Warring States Period Great Wall, Qin Dynasty Great Wall, Han Dynasty Great Wall, Ming Dynasty Great Wall
During the Spring and Autumn Period (770 - 476BC) and Warring States period (476 - 221BC), each state constructed its own great wall. However, each one was still in the initial stage of development. The Great Wall well-known to all is the ‘Ten-thousand-Li Great Wall’ that was connected and built by Emperor Shihuang in the Qin Dynasty (221 - 207BC).
Qin, as one of the early states of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, (check Great Wall History as needed), was weak in comparison to the Wei State due to its fledgling economy and frequent civil strife. In order to defend against Wei troops, King Li Gong and King Jian Gong of the Qin State ordered a great wall to be built along the north banks of the Yellow River and Luo River. According to the Qin Biography of the Historical Records, the wall was called Qianluo Great Wall and was a simple structure. Also, historical research shows that this section of the great wall started from the foot of the Huashan Mountain and moved northward to Huanglong Mountain in Shaanxi province. There was another section of wall built by King Zhao in the northern frontier of Qin State, which served mainly as a defense against the ethnic minority Yiqu. Historians have proved that this wall was from Minxian County of Gansu province in Inner Mongolia.
Qin State emerged as a dominant superpower of the Warring States period by the 3rd century BC. In 221 BC, China was reunified by Qin Shihuang, who ruled as the First emperor of the Qin Dynasty. In order to consolidate its domination and defend the feudal dynasty against Huns, Emperor Qin Shihuang ordered the Great Wall to be built. Historical records show that the Great Wall united sections of the wall built in the north by Yan and Zhao states and the former Qin State. It stretched about five thousand kilometers (ten thousand ‘Li’ by the Chinese measurement) from Minxian County in Gansu province to the eastern part of Liaoning province. At the same time, Emperor Qin Shihuang gave an order to pull down the rest of the sections of wall built between states that served as border of their separatist regimes.
Distribution and trend of the Great Wall of Qin Dynasty (west to east):
Gansu Province: Minxian County – Lintao County – Dingxi County
Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region: Guyuan County – Huanxian County in Gansu
Shaanxi Province: Jingbian – Hengshan – Yulin – Shenmu
Inner Mongolia: Togtoh – Langshan Mountain (Wolf Mountain) – Daqing Mountain – Jining County – Xinghe County
Hebei Province: Yixian County – Zhangbei County - Weichang County
Liaoning Province: Fushun City – Benxi City – Qingjiang River mouth in the northwest of Pyongyang, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
The project of the Great Wall used a large amount of manpower - about 5 million according to historical sources. In combination with other construction projects, such as the Epanggong Palace and Tomb of Qin (including Terracotta Warriors), they influenced the development of productivity and simultaneously brought great suffering to the people at that time. The story of Mengjiangnü wailing on the Great Wall originated from these ideas. The tyranny of Qin Emperors finally caused the uprising of Chen Sheng and Wu Guang.
