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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The Fortress Study Group (FSG)

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Act, 1988. no part of thIS publication may be r'1!produteuOoCI Con=.4ilIl Hcha Wo"""""'oe 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.

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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.

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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 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,

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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.

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

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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.

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\ 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
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.

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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

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brought to the location,
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..

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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 \'\'
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.

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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,

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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.

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Ju River

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The bridge over me

Huangyaguan, which

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

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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

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