The Great Wall is one of the most representative buildings in China and a miracle of world architecture. The great wall of China is one of the oldest sites in China and an important embodiment of human civilization. So where are the two ends of the Great Wall? Where was the Great Wall built? This article brings you a detailed introduction to the Great Wall. Let's have a look.
The Great Wall is the treasure of Chinese culture and the wealth of human culture. " Less than the Great Wall is not a hero 'is a famous saying that every Chinese is familiar with. Now the Great Wall is not only a holy land in the hearts of the Chinese people, but also respected by people all over the world. As long as you mention China, people will think of the Great Wall. As long as you come to China, you must go to the Great Wall.
There is no doubt that the great wall of China is called Wanli, but there are different views on where the two ends of the great wall are. Because the construction of the Great Wall has gone through more than 2000 years, many great walls are not continuous, and most of the early buildings were damaged, so there are different opinions on the location of both ends of the Great Wall.
The first is that according to the historical records & middot; biographies of Mengtian: "Qin has merged the world, but Mengtian drove 300000 people to the north, collected Henan (now south of Hetao in Inner Mongolia), built the Great Wall, and started from Lintao to the east of Liaoning for more than 10000 miles due to the terrain and danger." This sentence shows that Qin Shihuang built both ends of the Great Wall, namely Lintao and Liaodong. The Great Wall built by Qin Shihuang actually includes three sections. The eastern section starts from Dehua County, Inner Mongolia, and basically winds eastward along the junction of Inner Mongolia and Hebei.
After entering Liaoning, it turns to the southeast and extends to the North Bank of the Datong River in Pyongyang in North Korea. The end point is the so-called 'Liaodong'. The middle section of Qin Shihuang's Great Wall runs from Xinghe County, Inner Mongolia from east to west, Yinshan Mountain in the north, the Yellow River loop in the south, and Ulanqab and the northern edge of the desert in the West. The western section of the Great Wall starts from Minxian County, Gansu Province in the west, follows the East Bank of Tao River to Lintao county and Lanzhou in the north, and then turns to Yuzhong County in the East.
Experts believe that today's Minxian County in Gansu Province is Lintao County in the Qin Dynasty and the Western starting point of the Qin Great Wall. Now there is a monument beside the site, which reads "the site of the Qin Great Wall in the Warring States period". It turns out that all the vassal states built the Great Wall in the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, and the state of Qin is no exception. This section of the Great Wall from Lintao was built by King Zhao of Qin Dynasty, and later repaired by Emperor Qin Shihuang.
Unfortunately, after the erosion of time, it is difficult for us to be sure whether the section of the Great Wall from Lintao in the West has ever existed, because we can hardly see the city walls extending over the mountains and fields. In order to visit whether the Qin dynasty built the great wall here, someone has visited every corner here for decades, looking for the former great wall, and found many relics of the Qin Dynasty. However, this does not prove the theory of building the Great Wall, because this area is originally the activity area of the Qin Dynasty, and finding some relics of the Qin Dynasty does not explain the problem.
The second argument is that the east end of the Great Wall is to Liaodong, and the west end is now Lop Nur, Xinjiang. This statement is based on the Great Wall built in the Han Dynasty. During the Han Dynasty, the Huns, the nomadic people in the north, became strong and kept making trouble at the border of the Han Dynasty. Therefore, Liu Bang, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, personally conquered the Huns, but ended up in a disastrous defeat. He was besieged for seven days and seven nights. Later, he escaped with the strategy of counselor Chen Ping.
Under the threat of the Huns, the national strength was weak in the early Han Dynasty, so they had to pay a large number of tribute to the Huns every year for peace, but the border riots did not stop completely. After the recuperation policy of several emperors in the early Han Dynasty, the national strength of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was unprecedentedly strong. Therefore, the Han Dynasty was no longer submissive, but took the initiative to attack and sent generals Wei Qing and Huo Qubing to lead the army to deal great blows to the Xiongnu for many times. After a series of wars, it opened the main traffic road from Gansu to Lop Nur, Xinjiang through Hexi Corridor, and made the kings and ministers of the western regions subject to the rule of the Han Dynasty.
While carrying out military attacks, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty also embarked on another work, that is, the large-scale construction of the Great Wall. Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty built four large-scale buildings. For the first time, in 127 BC, after defeating the Huns entrenched here, he pushed the northern border to defend the Huns to the front line of the former Qin Shihuang Great Wall at the south foot of Yinshan Mountain in Inner Mongolia. For the second time, in 121 BC, it won the Hexi Corridor occupied by the Huns. In the following years, it built the Great Wall from Yongdeng County, Gansu Province to Jiuquan, and connected with the Great Wall built by Qin Shihuang in the East.
For the third time, in 111 BC, it took two years to build the Great Wall from Jiuquan to Yumenguan. The last time the Great Wall was built was 104〜 BC; In 101 BC, the Great Wall from Yumenguan to Lop Nur, Xinjiang was built. So, should the western end of the great wall be considered to be in Lop Nur? The Great Wall from Hexi corridor to Lop Nur in the Han Dynasty is different from the Great Wall in our general concept. There are only separated City piers and beacon towers, and there are no connected walls between them. However, its function is the same - Garrison and inform each other of the enemy's situation. If you don't think it's the Great Wall, what's the name of this thousand mile barrier.
The third argument is that the great wall extends to Shanhaiguan in the East and Jiayuguan in Gansu in the West. These two grand passes have been built with great momentum and have been repaired for generations. They are still well preserved. One east and one west confront each other, so they are considered to be both ends of the Great Wall. This theory is actually the two ends of the great wall of the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty was the last dynasty to build the Great Wall on a large scale. Because of its more serious border problems, it almost never stopped building the Great Wall in its more than 200 years of rule.
Under the pressure of many powerful regimes around, the Ming Dynasty had to spend a lot of money every year to lay a solid defense line in the mountains in order to seek peace and tranquility. Zhu Yuanzhang occupied Beijing, overthrew the rule of the Yuan Dynasty and established the Ming regime. At this time, the yuan regime was not completely eliminated, but withdrew from Beijing and retreated to the north of today's great wall. There are still vast areas in the east to Hulunbuir lake, in the west to Tianshan Mountain, in the north to the upper reaches of Erqisi River and yenisai River, and in the South to the current line of the Great Wall.
Moreover, the rulers of the yuan regime did not completely give up, and always did not forget to recover the lost land and focus on the Central Plains. In Shaanxi, Gansu, Liaodong and other places, there were large-scale military regimes that did not obey the Ming regime, which always made the rulers of the Ming Dynasty sleep and eat hard. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the rise of Nuzhen regime in the North became a major problem for the Ming court. At this time, the project of building the Great Wall was even more huge.
Others believe that the eastern end of the Great Wall is not Shanhaiguan, but the Bank of the Yalu River in Eastern Liaoning. Only because the construction from Shanhaiguan to Liaodong is relatively simple and has been basically damaged up to now, it is considered that the Great Wall is a section between Jiayuguan and Shanhaiguan, which were well built in the Ming Dynasty, with these two majestic passes at both ends. There are different opinions on where and when the two ends of the great wall are determined, and there is no final conclusion so far.