The Great Wall

of China
 Name of Great Wall
The collection of fortifications known as the Great Wall of China has historically had a number of different
names in both Chinese and English.
In Chinese histories, the term "Long Wall(s)" (t 長 城 , s 长 城 , Chángchéng) appears in Sima Qian's
Records of the Grand Historian, where it referred both to the separate great walls built between and north of
the Warring States and to the more unified construction of the First Emperor.[8] The Chinese character 城,
meaning city or fortress, is a phono-semantic compound of the "earth" radical 土 and phonetic 成, whose
Old Chinese pronunciation has been reconstructed as *deŋ.[9] It originally referred to the rampart which
surrounded traditional Chinese cities and was used by extension for these walls around
their respective states; today, however, it is much more often the Chinese word for "city".[10]
The longer Chinese name "Ten-Thousand Mile Long Wall" (t 萬里長城 , s 万里长城 , Wànlǐ Chángchéng)
came from Sima Qian's description of it in the Records, though he did not name the walls as such. The
AD 493 Book of Song quotes the frontier general Tan Daoji referring to "the long wall of 10,000 miles",
closer to the modern name, but the name rarely features in pre-modern times otherwise.[11] The
traditional Chinese mile ( 里 , lǐ) was an often irregular distance that was intended to show the length of a
standard village and varied with terrain but was usually standardized at distances around a third of an
English mile (540 m).[12] Since China's metrication in 1930, it has been exactly equivalent to 500 metres or
1,600 feet,[13] which would make the wall's name describe a distance of 5,000 km (3,100 mi). However, this
use of "ten-thousand" (wàn) is figurative in a similar manner to the Greek and English myriad and simply
means "innumerable" or "immeasurable".[14]
Name reason of Great Wall
Because of the wall's association with the First Emperor's supposed tyranny, the
Chinese dynasties after Qin usually avoided referring to their own additions to the
wall by the name "Long Wall".[15] Instead, various terms were used in medieval
records, including "frontier(s)" ( 塞, Sài),[16] "rampart(s)" ( 垣, Yuán),[16] "barrier(s)" (
障, Zhàng),[16] "the outer fortresses" ( 外堡, Wàibǎo),[17] and "the border wall(s)" (t
邊牆, s 边墙, Biānqiáng).[15] Poetic and informal names for the wall included "the
Purple Frontier" ( 紫塞, Zǐsài)[18] and "the Earth Dragon" (t 土龍, s 土龙, Tǔlóng).[19]
Only during the Qing period did "Long Wall" become the catch-all term to refer to
the many border walls regardless of their location or dynastic origin, equivalent to
the English "Great Wall".[20]
The current English name evolved from accounts of "the Chinese wall" from early
modern European travelers.[20] By the 19th century,[20] "The Great Wall of China"
had become standard in English and French, although other European languages
such as German continue to refer to it as "the Chinese wall".[14]
 A Defensive Tactic of Great Wall
• Ancient China was a time of little peace, as many groups were attempting to gain power. The Qin, Wei,
Zhao, Qi, Yan and Zhongshan trusted each other so little that, by the 7th century BCE, they began
constructing earthen walls to separate themselves and protect their territories. This was the beginning of
the Great Wall.
• About 220 BCE, when Emperor Qin Shi Huang decided for the first time to unify the six states into China,
he merged the various walls into a single large-scale wall. Unfortunately, very little of these original walls
remain intact due to the poor materials of the age; however, parts of the wall that date back to this period
can still be seen today.
• From 1368-1644 CE, the Ming Dynasty ruled China. After extreme losses to Mongol raids from the north,
the Ming Dynasty adopted a defensive stance and built what is most commonly viewed as the current
Great Wall of China. This wall followed the Ordos Desert, trailing the southern edge of it, instead of the
Yellow River like other walls before.
• With increased losses to the Mongols in 1373, the emperor of the Ming dynasty established garrisons and
watch towers at 130 passes and other strategically significant locations in and around the Beijing area.
These particular fortifications around Beijing are some of the most famous tourist locations today and are
the best maintained part of the wall, also referred to as the Badaling Section. The quality of this section of
wall is mainly due to the materials used.
A Defensive Tactic of Great Wall
The Jinshanling section of the Great Wall of China is a series of fortifications
in northern China that was constructed for strategic military defenses. This
section was first built in the beginning of the Ming Dynasty in AD 1368 and
then underwent major construction, reconstruction and renovation during
the late Ming Dynasty, approximately in AD 1569. The Jinshanling section is
10.5 km long, a very short section compared with the entire 21,200 km
wall. The wall section is located in Luanping County, Hebei province, China.
The materials selected for the structure include rubbles and rammed earth,
bricks, stones, timber, and mortar. The erection sequence of the wall and
the towers was a bottom-up fashion using various ancient construction
techniques, such as the fire-setting rock blasting techniques and the
surveying techniques from the Sea Island Mathematical Manual.
Constructing the Great Wall:

