The Great Wall of China The Great Wall of China is “the most awesome structure ever devised by man, one that “lies across the northern borders of China like some great sleeping dragon, stretching and sunning itself on the peaks and ridges of some of the most beautiful mountain scenery in the world…The Great Wall of China was more than 2,000 years in the building, and the only way man can look upon the sum total of handiwork is by viewing it from outer space (Waldron, pg 2).” The Great Wall of China is more than just a wall. It is a story. It is a story that spans across centuries and dynasties of late China. Many people believe that The Great Wall of China is just a single wall that wraps around China, but in fact, it is a series of
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Among those one million men over 300,000 died (Great Wall.com). Many of the men who died were actually buried within the wall itself. “Many probably thousands died there. The Wall earned the grim title of “The Longest Cemetery in the World” But legend and folklore have multiplied their number, and hatred of Ch’in Shih Huang Ti has added gruesome details of their deaths. It is said that workmen who fell behind were simply thrown into the section of the Wall where they were working and buried alive (Lum 59).” One famous legend says that one of the First Emperor’s sorcerers said that Wall could never be completed unless ten thousand men were buried alive in it (Silverberg 55). Not even Chi’in Shih Huang Ti would do it, and the wall did not become complete. It is said that he tried to sidestep the terrible deed, and searched for a man whose name contained the character wan (10,000). He found the man, and he was buried in the Wall. Thereafter the work finished quite …show more content…
Although The Great Wall of China mainly began during the reign of Chi’in Shih Huang Ti, the majority of the construction of The Great Wall of China took place during the Ming Dynasty. In fact, every Emperor during the Ming Dynasty from the very first to the very last, played some part in repairing and reconstructing the great rampart. The parts of The Great Wall of China that we see today still stand mainly from the dates of the Ming Dynasty. Almost all of the existing city and frontier walls of China, as well as the great majority of temples and palaces still standing in China today were built by the Mings (Lum 133).” One of the Emperors, Yung Lo, put his whole attention into the Great Wall. He thought that it should be used to its full potential. “Determined that the frontier should be made impregnable, he repaired and rebuilt the entire length of the Wall. He stationed tenmen to guard every single point along the Wall at which herdsmen or merchants travelling on foot might enter China, and garrisons of a hundred men at every pass wide enough for horsemen or wheeled traffic to cross the border (Lum
Among those one million men over 300,000 died (Great Wall.com). Many of the men who died were actually buried within the wall itself. “Many probably thousands died there. The Wall earned the grim title of “The Longest Cemetery in the World” But legend and folklore have multiplied their number, and hatred of Ch’in Shih Huang Ti has added gruesome details of their deaths. It is said that workmen who fell behind were simply thrown into the section of the Wall where they were working and buried alive (Lum 59).” One famous legend says that one of the First Emperor’s sorcerers said that Wall could never be completed unless ten thousand men were buried alive in it (Silverberg 55). Not even Chi’in Shih Huang Ti would do it, and the wall did not become complete. It is said that he tried to sidestep the terrible deed, and searched for a man whose name contained the character wan (10,000). He found the man, and he was buried in the Wall. Thereafter the work finished quite …show more content…
Although The Great Wall of China mainly began during the reign of Chi’in Shih Huang Ti, the majority of the construction of The Great Wall of China took place during the Ming Dynasty. In fact, every Emperor during the Ming Dynasty from the very first to the very last, played some part in repairing and reconstructing the great rampart. The parts of The Great Wall of China that we see today still stand mainly from the dates of the Ming Dynasty. Almost all of the existing city and frontier walls of China, as well as the great majority of temples and palaces still standing in China today were built by the Mings (Lum 133).” One of the Emperors, Yung Lo, put his whole attention into the Great Wall. He thought that it should be used to its full potential. “Determined that the frontier should be made impregnable, he repaired and rebuilt the entire length of the Wall. He stationed tenmen to guard every single point along the Wall at which herdsmen or merchants travelling on foot might enter China, and garrisons of a hundred men at every pass wide enough for horsemen or wheeled traffic to cross the border (Lum