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128-690: While the Ming walls are generally referred to as "Great Wall" ( changcheng ) in modern times, in Ming times they were called "border barriers" (邊牆; bianqiang ) by the Chinese, since the term changcheng was said to evoke imagery of the tyranny of Qin Shi Huang (260–210 BC) and was associated with the Qin Great Wall . In 1368, the Hongwu Emperor ( Zhu Yuanzhang , r.   1368–98) ousted

256-424: A descendant of Confucius, described the alchemists as Confucianists and entwined the martyrs' legend with his story of discovering the lost Confucian books behind a demolished wall in his ancestral house. Qin Shi Huang also followed the theory of the five elements : fire, water, earth, wood, and metal. It was believed that the royal house of the previous Zhou dynasty had ruled by the power of fire, associated with

384-475: A larger group descended from a prominent ancestor , usually said to have lived during the time of the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors , and the clan name ( 氏 ) comprised a smaller group that showed a branch's current fief or recent title. The ancient practice was to list men's names separately— Sima Qian 's "Basic Annals of the First Emperor of Qin" introduces him as "given the name Zheng and

512-563: A long period of time, not as one monumental project ordered by the central government. There were three main groups of people that made up the builders of the Great Wall during the Ming dynasty: frontier guards, peasants, and convicts. Towards the end of the Ming Great Wall building period, skilled artisans became a prominent group of wall builders as well. During the Ming period, soldiers were in shortage due to low productivity on

640-491: A signal, the muscular assassin hurled the cone at the first carriage and shattered it. However, the emperor was travelling with two identical carriages to baffle attackers, and he was actually in the second carriage. Thus the attempt failed, though both men were able to escape the subsequent manhunt. Numerous state walls had been built during the previous four centuries, many of them closing gaps between river defences and impassable cliffs. To impose centralized rule and prevent

768-657: A slab of lead, and Gao Jianli swung it at the king but missed. The second assassination attempt had failed; Gao was executed shortly after. In 230 BC, King Zheng began the final campaigns of the Warring States period , setting out to conquer the remaining six major Chinese states and bring China under unified Qin control. The state of Han , the weakest of the Warring States, was the first to fall in 230 BC. In 229, Qin armies invaded Zhao , which had been severely weakened by natural disasters, and captured

896-580: A time after that. At its height, the Xuan–Da portion of the Great Wall totalled about 850 kilometres (530 miles) of wall, with some sections being doubled-up with two lines of wall, some tripled or even quadrupled. The outer frontier was now protected by a wall called the "outer border" (外邊, wàibiān ) that extended 380 kilometres (240 mi) from the Yellow River's edge at the Piantou Pass (偏頭關) along

1024-410: A total of more than 2000 li (about 1,100 kilometres (680 mi)) long. Along its length were 800 strong points, sentry posts, beacon-fire towers, and assorted defences. 40,000 men were enlisted for this effort, which was completed in several months at a cost of over one million silver taels . This defence system proved its initial worth in 1482, when a large group of Mongol raiders were trapped within

1152-410: A vital foothold in the steppe transitional zone. After Yongle's death in 1424, the Ming abandoned the last garrison at Kaiping (the former Yuan capital also known as Xanadu ) in 1430. The removal of these garrisons would have long-term consequences, as Ming foreign policy turned increasingly inward and defence became preferred over offence, especially after taking into consideration the cost to maintain

1280-455: A wife from the female convict population to start a family with. In addition to these main groups of wall builders, there were also masons who were hired by the emperor to build the more sophisticated parts of the wall that were made of brick and mortar instead of the traditional tamped earth method. These workers were paid significantly more by the emperor because of their specialized skills in wall building, including working with kilns to create

1408-540: Is a county-level city of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region , Southwest China , it is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Yinchuan . It is the most important industrial city of Ningxia. Lingwu spans an area of 3,846 square kilometres (1,485 sq mi), and according to the 2010 Chinese census , Lingwu has a population of 261,677. Lingwu was historically known as Lingzhou ( simplified Chinese : 灵州 ; traditional Chinese : 靈州 ; pinyin : Língzhōu , Xiao'erjing : لِئٍ‌جِوْ). During

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1536-520: The Classic of Poetry or the Book of Documents was to be punished especially severely. According to the later Shiji , the following year Qin Shi Huang had some 460 scholars buried alive for possessing the forbidden books. The emperor's oldest son Fusu criticised him for this act. The emperor's own library did retain copies of the forbidden books, but most of these were destroyed when Xiang Yu burned

1664-551: The Shiji written by Sima Qian during the Han dynasty, the first emperor was the eldest son of the Qin prince Yiren, who later became King Zhuangxiang of Qin . Prince Yiren at that time was residing at the court of Zhao , serving as a hostage to guarantee the armistice between Qin and Zhao. Prince Yiren had fallen in love at first sight with a concubine of Lü Buwei , a rich merchant from

1792-552: The Twelve Metal Colossi , which he used to adorn his Palace. Each statue was said to be 5 zhang [11.5 meters] in height, and weighing about 1000 dan [about 70 tons]. Sima Qian considered this as one of the great achievements of the Emperor, on a par with the "unification of the law, weights and measurements, standardization of the axle width of carriages, and standardization of the writing system". During 600 years,

1920-580: The Anshi Rebellion , where he ascended the throne with the aid of loyal bureaucrats and military supporters, only notifying his father Xuanzong after the fact. Lingzhou became part of the Western Xia in 1038. It was besieged by Genghis Khan in November 1226. On May 20, 1996, Lingwu was upgraded from a county to a county-level city . On October 25, 2002, Lingwu was transferred from

2048-635: The Bohai Sea to Beijing and further onto the Mongolian steppes. These positions, however, were not for a linear defence but rather a regional one in which walls did not feature heavily, and offensive tactics remained the overarching policy at the time. Hongwu's son, the Yongle Emperor (r.   1402–24), continued his father's policy of active campaigning against the Mongols, and in 1421 moved

2176-528: The Han dynasty that succeeded the Qin. Since the mid-20th century, scholars have begun questioning this evaluation, inciting considerable discussion on the actual nature of his policies and reforms. According to the sinologist Michael Loewe "few would contest the view that the achievements of his reign have exercised a paramount influence on the whole of China's subsequent history, marking the start of an epoch that closed in 1911 ". Modern Chinese sources often give