• With the construction of the wall being stretched over such an extensive period of time, the materials used for its
construction differ depending on which era and what construction practices were common.
• The earliest walls, prior to the Sui Dynasty of 518 CE, were built with packed earth, clay and stone between wood
planks. The builders systematically utilized the simplest and most prevalent sources they had at hand. The
landscape the wall was going through decided which materials were used.
• When the wall expanded across mountain ranges, the mountains themselves provided stones for construction.
These were heavy and construction was slow, as the stones were shaped into squares for easier construction.
• In plains and flatland, earth packed tight into solid blocks was used, while in desert environments, branches of
reeds and red willows were layered with sand. Wooden planks were used as the building frames for many of these
sections.
• At the start of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE), bricks were used in strategic locations, but the cost and
transportation was still a challenge. Because of this, bricks were still limited to the defensive wall around passes
and the exterior wall in these passes, with yellow mud filling the body of the wall.
• During the construction and maintenance of the wall in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 CE), the techniques of brick-
making progressed exponentially. The quality, quantity produced and distribution improved enough to allow
workers to primarily use brick for all sections of the wall.
Construction Material pre and during Qin Dynasty
• The walls before and during the Qing Dynasty (221BC-206BC) were
mainly built from earth because the earth construction could
withstand the attack of weapons as spears and swords. Since the low
technology of productivity in that time, the walls were basically built
of stamped earth between board frames. These stamped earths
might be with gravel inside to make it stronger. In some place, the
walls were even just piles of crude stones and earth. Nor fortresses
were set up along the walls nor bricks used for the construction of
gates. The site of the walls of Zhao State and Qin Dynasty still could
be found around Dunhuang City in Gansu Province, Yulin city of
Shaanxi Province and Baotou of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Construction Material from Han Dynasty to middle Ming
Dynasty

• In this Period, earth and crude stones were still popular in Great Wall
construction. Before the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the construction
materials did not develop to a new level, but it was became a
maintained principle to use local materials for construction. In the
construction of the Great Wall during this period, 300 million cubic
meters’ earthwork were utilized, and appeared some large brick and
lime workshops. These new materials also use in some parts of the
walls.
 Construction Material in Ming Dynasty

• During the Ming Dynasty, gunpowder became available. There were musket, blunderbuss and cannon using in
wars. Thus, forcing Ming made more solid bricks and stones to build the Great Wall. Bricks, as well as lime and
tiles, were largely used in the construction of Great Wall. They set up workshops to burn the crude materials.
There always had a material supply department in a construction team. For example, in Juyongguan Pass, names
of material supply department can be found in record. They mainly used local materials, but some material such
as the timbers for construction of passes, had to be delivered from other areas when they are not available in
local areas. 
• Bricks, which are more convenient than earth and stone with their light weigh and small size, were more
convenient to carry and largely quickened the speed of the construction in Mind Dynasty. It was also an ideal
material to bear the weigh, and according to sample experiment, the compressive strength, resistance to freezing
and absorbency of the bricks of the time are no different from common bricks today. Stone also has its advantages
and it might cut in rectangular shapes to build the foundation, inner and outer brims of the Great wall. And many
gateways were also built from stones. The Badaling Great Wall is built from almost of granite, some of stones and
some of some of white marble. Stone material parts are found to better resist weathering than bricks.