The Qin Wall-the first "10,000-Li Great Wall"

The vassal states during the Warring States Period were separated from each other, so were the Walls they built. Basicaly, there were 7 main warring states existing simultaneously at that time. Namely, they were the states of Qi, Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao, Wei and Qin. Over the years of scrambling for supremacy, the state of Qin united and subjugated other 6 states in 221B.C. Ying Zheng, the ruler of the state of Qin, declared himself Shi Huangdi, meaning the first emperor of China. To consolidate the unification and sustain the steady development of agriculture in central plains (comprising the middle and lower reaches of the Huanghe River ), the emperor dispatched General Meng Tian to attack nomadic Xiongnu tribes in the north. After a successful struggle to crush the Xiongnu menace once for all, in 214B.C., general Meng Tian, supervised by Prince Fu Su, was appointed to command 300,000 troops to restore the older walls and linked them together with new construction to create a massive fortification meant to protect China's northern frontiers. After a decade of intensive and strenuous work, an immense Wall was finally completed, which was wriggling from Lin Tao in Gansu Province to Liaodong in Liaoning Province, and stretching over 10,000 li or 5,000 kilometers. Hence the poetical name of the "10,000-li Great Wall". According to historical records, labors engaged in the construction of the Great Wall approximated to 1 million, which made up one fifth of the whole population. The construction work ordered by the rulers indeed imposed considerable burden and hardship on its people. The completion of the Great Wall, however, functioned for hundreds of years to spare central China the random raids of nomadic Xiongnu tribes from the north, lending stability to economic life and continuity to Chinese culture. It also symbolizes the architectural wonders of human being's. Mr Sn Yatsen commented as the following: though Qin Shi Huang was merely a staggeringly repressive tyrant, his monumental public work of the Great Wall benefits china a lot, which can surpass the achievements of Da Yu, who solved the floods problem in his time.

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