2304-528: The Ordos Plateau from the nomadic Xiongnu , although the Xiongnu later rallied under Modu Chanyu . Qin Shi Huang also worked with his minister Li Si to enact major economic and political reforms aimed at the standardization of the diverse practices among earlier Chinese states . He is traditionally said to have banned and burned many books and executed scholars . His public works projects included

2432-577: The Warring States period , the area was absorbed into the Qin dynasty under Beidi Commandery . The area was first incorporated into the Han dynasty in 191 BCE by Emperor Hui . In 437 CE, under the Northern Wei , the area was incorporated as Bogulu Town  [ zh ] . In 526 CE, Bogulu Town was renamed as Lingzhou. In 756 CE, during the Tang dynasty , Emperor Suzong fled to Lingzhou during

2560-499: The prefecture-level city of Wuzhong to Yinchuan . The western border of Lingwu is formed by the Yellow River . Lingwu's climate is arid, with little precipitation and high levels of sunshine. Lingwu administers one subdistrict , six towns , two townships and one other township-level division . The city's sole subdistrict is: The city's six towns are: The city's two townships are: The city also administers

2688-530: The state of Wey . Lü consented for her to be Yiren's wife, who then became known as Lady Zhao after the state of Zhao. He was given the name Zhao Zheng, the name Zheng ( 正 ) came from his month of birth Zhengyue , the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar ; the clan name of Zhao came from his father's lineage and was unrelated to either his mother's name or the location of his birth. ( Song Zhong  [ zh ] says that his birthday, significantly,

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2816-524: The supreme commander or the grand coordinator in charge of the defence command, who would then send their proposals to the Ministry of War (兵部, Bīngbù ) and the emperor for approval. If approved, funding for the project would be footed by the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue (戶部, Hùbù ). In essence, the Ming Great Wall was built in a piecemeal fashion by a number of regional commanders over

2944-478: The weights and measurements . Wagon axles were prescribed a standard length to facilitate road transport. The emperor also developed an extensive network of roads and canals for trade and communication. The currencies of the different states were standardized to the Ban Liang coin. The forms of Chinese characters were unified. Under Li Si, the seal script of the state of Qin became the official standard, and

3072-542: The Emperor's brother as the new Jingtai Emperor (r.   1450–1459). Military tensions with the Oirats remained high during Jingtai's reign, as peace would have caused a great deal of political awkwardness for Jingtai and Yu Qian's faction, who benefited from putting Jingtai on the throne. To maintain a military presence while compensating for the loss of soldiers, fortifications, ditches, and ramparts were constructed in key passes, including at Zijing Pass (紫荊關; through where

3200-412: The Emperor, to cover the foul smell of his body decomposing in the summer heat. Pretending he was alive behind the wagon's shade, they changed his clothes daily, brought food, and pretended to carry messages to and from him. After they reached Xianyang, the death of the Emperor was announced. Qin Shi Huang had not liked to talk about his death and had never written a will. Although his eldest son Fusu

3328-698: The First Emperor, creating the title which would be used as the title of the Chinese sovereign for the next two millennia. Qin Shi Huang also ordered the Heshibi to be crafted into the Heirloom Seal of the Realm , which would serve as a physical symbol of the Mandate of Heaven , and would be passed from emperor to emperor until its loss in the 10th century. During 215 BC, in an attempt to expand Qin territory, Qin Shi Huang ordered military campaigns against

3456-468: The First Emperor. However, a number of modern scholars have doubted this account of his birth. Sinologist Derk Bodde wrote: "There is good reason for believing that the sentence describing this unusual pregnancy is an interpolation added to the Shiji by an unknown person in order to slander the First Emperor and indicate his political as well as natal illegitimacy". John Knoblock and Jeffrey Riegel, in their translation of Lü Buwei's Lüshi Chunqiu , call

3584-529: The Gansu Corridor to Wuwei , where the low earthen wall split into two. The northern section passed through Zhongwei and Yinchuan , where it met the western edge of the Yellow River loop before connecting with the Ordos walls, while the southern section passed through Lanzhou and continued northeast to Dingbian . The origins and the exact route of this so-called "Tibetan loop" are still not clear. In

3712-548: The Inner Mongolia border with Shanxi into Hebei province; the "inner border" wall (內邊, nèibiān ) ran southeast from Piantou Pass for some 400 kilometres (250 mi), ending at the Pingxing Pass ; a "river wall" (河邊, hébiān ) also ran from the Piantou Pass and followed the Yellow River southwards for about 70 kilometres (43 mi). The Hebei section of the Great Wall was further fortified by planting trees along

3840-495: The Ji–Chang area were replaced by stone and mortar. These allowed the Chinese to build on steeper, more easily defended slopes and facilitated construction of features such as ramparts , crenelations , and peepholes . The effectiveness of the new walls was demonstrated in the failed Mongol raid of 1554, where raiders expecting a repeat of the events of 1550 were surprised by the higher wall and stiff Chinese resistance. The success of

3968-497: The Ming capital from Nanjing in the south to Beijing in the north, partially to better manage the Mongol situation. Construction of walls in stone and earth began under Yongle's reign in strategic passes, when signal towers and ditch systems were also established. Yongle's reign also saw the rearrangement of the dynasty's frontiers that led to all but one of the eight outer garrisons being abolished to cut expenses, thereby sacrificing

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4096-407: The Ming could either go on the offensive and re-establish their positions in the steppe, or concede the transitional zones to the nomads and maintain a defensive and accommodative policy. Over the late 15th and 16th centuries, the choice between the two options became the subject of fierce debate in the Chinese court and dissension that was sometimes exploited by various political factions to get rid of

4224-411: The Ming dynasty were convicts. Convicts were the other part of the military that was not conscripted from hereditary military families. At the beginning of the Ming dynasty, only military convicts were sent into frontier exile, but as time went on, civilians convicts were also sent to the frontier. Because Ming officials wanted to create more hereditary military families, unmarried convicts were often given

