AREVALO,JHEANE CLAIRE D.

Engineering an Empire: China

1. Moon river has tormented Chinese people and it cause winter droughts and summer
flood. Li Bing is a great hydraulic engineer, make use of the river to be used as an irrigation
channel. He made an irrigation channel to quickly supply food for his massive army. But there
was one problem that occur, standing directly in the path of his irrigation channel he couldn't
move the mountain, so he decided to carve a path for his new water way straight through it.
The plan would take long if his men carve it all along, using only hammers and drills. And it's
hard for his men to curve the path so he planned to let the nature do the thing. First heating
the rocks through controlled fires then dousing them with cold water, dousing them caused the
boulders to crack into small pieces that could be carried away. By this engineering application it
feed his thousand men and it also prevent the country to have lessen the floods and droughts.

2. Ying Zheng, the first Emperor of china, had leaved a mark during his reign as the
emperor. It was built 20,000 years ago, a long graveyard, and about 1 million contributed on
building this engineering structure. Many have suffered upon the building it, those who tried to
run away had been killed. This remarkable engineering to defend the north, unsurpassed by
modern engineering a single impregnable barrier to seal the vast Chinese empire from the
outside world. A wall unlike any the world had ever seen, and a border that stretches for
thousands of miles, a wall that would defend invading armies. Upon building it they make use
of the materials abundant in the country. They use a hog tool - a solid slab, strengthen by the
willow reads like the steel rebar that reinforces modern concrete. it is made by impacted sand,
gravel and others rocks/materials. This long wall or barrier had been making history since then
and became a remarkable place in China till now.

3. The tomb of Ying Zheng is another stunning engineering he has contributed in China. He
was planning it since he was 13 years old. An epic tomb made by 70,000 men. And its stunning
feature is that the tomb has its guard along the land. It is the terra cotta army. Terra cotta skull
would prove the gateway to one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of all time. The army
of terra cotta warriors is know as the ghost army, each statue 5 feet, 8 inches, and 6 feet 2
inches tall, it weighs 600 pounds and its made in a hard type of clay-which is heated 2,000
Fahrenheit. Three massive pits filled with terra cotta army guarding the first emperor's tomb ;
The first pit is consist of 6,000 warriors and horses in battle formation ; second pit is 13 hundred
of his elite military including archers chariots and cavalry ; 3rd pit has 68 figures and one
chariot was the command center and a head quarter for defense. The terra cotta army guard
this tomb of the emperor till then.
4. Shi Huangdi’s underground tomb also made a mark on engineering features in the
dynasty. The gigantic terraced pit is nearly 1,600 feet by 1,700 feet. And its size is compared like
to 580 basketball courts, when it was completed it was topped with a terraced mountain of
earth nearly 400 feet tall. And it’s size is as large as the pyramid of Giza in Egypt. underground
city dedicated to the afterlife of the first emperor.

5.Yang Ding made a remarkable engineering that can be used by merchants, soldiers and
citizens. There are two major rivers in the country. Two major rivers transverse the east to
west, yang tze located on the south, and Yellow river in the north, but the two rivers are
thousand miles apart. He aimed to link northern and southern China by a gigantic central
artery, a grand canal that is used a trading transport to others places. 1 million of man day of
work was labored by this men, almost 10 thousand died of stravation, fatigue and illness, many
were simply beaten to death. To create a massive network of channels 24 locks are need, but
not every time you encounter a natural body of water you need lock to make a barrier between
the canal and the lake or the river. Stretch 1,200 miles long and ambitious canal could transport
goods up to 45 miles a day. And this made the empire into a trade system with other country or
state.

6.
a. Geograpical
China is surrounded by rivers or bodies of water and the emperor or ruler made us of it
as an advantage of it as to pertaining to enginnering structure.
b. Geological
The geological influence help the fleet from constructing these gigantic boats that are
suitable for any situations.
c. Cultural
It is also noted that these cultural influences are being reflected in the design of each
structure, by using their own material and also the type of their construction.
d. Spiritual
Some of this structure pertains to a specific type of religion which they accept in
building through this engineering like the army of terra cotta which guard the tomb of a mighty
emperor. And also the tomb that has its various statue symbolic for their religion.

e. Political
Each ruler/ emperor had contributed on the rise of the dynasty and it made China to
start its development by this engineering structures they have made and make it also a
remarkable piece of architecture and engineering till now.

7. The greatest influence is the system of the irrigation channel which lead to a trading system
in China. This helps the country evolve and develop quickly. It became a passage way in making
the country a negotiable one. How to quickly produce something. And it is because of that it
also a transportation in our times as well as that of the ancient time.