The concept of the wall as a single entity, sweeping across China like Genghis Khan himself, is quite simply wrong. The wall does not, and never has, existed as one structure that took 2,000 years to build. And who can prove the contention that, if the great wall were to be constructed today, its costs would far exceed $100,000 per mile?
Literary references to walls between the end of the [M 002 / Qin period and mid-Ming] are scarce. When, however, the Ming walls began to feature, great care was taken to differentiate between their own and Qing walls.
On an intellectual note, the myth of today's Great Wall is said to be one created in the search for a national Chinese identity. The myth of there being only one wall probably emerged not from the Chinese themselves, but from [L3 401 / European visitors]. The first Europeans reached China by ship in the mid-16th century. The Western world had, however, already some notion of a wall in China. The wall of Alexander the Great was spoken about in Europe and Asia although this was not likened to the Great Wall.
THE GREAT WALL VISIBLE FROM SPACE:
Is the wall visible from the moon? This is probably the most widespread assertion. Claims made in China, quoting astronaut Neil Armstrong, say it is. Others dispute such claims.
THE GREAT WALL AND GENGHIS KHAN:
One man was not cowed by the wall's status though. Legendary [G 12 / Mongol] leader, Genghis Khan, is reputed to have said that the wall's strength depended solely on the courage of the men defending it.
Genghis Khan (1162-1227) united the tribes of the [G 22 / steppe] in 1206. He went on to conquer parts of northern China in 1215. His grandson, [I 004 / Kubilai Khan], finished the job. From 1276-80 he took the whole of China. Subsequently, China was ruled by Mongol emperors who were direct descendants of Genghis Khan.
NEVER CRY GREAT WALL:
Myths and legends emerge with the beginning of wall building in China. Among the earliest tales is a Chinese version of `Cry Wolf.'
The Zhou king, Zhou Yu Wang, used the warning beacon of a small section of wall to amuse his lover. The [G 17 / principalities] were angry at being made fun of and when the beacon was lighted to signal a real attack, they ignored the warning and the king was killed in battle.
THE GREAT WALL AND THE QIN:
The [M 002 / Qin wall] came to symbolize tyranny, forced labor, death and, ultimately, the failure of Qin rule - a favorite for myth makers. From this period come five legends: the [L3 402 / longest cemetery] in the world, the wall that [L3 403 / cut through the veins] of the earth, the [L3 404 / hairy men and one woman], the story of [L3 405 / Meng Jiang Nu], and the great builder [L3 406 / Qin Shi Huang] as founder of the Chinese monarchy.
THE GREAT WALL AND EUROPEAN MYTHS:
The first European accounts of the wall, which emerged in the 1550s, are modest. In 1559, it was described as 100 leagues long. In 1604, another said it was 200 miles long. A later version describes it as 400 miles long. Yet another says it was 3,720 miles long and took 2,000 years to build. In one version, the original wall in 221BC is said to have taken a million men 15 years to build.
Some of the descriptions include natural boundaries between the stone structures - a map in 1570 showed the wall mixed with [P 008 / mountains] as natural defences. In 1606, the wall again was described as a combination of a manmade structure and a natural barrier. A map in 1626 confirmed this yet again. Russian travelers in 1619 testified to following the wall for 10 days.
A report published in 1665 described the wall as being built completely of stone and continuous except for one mountain break and some rivers. This account is thought to have mistaken the Ming wall for Qin walls, apart from describing the entire length on the basis of a short stretch. In 1692, the wall was described as so long it could not be revealed in three years and so wide eight riders could ride abreast upon it. One English explorer in the late 1700s said the stones of the wall equalled England's and Scotland's houses and that taken apart, one could build two walls around the earth at the equator.
THE DEATH PENALTY FOR SHODDY WORK:
[I 006 / Workmen] are thought to have been put to death for shoddy work. Leaving gaps between stones or making bricks that were not sufficiently sturdy was considered criminal enough for the death sentence.
In about AD413, when the wall around Tongwancheng was being built, the foreman would test the bricks by boring holes into them with an awl. If a hole an inch deep could be bored, the worker would be put to death and buried in the wall.
Reports of workers being put to death for leaving gaps between stones go back much further to 215BC and the days when iron-laden vessels were sunk on the coast to be used as foundations for walls. Workmen in these times were also sentenced to death for leaving gaps between stones.
THE STONES OF THE GREAT WALL:
The brick content, and especially the origins of the bluish tint on the bricks, is also a source of speculation. The mortar used to bind the wall was said by Chinese doctors to have valuable medicinal properties. Tests were conducted to uncover its origins and iron was deemed to be the cause. The Royal Geographical Society founder, John Barrow, determined the amount of stone in the wall to equal all the houses of England and Scotland - all 1,800,000 of them. That is, without the fortresses and towers which were said to contain as much material as all of London.
MYTHS FROM THE 19TH CENTURY:
In the 19th century a generation of sceptics arose to argue the existence of the wall and while they argued, the wall took on a life of its own. Among the theories widely accepted is that of the wall forcing the Xiongnu people across the Eurasian continent. Eventually, they reached Europe where they were known as the Huns. Subsequently, they were a factor in the fall of the Roman Empire. This is how the Great Wall was implicated in Rome's demise.
In the second half of the 19th century following the Opium Wars, travel to China became more popular. The sceptics had been doubting the existence of the wall for 200 years and troubled by the lack of definitive descriptions of it, they went in search of proof. A wealth of firsthand foreign accounts was gained. The Comte de Beauvoir, for example, said the wall seemed to balance the Milky Way in the sky.
THE GREAT WALL IN THE 20TH CENTURY:
At the beginning of the 20th century, the assertion that the wall could be seen from the moon was made - and believed. The Chinese were not quite as enthusiastic as the West. On the contrary, scholars attempted to point out the difference between the Ming and other walls, urging people not to become confused. It was only in 1949 that Chinese painters even began depicting the wall in their works.
While Marx used the wall as a symbol of China's stagnant social and economic system, [I 009 / Sun Yat-sen] (1886-1925) had a grand conception of the wall as the greatest engineering feat in China. He said China would have been conquered very early on had it not been for the wall and would never have grown to the extent that it did. Although his vision could be argued by academics, Sun Yat-sen was giving the Chinese their national symbol and identity, a concept they clearly needed to replace loyalty to the [G 11 / Manchus]. His words fell on a China in crisis. The Qing dynasty had fallen in 1912 and nothing had taken its place - a state, some will argue, that has existed until today. In light of this the wall took on, however incompletely, the status of a national symbol.
The [M 011&M012 / Japanese occupation of Manchuria] in 1931/2 drew the world's attention and the wall became even more significant to China. When the Communists began to embrace the wall in the mid-1930s, [I 007 / Mao Zedong](1893-1976) included it in his poetry and writings as a symbol of China's heritage and as a sign of resistance against the Japanese. Other communist leaders mentioned the wall as well.
Today the [P 001 / Great Wall is China's most visited spot]. No longer a national boundary or line of defence, the myths and legends are being played up for every tourist dollar they are worth. That includes the [P 002 / camel] and its owner who, when asked to move on while a movie was being filmed, stood firm and insisted on being compensated for every yuan he would have earned from tourists paying to have their photograph taken on a camel at the Great Wall of China.