4352-522: The Ming ranks due to Yuan Chonghuan's execution of his fellow commander Mao Wenlong . This breach, known as the Jisi Incident , was the first time the Jurchens had broken through the Great Wall into China proper since the troubles in the northeast began. Yuan Chonghuan hastily sent an army to drive off the raiders from the walls of Beijing, but political damage had already been done. Yuan Chonghuan

4480-482: The Ming, but Jurchen breaches of the Great Wall – the Jurchens had raided across the Great Wall several times since 1629, including in 1634, 1638, and 1642 – distracted the Ming court's attention. The Ming were not able to effectively deal with the simultaneous internal and external threats, much less maintain a consistent defence along the Great Wall. In 1635 Hung Taiji renamed his people the Manchus and declared himself

4608-492: The Mongol need to raid. This, coupled with Qi and Tan's efforts to secure the frontier, brought a period of relative peace along the border. However, minor raids still happened from time to time when the profits of raiding outweighed the profits of trade, and so wall-building continued. On 6   July 1576, a minor Mongol raid broke through a small gap in the Wall and resulted in the death of several high ranking border officials in

4736-604: The Mongol-led Yuan dynasty from China to inaugurate the Ming dynasty . The Mongols fled back to Mongolia to form the Northern Yuan , but even after numerous campaigns, the Ming failed to expand further north and west. In the early years of his reign, Hongwu envisioned a border policy where mobile armies along the northern frontier guarded the safety of China. To this end he set up the "eight outer garrisons" close to

4864-497: The Mongols avoided its walls by riding east to invade Datong and Xuanfu , which were two major garrisons guarding the corridor to Beijing where no walls had been built. The two defence lines of Xuanfu and Datong left by the Northern Qi and the early Ming had deteriorated by this point, and for all intents and purposes the inner line was the capital's main line of defence. Starting from the 1520s, proposals were made to strengthen

4992-570: The Mongols captured the Zhengtong Emperor Zhu Qizhen. This military debacle shattered the Ming dynasty military might and momentum that had given pause to the Mongols since the beginning of the dynasty, and the Ming were on the defensive from this point on. In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, the most pressing political concern caused by the capture of the emperor was resolved when the acting Minister of War Yu Qian (the actual minister having died at Tumu) installed

5120-477: The Mongols had entered during the Tumu Crisis), Ningwu Pass (寧武關), and Juyong Pass. The work undertaken in this period marked a major shift toward defensive construction. The deterioration of the Ming military position in the steppe transitional zone gave rise to nomadic raids into Ming territory, including the crucial Ordos region, on a level unprecedented since the dynasty's founding. To solve this problem,

5248-466: The Qin script itself was simplified through removal of variant forms. This did away with all the regional scripts to form a universal written language for all of China, despite the diversity of spoken dialects. According to Chinese records, after unifying the country in 221 BC, Qin Shuhuang confiscated all the bronze weapons of the conquered countries, and cast them into twelve monumental statues,

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5376-599: The Second Emperor, later known as Qin Er Shi or "Second Generation Qin". The immediate family members of Qin Shi Huang include: Qin Shi Huang had about 50 children (about 30 sons and 15 daughters), but most of their names are unknown. He had numerous concubines but appeared to have never named an empress. Lingwu Lingwu ( simplified Chinese : 灵武 市 ; traditional Chinese : 靈武 市 ; pinyin : Língwǔ Shì , Xiao'erjing : لِئٍ‌وُ شِ)

5504-527: The Shun army along the Great Wall to neutralize its heavily fortified garrisons. In this effort Li was met with next to no resistance as most garrisons surrendered to the Shun with no major fighting, except at the Ningwu Pass where the general Zhou Yuji (周遇吉) fought to the death. By April   17, both the major garrisons at Datong and Xuanfu had surrendered to Li Zicheng, and most Ming hopes were placed on

5632-625: The Xiongnu nomads in the North. Led by General Meng Tian , Qin armies successfully routed the Xiongnu from the Ordos Plateau , setting the ancient foundations for the construction of the Great Wall of China . In the South, Qin Shi Huang also ordered several military campaigns against the Yue tribes , which annexed various regions in modern Guangdong and Vietnam. In an attempt to avoid a recurrence of

5760-485: The Xuanfu, Datong, and Shanxi areas. Troops were re-deployed along the outer line, new walls and beacon towers were constructed, and fortifications were restored and extended along both lines. Firearms and artillery were first mounted on the walls and towers around this time, for both defence and signalling purposes. The project's completion was announced in the sixth month of 1548, but the walls were steadily augmented for

5888-516: The Yan army, along with King Xi of Yan , were able to retreat to the Liaodong Peninsula . After Qin besieged and flooded their capital of Daliang , the state of Wei surrendered in 225 BC. Around this time, as a precautionary measure, Qin seized ten cities from Chu, the largest and most powerful of the other Warring States. In 224, Qin launched a full-scale invasion of Chu, capturing

6016-464: The baby was born after an unusually long period of pregnancy. According to translations of the Lüshi Chunqiu , Zhao Ji gave birth to the future emperor in the city of Handan in 259 BC, the first month of the 48th year of King Zhaoxiang of Qin . The idea that the emperor was an illegitimate child, widely believed throughout Chinese history, contributed to the generally negative view of

6144-452: The border possessed considerable autonomy to deal with the nomads, leading to a decentralized approach to wall-building along the frontier. Each wall-building project was designed to meet imminent or potential threats along short sections of the empire's northern border, never larger in scope than a single regional defence command, and were often as short as a few hundred meters. In most cases, frontier policy decisions of this period were made by

6272-449: The bricks and designing the walls to fit the terrain. Living and working conditions for the wall builders were miserable and often fatal. Traveling to the Great Wall itself was a dangerous journey that many would die on. This difficult journey would also make supplying the garrisons with food and other supplies extremely difficult. Once at the wall, workers lived in "inhumane conditions" that were rampant with disease, lacked basic needs, and

6400-509: The building of the Great Wall because Ming officials preferred to fight a defensive war on the northern frontier. This took the form of building fortresses and walls along the frontier to protect the empire from invaders. Therefore, the building of the Great Wall fell on the shoulders of the military. Depending on the military colony and the general in charge, labor could be paid or unpaid. If they were paid, it averaged out to six pounds of silver per man per year. But like peasants and convicts, labor

