The Great Wall of China was a great tool for parts of China. The Wall provided the some of the warring states of that time a protection from the other states. Over the years the wall had been constructed and broken down. The wall was repaired many times and was made from many materials. Many lives were lost in the construction but it turned out to be a spectacular accomplishment.

The Great Wall of China began construction in 221 BCE, under the order of the ruler at the time, Meng T'ien of the Ch'in Dynasty. Meng T'ien ordered the construction of the wall because there were many attacks from surrounding city-states. At this time they did not have the whole wall constructed. Later more was added on and many walls were connected to form the completed wall. Since the wall was worked on at so many different times and by different people it varied in its size throughout the whole wall. The Great Wall was described in Meng T'ein's biography:

"He...built a Great Wall, constructing its defiles and passes in accordance with the configurations of the terrain. It started at Lin-t'ao and extended to Liao-tung, reaching a distance of more than ten thousand li. After crossing the Yellow River,

Twitchett, Denis and Loewe, Michael. The Cambridge History of China: Volume 1. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, England, 1986; 61- 63.

The wall was far from completed when only Meng T'ien's part was finished. Later other walls were added to and encompassed within the Great Wall. The last of the major work to be completed on the wall was during the Ming Dynasty around 1500 CE. The finished Great Wall extends around 1500 miles in an east-west direction. It travels through the four provinces of Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Gansu. It begins in northern Hebei and ends in northwest Gansu. (Nancarrow)

it wound northward, touching the Yang Mountains." (Cambridge 62)

Delahoye, H.. Drege, J.P.. Wilson, Dick. Zewen, Lou. THE GREAT

the first Emperor of Qin began to construct the Great Wall to hold off the invaders from the Xiongnu tribes in the north. (Cambridge)

The building of such a massive wall was definitely going to prove to be a massive undertaking for the time. Through public labor laws and other ways Meng T'ien had of recruiting workers he was able to get together about 300,000 men to build the original section of the wall. Since the wall stretched through the wilderness, it was not easily accessed by construction workers and by supply lines. Due to widespread diseases and injuries there was a major life loss with the building of the wall. There is an ancient Chinese myth that says that each stone in the Great Wall stands for a life lost in the construction of the Great Wall. For the construction of just Meng T'ien's section of the

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Approximate Word count = 1479
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)