1. Introduction to the Great Wall: The Great Wall, also known as the Great Wall, is a military defense project in ancient China. It is a tall, strong and continuous long wall. The wall is used to limit the movement of enemy cavalry. The Great Wall is not a simple and isolated city wall, but a defense system with the city wall as the main body and a large number of cities, barriers, pavilions and signs.
2. The history of the construction of the Great Wall can be traced back to the Western Zhou Dynasty. The famous allusion "Beacon Fire Opera on the Princes" that took place in the capital Haojing (today's Xi'an, Shaanxi) originated from this. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, when various countries competed for hegemony and defended each other, the construction of the Great Wall entered its first climax, but at this time the length of the construction was relatively short. After the Qin Dynasty destroyed the six kingdoms and unified the world, Qin Shihuang connected and repaired the Great Wall of the Warring States Period, and it became known as the Great Wall. The Ming Dynasty was the last dynasty to overhaul the Great Wall. Most of the Great Wall that people see today was built at this time.
3. Great Wall resources are mainly distributed in 15 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities including Hebei, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Shandong, Henan, Qinghai, Ningxia and Xinjiang. Among them, the length of Hebei Province is more than 2,000 kilometers, and the length of Shaanxi Province is 1,838 kilometers. According to the national survey of Great Wall resources conducted by the Department of Cultural Relics and Surveying and Mapping, the total length of the Great Wall in the Ming Dynasty was 8,851.8 kilometers, and the Great Wall in the Qin, Han and early periods was more than 10,000 kilometers long, with a total length of more than 21,000 kilometers.
4. On March 4, 1961, the Great Wall was announced by the State Council as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units. In December 1987, the Great Wall was listed as a World Cultural Heritage.
5. What is the significance and function of building the Great Wall? The Great Wall is an effective line of defense, just like the Macedonian Line of Defense, which can quickly organize military defenses against conventional military attacks. At the same time, the Great Wall is also the dividing line between farming culture and nomadic culture. In history, any area that can be farmed has attracted great interest from the rulers. This is a historical political tradition.
Therefore, the northern grasslands and Gobi have no desire to conquer by rulers of all ages. So the Great Wall was built early, beacon towers were set up, and troops were stationed nearby to enable quick response. For the nomadic people's policies, the most commonly used one is marriage, followed by the title of king, and the last one is rewards. As long as we can avoid invading each other.
Under this political thinking, the sea in the east is obviously not attractive enough. As for what is on that side of the vast sea, it has never been within the scope of thinking of rulers of all ages. There are seafood provided by the coastal sea. Just change the taste.
On the other hand, the south, although it is a land of southern barbarians, full of snakes and insects and filled with miasma, is a good place rich in fish and rice, which has made rulers of all ages conquer it at all costs. Even in order to protect the south from Japanese pirates, they imitated the style and function of the Great Wall and built a Great Wall on the sea. However, it was already the Ming Dynasty.
Later, someone wrote to Kangxi to allocate funds to repair the Great Wall. Kangxi expressed his clear opposition and wrote a long article to explain: "The emperor governs the world based on his own principles and does not rely exclusively on dangers." Since the Qin Dynasty built the Great Wall, it has been repaired frequently in the Han, Tang and Song Dynasties. Was there no danger at that time? At the end of the Ming Dynasty, my Taizu led a large army and marched straight in. All roads collapsed and no one dared to take it. It can be seen that the only way to protect the country is to cultivate virtue and bring peace to the people. If the people are happy and convinced, the country will be able to win and its borders will be secure. This is what is called unity. ?Now that we want to repair it, we will start work and labor. How can we do no harm to the people? Moreover, the Great Wall stretches for thousands of miles. How many troops must be maintained to be able to defend it separately? ?
It means, what is the use of building the Great Wall? Even if you repair it, you can't completely solve the border problems. It's better to cultivate morality and calm the people and make them convinced. This is the fundamental way to solve the problems.
In my opinion, the construction of the Great Wall reflects the character of the farming people. Not only ancient China, all farming peoples do not have a strong desire to conquer, nor a strong spirit of adventure. Because it is enough to be self-sufficient. Born here, raised here, old here, died here, there are soil and people, and there are people and wealth. The greatest political achievement and source of wealth is to allow people to farm the land as they should.