6528-497: The capital of Handan in 228. Prince Jia of Zhao managed to escape with the remnants of the Zhao army and established the short-lived state of Dai , proclaiming himself king. In 227 BC, fearing a Qin invasion, Crown Prince Dan of Yan ordered a failed assassination attempt on King Zheng. This provided casus belli for Zheng to invade Yan in 226, capturing the capital of Ji (modern Beijing ) that same year. The remnants of

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6656-480: The capital of Shouchun in 223. In 222, Qin armies extinguished the last Yan remnants in Liaodong and the Zhao rump state of Dai. In 221, Qin armies invaded the state of Qi and captured King Jian of Qi without much resistance, bringing an end to the Warring States period . By 221 BC, all Chinese lands had been unified under the Qin. To elevate himself above the feudal Zhou kings, King Zheng proclaimed himself

6784-407: The capital, Lao Ai successfully fled the battlefield. A price of 1 million copper coins was placed on Lao Ai's head if he was taken alive or half a million if dead. Lao Ai's supporters were captured and beheaded; then Lao Ai was tied up and torn to five pieces by horse carriages, while his entire family was executed to the third degree. The two hidden sons were also killed, while the mother Zhao Ji

6912-651: The centuries. In 214 BC the Emperor began the project of a major canal allowing water transport between north and south China, originally for military supplies. The canal, 34 kilometres in length, links two of China's major waterways, the Xiang River flowing into the Yangtze and the Lijiang River , flowing into the Pearl River . The canal aided Qin's expansion to the south-west. It is considered one of

7040-476: The colour red. The new Qin dynasty must be ruled by the next element on the list, which is water, Zhao Zheng's birth element. Water was represented by the colour black, and black became the preferred colour for Qin garments, flags, and pennants. Other associations include north as the cardinal direction , the winter season and the number six. Tallies and official hats were 15 centimetres (5.9 inches) long, carriages two metres (6.6 feet) wide, one pace ( 步 ; bù )

7168-415: The current Great Wall of China . Transporting building materials was difficult, so builders always tried to use local materials: rock over mountain ranges, rammed earth over the plains. "Build and move on" was a guiding principle, implying that the Wall was not a permanently fixed border. There are no surviving records specifying the length and course of the Qin walls, which have largely eroded away over

7296-452: The dagger unrolled from the map, the king leapt to his feet and struggled to draw his sword – none of his courtiers were allowed to carry arms in his presence. Jing stabbed at the king but missed, and King Zheng slashed Jing's thigh. In desperation, Jing Ke threw the dagger but missed again. He surrendered after a brief fight in which he was further injured. The Yan state was conquered in its entirety five years later. Gao Jianli

7424-476: The defences of this region, but the plan was disrupted by the local populace's resistance to the prospect of labour; only in the 1540s did work proceed in earnest. From 1544 to 1549, a defensive building program took place on a scale unprecedented in Chinese history. The project was led by Weng Wanda (翁萬達; 1498–1552), the Supreme Commander of the Xuan–Da defence area (宣大總督), which was responsible for

7552-468: The double lines of fortifications and suffered a defeat by the Ming generals. This was seen as a vindication of Yu Zijun's strategy of wall-building by the people of the border areas. By the mid-16th century, Yu's wall in the Ordos had seen expansion into an extensive defence system. It contained two defence lines: Yu's wall, called the "great border" (大邊, dàbiān ), and a "secondary border" (二邊, èrbiān ) built by Yang Yiqing (1454–1530) behind it. Following

7680-424: The early Ming. Minister of War Bai Gui (白圭) had tried to implement an offensive solution since taking office in 1467, and he objected to Yu's proposal because of cost fears. On 20   December 1472, amid reports of people fleeing the frontier provinces due to the harsh military levies imposed to finance offensive campaigns, Yu reasoned that his wall project would not be as costly as the offensive strategy, and that

7808-471: The east, the Tümed Mongols under Altan Khan raided Sihaiye and Dabaiyang (大白陽) in the seventh month of 1548. These points were much further east than previous raids and much closer to Beijing. The terrain there proved difficult to traverse, and so fortifications were not seen as urgently needed before the raids. In response, Weng Wanda proposed to close the gaps by connecting the walls of Xuan–Da with

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7936-558: The emperor of a new Qing dynasty the following year. However, the Manchus were not yet willing to launch an invasion of conquest against the Ming; as Hung Taiji remarked in 1642, "The Shanhai Pass cannot be taken." In the first months of 1644, Li Zicheng, having consolidated control over his home province Shaanxi, declared himself the founder of a new Shun dynasty , and marched against the Ming court in Beijing. His invasion route brought

8064-578: The emperor's personal name written as Ying Zheng, using the ancestral name of the House of Ying . The rulers of the state of Qin had styled themselves kings from the time of King Huiwen in 325 BC. Upon his ascension, Zheng became known as the King of Qin or King Zheng of Qin. This title made him the nominal equal of the rulers of Shang and Zhou , the last of whose kings had been deposed by King Zhaoxiang of Qin in 256 BC. Following

8192-403: The garrison at Datong bribed him to not attack there. Instead of continuing to operate in the area, he circled around Weng Wanda's wall to the relatively lightly defended Gubeikou , northeast of Beijing. From there Altan Khan passed through the defences and raided the suburbs of Beijing. The Ming court put up minimal resistance and watched the suburbs burn as they waited for reinforcements to drive

8320-681: The generations. (In fact, the scheme lasted only as long as his immediate heir, the Second Emperor .) The new title carried religious overtones. For that reason, sinologists starting with Peter A. Boodberg or Edward H. Schafer —sometimes translate it as "thearch" and the First Emperor as the First ;Thearch. The First Emperor intended that his realm would remain intact through the ages but, following its overthrow and replacement by Han after his death, it became customary to prefix his title with Qin. Thus: As early as Sima Qian, it

8448-687: The imperial court. Although the number of towers was later scaled back to 1200, the project, which started in 1569 and lasted two years, marked the first large-scale use of hollow watchtowers on the Wall. Up until this point, most previous towers along the Great Wall had been solid, with a small hut on top for a sentry to take shelter from the elements and Mongol arrows. In contrast, the Ji–Chang towers built from 1569 onwards were hollow brick structures, allowing soldiers interior space to live, store food and water, stockpile weapons, and take shelter from Mongol arrows. Altan Khan eventually made peace with China when it opened border cities for trade in 1571, alleviating

