Ancient China Essay, Research Paper

In the year 221 B.C.E., there was a great ruler over the

Ch’in kingdom in China, named Shih Huang Ti. Shih was

power hungry and wanted more land so he gathered his

army and captured the surrounding kingdoms. As the ruler of

so many kingdoms he became "the first emperor" of China.

Shih showed his tyranny when he burned all history books to

insure that his people and future generations would only

remember him and none of the earlier rulers. He had a strong

army but the fierce tribes north of China, the Mongols and

the Huns, were stronger. These nomadic tribes would come

into China and steal crops and animals and then destroy

everything left behind. Shih was very disturbed with these

invasions, so in the year 214 B.C.E. he freed prisoners and

gathered workers and herds of animals. He gave all this to

Meng T’ien, his loyal general. Meng and the men and animals

were sent north to fortify Shih’s kingdoms from invading

armies. Shih planned to make a great wall by extending and

enlarging preexisting walls made by previous rulers. This

"great" wall would serve as a barricade to keep out all tribes

that wanted to invade China. It also served to separate the

civilized acts of the farmers in China to the barbaric acts of

the nomadic tribes. What Shih did not know was that the

construction would cause many deaths and much suffering to

the builders of the wall. The wall which Meng and his men

created had watchtowers, forty feet tall, every two hundred

yards. The purpose of these towers was to alert the

defending soldiers of approaching, attacking tribes. The

soldiers at the towers signalled to each other by day using

smoke signals, waving flags, blowing horns, and ringing bells;

by night by lighting firework-like objects in the sky. The wall,

itself, was approximately fifteen hundred miles long, thirty

feet high and, at the base, twenty-five feet thick. It was made

of the core of earth and gravel. Actually, it was two walls

aligned with each other and then filled in with a stone base

pounded smooth. The wall traveled over mountains and

through valleys. It went from Liatun, on the coast near

Korea, westward to the northern end on the Yellow River,

southward to Lint’ao to close off the north west area of the

empire from the Huns. The great wall is sometimes

compared to a dragon with its head in the east and its tail in

the west and its winding body. The dragon in China is

considered a protective sacredness rather than a destructive

creature. The top of the wall is approximately thirteen feet

wide so six people riding horses could ride side by side

along the top. On the side of the wall there are reliefs, which

are two- dimensional figures on the wall. The Great Wall of

China took hundreds of years to be totally completed and

constantly maintained. As a barricade against invading

armies it was very successful at keeping out unwanted

people. Unfortunately, in the year 1215 AD, the Mongols

came down, under the rule of Genghis Khan, and destroyed

major parts of the wall. It took two years of constant

fighting, but the Mongols were successful at breaking

through the wall. Also, many years later, the Manchus,

another strong tribe, penetrated the wall and took over parts

of China. During the Ming Dynasty( 1368-1644 A.D.), the

Great Wall was repaired by General Xu Da and

watchtowers were added by General Qi Jiguang. Most of

what tourists see today was made by these two generals.

During World War II, the Great Wall was used for the

transportation of troops. The Great Wall is so huge that it is

the only man made creation which can be seen from the

moon. THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA Mrs. Ruchlin 7-K

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