tile Greflt Wall: History (/nd Pic/lIrt's (Beijing: 1995) is effectively a shortened paperback edition. Recent years have also seen a growth in publication of Chinese books with multi-lingual text that chiefly consist' of artistic photographs of the Great \Vall. Some arc remarkably goOd with beautiful and atmospheric compositions. Particularly fine artistic photograpl1s by LI Shaobai appear in the beautifully designed Tilt' II/visible Grear W{III (Reijing; 2004). In China I also purchased twO popular tourist picture books both called Tile Grelll Wall, with excellent photographs. Each was excellent value for money and made a good souvenir. These are rt'adily available, and actually cost less from the postcard seUers on top of the Great Wall than they did in mr hotel!

63

Index Abahal 55. !iT A1l21l Khan 54-55 Mdllery 37-40,39

Beijing. Mongol arrack on (1550) 53,54-55 Boxer Rebellion (1899-1900) 55 brick kilns 24 crenellations 24 defences 36-40 drainage SPOllt:s and channels 14.25,62

Eseo /5 foundations 21. 23-24. 23

64

ganison life ]6-]7,50-51 garnson Lawns 28,29,29 gates and gatehouses 5,28-29,29.40, 46-47 Genghls Khan 12 GreatWal1 construction 19-25,22,49-50,50-51 cross section 22 functions 32-40,58 gaps 33,35 Han p
slopes at 9. 32 toWers 18, 30-3 I, 52 U'3nsver= walls 38.48 juyongguan 12. H, 53 l.llolongmu (Old Dragon's Head) 42-43,43,4·9-50,55.60 lop Nur 48 loowenyu 23 Mutianyu 15,24,25,39,44,45.59,62 Nlngwuguan 45 Ningxia 48 Plngxlngguan 45, 57, 62 5hanhalguan (First Pass Under' Heaven) drainage spouts 14 features 43 gate-mwer 5.29.40 miliClry operations 55. 57 nowa.days 60 toWers 21.29,57 Wall around 41,62 Slmal2; 2 " 25. 33. 44, 48. 62 Xifengkou 33. 'II, 43-«. 55. 55, 62 Xinpang 19 Yanmenguan 45,57,62 Yanshan Mountains 42,43--44.44.60-61 Yulin 45-48.62 Yumenguan (Jade Gate Pass) 48 Great Wall Museum. Shanhaiguan 24, 50-5 1,60 GuYanwu 35 Han dynasty 7. 10--1 I Han wall 13,37 holes see loopholes and holes Hoqgwu Empenw 14-15 intelligence gethering ]7

nomad raiders 4-7.6 ~e also Mongols Numachi 55 OuyangXiu7 pavementS 11,24-25 Polo, Marco 14 QI Jlguang 17, 18,26,37,39.44 Qin dynasty 9-10,45,49-50.58 Qin Shihuangdl (Qin Emperor) 9-10,

4

50,58

Qing dynasty 6. 17-19.40,55

Shiji 9-10 signalling 13.37,37 see also toWers: signalling Song dynasty 11-12. 45 spurs 26,33 steps 16,25,36 Su Song 10 Tang dynasty II toWel'S 25--28,32, 59 corner 57 CUt:lway 27 entrances 52 functions 36-37 Interiors 18, 30 larger 28, 31, 45 signalling 13. 14,25, 2B, 37 tr.l/lsverse walls (zhang qiang) 25.36, 38.48,56 Turnu Incident (1449) IS

kways 15-16. 24.25.36 ng tYpes brick.smne and mona,. 11.19,19, 21-24.21, 23. 62 dry stone 19.20.21 rammed earth 19-21.19-20 Warring States Period 9. 44-45 water gateS 28 weapons 36.38 Wei dynasty 6, 44 Wendl Emperor I I Wu 5angui 17, IB, 55 Wudi Emperor 7.10

w:l

japanese Invasion of China (1933-15) 55--57 Johnson. Samuel 59 Jurchen Jln dynasty 6, 11-12,45 Kal1gxi Emperor 18 Kilan Liao dynast:)' 6, II Kubla Khan 6 Li Zicheng 17,40.45.55 loess 20 loophol s and holes 15.25,62 Manchus 6, 17-19,40. 55. 56 Mao Zedong 57.58 materia '9-2'1 Meng Jlangnu 50 MengTlin 9-10,10,49 MII'lg dynasty 6.14-18.39-40 Mongols and arollery 37 and the Ming I ~18. 41,51, 52-55, 53 tactics 30--2 Yuan dynasty 6, 12-14. 37 mortar 23

Xiongnu people

~5.6, 7,10--11

XuDa 12.,14,'13 Yi Ka.izhan 13 Ying Zheng see Qin Shihuangdi Yongle Emperor IS Yu Xulln 45 Yu Zljul1 16 Yuan dynasty 6. 12-14. 37

zhang qiong see transverse W
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