8576-433: The incorporation of diverse state walls into a single Great Wall of China and a massive new national road system, as well as his city-sized mausoleum guarded by a life-sized Terracotta Army . He ruled until his death in 210 BC, during his fifth tour of eastern China . Qin Shi Huang has often been portrayed as a tyrant and strict Legalist —characterizations that stem partly from the scathing assessments made during

8704-459: The invaders out. According to one contemporary source, the raid took more than 60,000 lives and an additional 40,000 people became prisoners. As a response to this raid, the focus of the Ming's northern defences shifted from the Xuan–Da region to the Jizhou and Changping Defence Commands (grouped and abbreviated as Ji–Chang) where the breach took place. Later in the same year, the dry-stone walls of

8832-597: The king of Qin , after which he became King Zheng of Qin . By 221 BC, he had conquered all the other warring states and unified all of China , and he ascended the throne as China's first emperor. During his reign, his generals greatly expanded the size of the Chinese state: campaigns south of Chu permanently added the Yue lands of Hunan and Guangdong to the Sinosphere , and campaigns in Inner Asia conquered

8960-525: The last Great Wall pass at Juyong and its defender Tang Tong ( 唐通 ). However, just as the Ming court was discussing the means of increasing provisions to Juyong Pass, it received word that Tang Tong had surrendered and let the Shun army through on April   21. With all options exhausted, the Ming's Chongzhen Emperor hanged himself as the Shun army entered Beijing on April   25, 1644. The largest remaining Ming fighting force in North China at

9088-400: The location were compressed together to build the wall. The Ming dynasty refined this technique by being able to do this on a larger scale than previous dynasties. The Ming builders also created a new technique, the two-layer method, which involved bricks and tiles. This was used on uneven terrain, like hills and mountains. Bricks were stacked diagonally if the incline or decline of the landscape

9216-606: The lower reaches of the Yellow River , and someone inscribed the seditious words "The First Emperor will die and his land will be divided" ( 始皇死而地分 ). The Emperor sent an imperial secretary to investigate this prophecy. No one would confess to the deed, so all living nearby were put to death, and the stone was pulverized. During his fifth tour of eastern China, the Emperor became seriously ill in Pingyuanjin ( Pingyuan County, Shandong ), and died in July or August of 210 BC, at

9344-467: The mandatory ideology of the Qin dynasty. Beginning in 213 BC, at the instigation of Li Si and to avoid scholars' comparisons of his reign with the past, Qin Shi Huang ordered most existing books to be burned , with the exception of those on astrology, agriculture, medicine, divination, and the history of the state of Qin . This would also serve to further the ongoing reformation of the writing system by removing examples of obsolete scripts. Owning

9472-409: The military colonies, called weisuo (衛所). The northern frontier, the most heavily guarded border of Ming China, was kept at 40% strength, which was equivalent to 300,000 men across a 2,000 mile border. Because of low productivity on military farms and the need for more guards along the frontier, most of the frontier soldiers were from military families that served on the farms. Soldiers were involved in

9600-467: The minds of the best scholars on the Emperor's quest. Some of those buried alive were alchemists, and this could have been a means of testing their death-defying abilities. The emperor built a system of tunnels and passageways to each of his over 200 palaces, because traveling unseen would supposedly keep him safe from evil spirits. In 211 BC, a large meteor is said to have fallen in Dongjun in

9728-509: The mission in 227 BC. The assassins gained access to King Zheng by pretending a diplomatic gifting of goodwill: a map of Dukang and the severed head of Fan Wuji . Qin Wuyang stepped forward first to present the map case but was overcome by fear. Jing Ke then advanced with both gifts, while explaining that his partner was trembling because "[he] had never set eyes on the Son of Heaven ". When

9856-471: The most part constructed by pouring mud between parallel rows of stakes, with moats dug on both sides, although stones and tiles were used in some parts. Despite withdrawal from the steppe, the Ming military remained in a strong position until the Tumu Crisis in 1449, which caused the collapse of the early Ming security system. Over half of the campaigning Chinese army perished in the conflict, while

9984-436: The mystical Mount Penglai . They sought Anqi Sheng , a thousand-year-old magician who had supposedly invited Qin Shi Huang during a chance meeting during his travels. The expedition never returned, perhaps for fear of the consequences of failure. Legends claim that they reached Japan and colonized it. It is also possible that the Emperor's book burning, which exempted alchemical works, could be seen as an attempt to focus

10112-474: The new Shun regime, having heard that Li Zicheng had ordered Wu's family executed. On May   3 and May   10 Wu Sangui twice defeated the Shun vanguard led by the turncoat Tang Tong, but he knew that his force alone was insufficient to fight Li Zicheng's main army. Wu Sangui wrote to the Manchus for help, promising "great profits" if they assisted him in defeating the rebels. The Manchu prince-regent Dorgon (Hung Taiji had died in 1643) determined that this

10240-399: The news could trigger a general uprising during the two months' travel for the imperial entourage to return to the capital Xianyang. Li Si decided to hide the emperor's death: the only members of the entourage to be informed were a younger son, Ying Huhai , the eunuch Zhao Gao , and five or six favourite eunuchs. Li Si ordered carts of rotten fish to be carried before and behind the wagon of

10368-492: The opposition. The decision to build the first major Ming walls was one of the outcomes of these debates as an acceptable compromise. As offensive action against the nomads became increasingly untenable due to a shortage of fighting men and military supplies, Yu Zijun (余子俊; 1429–1489) first proposed constructing a wall in the Ordos region in August 1471, but this went against the traditional offensive-based policies in place since

10496-548: The outlying garrisons. Around 1442, a wall was erected by the Ming in Liaodong to protect Han settlers from a possible threat from the Jurched-Mongol Oriyanghan. In 1467–68, expansion of the wall provided further protection for the region from against attacks by the Jianzhou Jurchens in the northeast. An offshoot of the future main Great Wall line, this "Liaodong Wall" was of simple design: for

10624-484: The palace in Shaqiu prefecture , about two months travel from Xianyang, at the age of 49. The cause of Qin Shi Huang's death remains unknown, though he had been worn down by his many years of rule. One hypothesis holds that he was poisoned by an elixir containing mercury , given to him by his court alchemists and physicians in his quest for immortality. Upon witnessing the Emperor's death, Chancellor Li Si feared

10752-514: The palaces of Xianyang in 206 BC. Recent research suggests that this "burying Confucian scholars alive" is a Confucian martyrs' legend. More probably, the emperor ordered the execution of a group of alchemists who had deceived him. In the subsequent Han dynasty, the Confucian scholars, who had served the Qin loyally, used this incident to distance themselves from the failed regime. Kong Anguo ( c.  165  – c.  74 BC ),

10880-408: The personal name of Qin Shi Huang as Ying Zheng, with Yíng ( 嬴 ) taken as the surname and Zheng ( 政 ) the given name. However, in ancient China, the naming convention differed, and the clan name Zhao ( 趙 ), the place where he was born and raised, may be used as the surname. Unlike modern Chinese names , the nobility of ancient China had two distinct surnames: the ancestral name ( 姓 ) comprised

11008-689: The political chaos of the Warring States period , Qin Shi Huang and Li Si worked to completely abolish the feudal system of loose alliances and federations. They organized the empire into administrative units and subunits: first 36 (later 40) commanderies , then counties , townships, and hundred-family units (里, Li , roughly corresponding to modern-day subdistricts and communities ). People assigned to these units would no longer be identified by their native region or former feudal state, for example "Chu person" (楚人, Chu rén ). Appointments were to be based on merit instead of hereditary right. Qin Shi Huang and Li Si unified China economically by standardizing

11136-401: The project and retire the same year. For more than 50 years after Yu's resignation, political struggle prevented major wall constructions on a scale comparable to Yu's Ordos project. However, wall construction continued regardless of court politics during this time. The Ordos walls underwent extension, elaboration, and repair well into the 16th century. With the Ordos now adequately fortified,

11264-408: The queen dowager. He found a man named Lao Ai . According to The Record of Grand Historian , Lao Ai was disguised as a eunuch by plucking his beard. Later Lao Ai and queen Zhao Ji got along so well that they secretly had two sons together. Lao Ai was ennobled as Marquis, and was showered with riches. Lao Ai had been planning to replace King Zheng with one of his own sons, but during a dinner party he

11392-495: The removal of a substantial military presence encouraged the inhabitants to turn to banditry and rebellion; the remaining garrison forces, already unpaid and resentful, saw little choice but to throw in their lot with the rebels. A prominent leader who rose from the ranks of the rebels was Li Zicheng , the self-titled "Dashing Prince" (闖王, Chuǎng Wáng ) who came to dominate Central China by 1642. Throughout his rise there were several occasions on which he could have been extinguished by

11520-461: The resurgence of feudal lords, the Emperor ordered the destruction of walls between the former states, which were now internal walls dividing the empire. However, to defend against the northern Xiongnu nomads, who had beaten back repeated campaigns against them, he ordered new walls to connect the fortifications along the empire's northern frontier. Hundreds of thousands of workers were mobilized, and an unknown number died, to build this precursor to

11648-416: The same father but from a different mother. After Zhao Zheng inherited the throne, Chengjiao rebelled at Tunliu and surrendered to the state of Zhao. Chengjiao's remaining retainers and families were executed by Zhao Zheng. As King Zheng grew older, Lü Buwei became fearful that the boy king would discover his liaison with his mother, Lady Zhao . He decided to distance himself and look for a replacement for

11776-452: The signal towers of the eastern Jizhou defence command (薊州鎮). Only one sixth of the 436,000 liang of silver demanded for this project was allotted, and Weng Wanda supervised only briefly before leaving office on the death of his father. In 1550, having once more been refused a request for trade, Altan Khan invaded the Xuan–Da region. However, despite several attempts, he could not take Xuanfu due to Weng Wanda's double fortified line while

11904-522: The statues were commented upon and moved around from palace to palace, until they were finally destroyed in the 4th century AD, but no illustration has remained. While the previous Warring States era was one of constant warfare, it was also considered the golden age of free thought. Qin Shi Huang eliminated the Hundred Schools of Thought , which included Confucianism and other philosophies. With all other philosophies banned, Legalism became

12032-437: The steppe and an inner line of forts more suitable for defence. The inner line was the forerunner to the Ming Great Wall. In 1373, as Ming forces encountered setbacks, Hongwu put more emphasis on defence and adopted Hua Yunlong 's (華雲龍) suggestion to establish garrisons at 130 passes and other strategic points in the Beijing area. More positions were set up in the years up to Hongwu's death in 1398, and watchtowers were manned from

12160-428: The story "patently false, meant both to libel Lü and to cast aspersions on the First Emperor". Claiming Lü Buwei—a merchant—as the First Emperor's biological father was meant to be especially disparaging, since later Confucian society regarded merchants as the lowest social class . In 246 BC, when King Zhuangxiang died after a short reign of just three years, he was succeeded on the throne by his 13-year-old son. At

12288-482: The success of the Ordos walls, Yu Zijun proposed construction of a further wall that would extend from the Yellow River bend in the Ordos to the Sihaiye Pass (四海冶口; in present-day Yanqing County ) near the capital Beijing, running a distance of more than 1300 li (about 700 kilometres (430 mi)). The project received approval in 1485, but Yu's political enemies harped on the cost overruns and forced Yu to scrap

12416-489: The sudden appearance of the Manchu bannermen decisively routed the Shun forces. Having thus entered through the Great Wall, the Manchus seized Beijing on June   5. They eventually defeated both the rebel-founded Shun dynasty and the remaining Ming resistance , establishing Qing rule over all of China. Central policy alone did not decide whether the walls would be built, as various "defense commands" (邊鎮, biānzhèn ) along

12544-418: The surname Zhao " —or to combine the clan surname with the personal name: Sima's account of Chu describes the sixteenth year of the reign of King Kaolie as "the time when Zhao Zheng was enthroned as King of Qin". However, since modern Chinese surnames (despite usually descending from clan names) use the same character as the old ancestral names, it is much more common in modern Chinese sources to see

12672-425: The surrender of Qi in 221 BC, King Zheng reunited all of the lands of the former Kingdom of Zhou . Rather than maintain his rank as king, however, he created a new title of huángdì ( emperor ) for himself. This new title combined two titles— huáng of the mythical Three Sovereigns ( 三皇 , Sān huáng ) and the dì of the legendary Five Emperors ( 五帝 , Wŭ Dì ) of Chinese prehistory . The title

12800-572: The three great feats of ancient Chinese engineering, along with the Great Wall and the Sichuan Dujiangyan Irrigation System . As he grew old, Qin Shi Huang desperately sought the fabled elixir of life which supposedly confers immortality. In his obsessive quest, he fell prey to many fraudulent elixirs. He visited Zhifu Island three times in his search. In one case he sent Xu Fu , a Zhifu islander, with ships carrying hundreds of young men and women in search of

12928-563: The time of Beijing's fall was Wu Sangui 's 40,000-man frontier force, who had abandoned the Ningyuan garrison to come to the emperor's aid. Halfway to Beijing, Wu received news of Chongzhen's death, so he went back to garrison the Shanhai Pass, the eastern terminus of the main Great Wall line. He and his men were now caught between the rebels within the Great Wall and the Manchus without. After some deliberation, Wu Sangui decided to resist

13056-521: The time, Zhao Zheng was still young, so Lü Buwei acted as the regent prime minister of the State of Qin, which was still waging war against the other six states . Nine years later, in 235 BC, Zhao Zheng assumed full power after Lü Buwei was banished for his involvement in a scandal with Queen Dowager Zhao. Zhao Chengjiao , the Lord Chang'an ( 长安君 ), was Zhao Zheng's legitimate half-brother, by

13184-465: The township-level division of: Lingwu's population was reported as 261,677 in the 2010 Chinese census . In the 2000 Chinese census , the city's population was 249,890. The city has a Hui majority population. The city has significant coal , natural gas , and petroleum reserves. Lingwu has a proven coal reserve of 27.3 billion tons. Lingwu also has a significant agricultural sector, with rice , wheat , corn , and jujubes all being grown in

13312-592: The upstart Jianzhou Jurchen leader Nurhaci united the tribes of Manchuria and declared war on the Ming. After the Fushun garrison within the Liaodong Wall surrendered to Nurhaci the next year, the Ming court assembled a Chinese–Korean army numbering above 100,000 men to contain him, but they were catastrophically defeated at the Battle of Sarhu . Nurhaci made substantial progress in his conquest of Liaodong until he

13440-502: The vicinity of Simatai , 8 miles (13 km) east of Gubeikou. After this incident and starting in 1577, the Ming became committed to closing all gaps along the frontier around Beijing whilst strengthening the walls. As a result, the earthen defences around Beijing were torn down and replaced by ones built with stone bricks and sanhetu (三合土), an early sort of concrete made of lime , clay tiles, and sand. Areas of difficult terrain once considered impassable were also walled off, leading to

13568-582: The vicinity of the Great Wall include Chengziyu (城子峪) in Funing District of Hebei . Their ancestors were recruited from the districts of Jinhua and Yiwu in Zhejiang province and had served in the Ming military under Qi Jiguang . Several techniques were used to build these walls. For materials, the Ming used earth, stone, timber, and lime like previous dynasties. But they also used bricks and tiles, especially for areas with rougher terrain, which

13696-545: The wall did not always translate into political success for its builders. Detractors cited its high costs and the drain on military manpower as reasons for their opposition and in 1557 the Grand Coordinator Wu Jiahui (吳嘉會) was jailed on charges of embezzlement due to faulty and wasteful wall-building. Construction thereafter had to be low-key: the Supreme Commander of Shanxi (山西總督), Liu Tao (劉燾), minimized political attention to himself by claiming that he

13824-687: The wall would be a temporary measure that would allow the Ming to restore its military and economic strength. The court and emperor approved the plan, and the 1473 victory in the Battle of Red Salt Lake (紅鹽池) by Wang Yue (王越) deterred Mongol invasions long enough for Yu Zijun to complete his wall project in 1474. This wall, a combined effort between Yu Zijun and Wang Yue, stretched from present day Hengcheng (橫城) in Lingwu (northwestern Ningxia province) to Huamachi town (花馬池鎮) in Yanchi County , and from there to Qingshuiying (清水營) in northeastern Shaanxi,

13952-494: The wall. As with Yu Zijun's wall in the Ordos, the Mongols shifted their attacks away from the newly strengthened Xuan–Da sector to less well-protected areas. In the west, Shaanxi province became the target of nomads riding west from the Yellow River loop. The westernmost fortress of Ming China, the Jiayu Pass , saw substantial enhancement with walls starting in 1539, and from there border walls were built discontinuously down

14080-463: The well-known vistas of a stone-faced Great Wall snaking over dramatic landscapes that tourists still see today. Except for a lull in the 1590s due to resources being diverted to deal with the Japanese invasions of Korea , wall construction continued until the demise of the Ming dynasty in 1644. The last decades of the Ming saw famines , floods , economic chaos, rebellions, and invasions. In 1618,

14208-720: The whole wall-building exercise in light of its ultimate failure in protecting China; the former compared the Great Wall with the failed Maginot Line of the French in World War II . However, independent scholar David Spindler notes that the Wall, being only part of a complex foreign policy, received "disproportionate blame" because it was the most obvious relic of that policy. Qin Shi Huang Qin Shi Huang ( Chinese : 秦始皇 , pronunciation ; February 259  – 12 July 210 BC)

14336-483: Was "building through non-building." In 1567 Qi Jiguang and Tan Lun , successful generals who fended off the coastal pirates , were reassigned to manage the Ji–Chang Defense Commands and step up the defences of the capital region. They submitted an ambitious proposal to build 3,000 brick towers along the Great Wall, and manoeuvred their way out of political opposition through the efforts of their allies at

14464-436: Was 1.4 m (4.6 ft). In 230 BC, the state of Qin had defeated the state of Han . In 218, a former Han aristocrat named Zhang Liang swore revenge on Qin Shi Huang. He sold his valuables and hired a strongman assassin, building a heavy metal cone weighing 120 catties (roughly 160 lb or 97 kg). The two men hid among the bushes along the emperor's route over a mountain during his third imperial tour. At

14592-405: Was a close friend of Jing Ke, and wanted to avenge his death. As a famous zhu player, he was summoned to play for King Zheng. Someone in the palace recognized him and guessed his plans. Reluctant to kill such a skilled musician, the king ordered his eyes put out, and then proceeded with the performance. The king praised Gao's playing and even allowed him closer. The zhu had been weighted with

14720-486: Was a new technique in China at the time. These were made with kilns, which were a new invention at the time. Materials were transported hundreds of miles either on the backs of workers, by hand carts or wheelbarrows, or on animal-driven carts. There were two main techniques for building the wall. The first was the rammed earth method, which was used on level areas, and had been used by previous dynasties as well. Materials at

14848-477: Was accused of treason for letting this happen, and in 1630 he was executed by slow dismemberment while his family were exterminated or exiled. Following Hung Taiji's raid, regular garrison troops in the western defence zones along the Great Wall were sent east to defend the capital, which had the unintended consequence of instigating more instability. The regions of Shaanxi had already been afflicted by adverse weather, heavy taxation , and fiscal mismanagement, so

14976-430: Was always conscripted by the government, meaning that the government would force people to work on the wall. Like previous dynasties, the Ming officials also recruited peasants from the surrounding areas to work on the wall for seasons at a time. Not much is known about how the peasants were recruited or how they worked, but the labor was often conscripted and paid very little. The last major group of wall builders during

15104-652: Was common to shorten the resulting four-character Qin Shi Huangdi to 秦始皇 , variously transcribed as Qin Shihuang or Qin Shi Huang. Following his elevation as emperor, both Zheng's personal name 政 and possibly its homophone 正 became taboo . The First Emperor also arrogated the first-person pronoun 朕 for his exclusive use, and in 212 BC began calling himself The Immortal ( 真人 , Others were to address him as "Your Majesty" ( 陛下 , in person and "Your Highness" ( 上 ) in writing. According to

15232-419: Was first in line to succeed him as emperor, Li Si and the chief eunuch Zhao Gao conspired to kill Fusu, who was in league with their enemy, general Meng Tian . Meng Tian's brother Meng Yi , a senior minister, had once punished Zhao Gao. Li Si and Zhao Gao forged a letter from Qin Shi Huang commanding Fusu and General Meng to commit suicide. The plan worked, and the younger son Hu Hai started his brief reign as

15360-430: Was heard bragging about being the young king's stepfather. In 238 BC, while the king was travelling to the former capital, Yong ( 雍 ), Lao Ai seized the queen mother's seal and mobilized an army in an attempted coup d'état . When notified of the rebellion, King Zheng ordered Lü Buwei to let Lord Changping and Lord Changwen  [ zh ] attack Lao Ai. Although the royal army killed hundreds of rebels at

15488-486: Was incredibly dangerous to navigate. These factors, combined with the harsh working climate instituted by the generals in charge of the wall building, lead to a high mortality rate among wall builders, which is why many call the Great Wall "the longest cemetery in the world". Ming soldiers who had built and guarded the Great Wall were given land nearby for their families to settle down and farm small plots of land. There are altogether 158 such villages. One of these villages in

15616-502: Was intended to appropriate some of the prestige of the Yellow Emperor , whose cult was popular in the later Warring States period and who was considered to be a founder of the Chinese people. King Zheng chose the new regnal name of First Emperor ( Shǐ Huángdì , Wade-Giles Shih Huang-ti) on the understanding that his successors would be successively titled the "Second Emperor", "Third Emperor", and so on through

15744-449: Was less than 45 degrees, and were shaped into stairs if the incline or decline was greater than 45 degrees. The Mongol Northern Yuan dynasty used to send ahead a force of up to a thousand men that carried pickaxes to break down the wall whose core consisted mostly of rammed earth. In academia, opinions about the Wall's role in the Ming dynasty's downfall are mixed. Historians such as Arthur Waldron and Julia Lovell are critical of

15872-407: Was mortally wounded at the 1626 Battle of Ningyuan by Yuan Chonghuan . He was succeeded by his son Hung Taiji , who worked to undermine Yuan Chonghuan by spreading rumours of Yuan's collaboration with the Jurchens. To drive the point home, Hung Taiji sent an army around Ningyuan through Mongol territories to breach the Great Wall pass at Xifengkou in the fall of 1629, taking advantage of a rift in

16000-462: Was on the first day of Zhengyue . ) Lü Buwei's machinations later helped Yiren become King Zhuangxiang of Qin in 250 BC. However, the Shiji also claimed that the first emperor was not the actual son of Prince Yiren but that of Lü Buwei. According to this account, when Lü Buwei introduced the dancing girl to the prince, she was Lü Buwei's concubine and had already become pregnant by him, and

16128-591: Was placed under house arrest until her death many years later. Lü Buwei drank a cup of poisoned wine and committed suicide in 235 BC. Ying Zheng then assumed full power as the King of the Qin state. Replacing Lü Buwei, Li Si became the new chancellor . King Zheng and his troops continued their conquest of the neighbouring states. The state of Yan was no match for the Qin states: small and weak, it had already been harassed frequently by Qin soldiers. Crown Prince Dan of Yan plotted an assassination attempt against King Zheng, recruiting Jing Ke and Qin Wuyang for

16256-602: Was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of China . Rather than maintain the title of " king " ( wáng 王 ) borne by the previous Shang and Zhou rulers, he assumed the invented title of "emperor" ( huángdì 皇帝 ), which would see continuous use by monarchs in China for the next two millennia. Born in Handan, the capital of Zhao , as Ying Zheng ( 嬴政 ) or Zhao Zheng ( 趙政 ), his parents were King Zhuangxiang of Qin and Lady Zhao . The wealthy merchant Lü Buwei assisted him in succeeding his father as

16384-589: Was the opportunity to claim the Mandate of Heaven for the Qing. Dorgon made clear in his reply that the Manchus would help Wu Sangui, but Wu would have to submit to the Qing; Wu had little choice but to accept. On May   27, as the Shun army approached the Shanhai Pass from the south, Wu Sangui opened the gates to let the Qing army through the pass from the north. Up to this point the Battle of Shanhai Pass between Li Zicheng and Wu Sangui had been moving in Li's favour, but

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