Great Chinese remake

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Self-evident evidence in favor of the antiquity and power of the Chinese civilization is the so-called Great Wall. According to the official historical version, the Great Wall, intended to protect the country from the raids of nomadic peoples, began to be erected in the 3rd century BC. at the behest of the legendary emperor, the first ruler to unite China into one state. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia reports the following about the Great Wall:

It is good news that a significant part of the Great Wall has survived, there will be something to see. Chinese historians believe that the construction of the wall began as early as the 5th century BC, during the era of the Warring States.

The wall runs along the northern border of ancient China, stretching from the sea coast to the depths of the Mongolian deserts. The length of the wall is called from 4, 5 to 6 thousand km, the thickness is several meters (on average 5 meters), the height is 6-10 meters. The wall is said to have included 25,000 towers.

It is believed that the Great Wall, built mainly in the era of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), has survived to this day, and in total there are three historical periods of active construction of the Great Wall: the Qin era in the 3rd century BC, the Han era in III century and the era of Min. In fact, under the name "The Great Wall of China", at least three large projects in different historical eras are united, which, according to experts, in total read the total length of the walls of at least 13 thousand km. With the fall of the Ming and the establishment of the Manchu Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) in China, construction work ceased. Thus, the wall, whose construction was completed in the middle of the 17th century, has largely survived.

Found on Wikipedia, where the wall of each era is marked with its own color. As you can see, China is quite densely covered with the Great Walls.

The excessive number of these walls is somewhat alarming, and that some are found already in the north of Mongolia and enter the territory of modern Russia. Moreover, these walls write out strange squiggles, and some walls, built even in the same era, run in parallel. On more detailed historical maps, you can see areas where up to ten parallel walls are located side by side. What does it mean? Apparently, another confirmation of the mysterious antiquity of the Chinese civilization, what else.

Also, inquisitive minds are confused by the well-known fact that in China there are no credible remains of any significant ancient stone buildings, except for the Great Wall itself. Well, all the forces of the ancient Chinese architects and builders must have been absorbed by the construction of the Great Wall (walls, more precisely), why not.

It is clear that the construction of such a grandiose fortification required the Chinese state to mobilize enormous material and human resources at the limit of possibilities. Historians claim that at the same time up to a million people were employed on the construction of the Great Wall and the construction was accompanied by monstrous human casualties (according to other sources, three million builders were involved, that is, half of the male population of ancient China). It is not clear, however, what the ultimate meaning of the Chinese authorities saw in the construction of the Great Wall, since China did not have the necessary military forces, not only to defend, but at least to reliably control the wall along its entire length. Probably, due to this circumstance, nothing is known specifically about the role of the Great Wall in the defense of China. Nevertheless, the Chinese rulers have persistently erected these walls for two thousand years. Well, it must be simply not given to us to understand the logic of the ancient Chinese.

However, many Sinologists are aware of the weak persuasiveness of the rational motives proposed by the researchers of the subject, which must have prompted the ancient Chinese to create the Great Wall. And to explain the more than strange history of the unique structure, they say philosophical tirades with something like this:

That is, the ancient Chinese erected the Great Wall for rather ideological and mystical reasons, in order to outline the borders of their Middle Empire and symbolically separate from the barbarians. Isn't that a charming version?

However, in reality, things are much more outlandish. Will the sight of the Great Wall surprise you, as it amazed me in its time? It struck me even more that, as far as I know, no one is confused by the construction of the Great Wall. - - Now we will check. I will give a few typical pictures, but in general there are a lot of them on the Internet, everyone can find and admire on their own.

When I first saw photographs of the Great Wall, I was struck by the blatant absurdity of this fortification. The Great Wall cannot be called an ineffective defensive facility; from any sane military point of view, it is blatantly absurd. As you can see, the wall runs along the ridges of inaccessible mountains and hills. Why build a wall in the mountains, where not only nomads on horseback, but also a foot army is unlikely to get there?!.. Or the strategists of the Celestial Empire feared attacks by tribes of wild climbers? Apparently, the threat of an invasion of hordes of evil climbers really greatly frightened the ancient Chinese authorities, since with the primitive construction technique available to them, the difficulties of erecting a defensive wall in the mountains increased incredibly. And the crown of fantastic absurdity, if you look closely, you can see that the wall branches out at some points of intersection of mountain ranges, forming mockingly meaningless loops and ramifications.

Let's study the available material closely. It turns out that tourists are usually shown one of the sections of the Great Wall, located 60 km northwest of Beijing. This is a region of the mountain, the length of the wall is 50 km. The wall is in excellent condition, which is not surprising - its reconstruction on this site was carried out in the 50s of the 20th century. In fact, the wall was rebuilt, although it is claimed to be on old foundations. The tourist guide cheerfully reports:

«».

Yes, it does inspire.

Not far from Beijing, there are two more sections of the Great Wall, 90 km to the north, and also 110 km to the north-east, close fragments () and (). These sections of the Great Wall have been reconstructed no worse than, but look less glamorous.

Well, what else? And this is all, contrary to the optimism of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, you will not be able to see any other traces of the Great Wall due to the absence of such. In addition to the fresh "" in the vicinity of Beijing, there are insignificant ruins of the wall:

There are also small fragments of the Great Wall on the coast, an obvious remake for tourists.

The Chinese have nothing more to show, no other credible remnants of the allegedly existing thousands of kilometers of the Great Wall are not available.

Or have we jumped to conclusions? Perhaps the majestic remnants of the Great Wall have survived in the desert, inaccessible terrain. Why not. True, it is not entirely clear who, how and why built a defensive wall in a sparsely populated mountainous area, but we have already agreed to consider the ancient Chinese people with an incomprehensible ant logic. Let's say they build a wall in impossible places and it is not clear why they were forced by the blind irresistible instinct of Building the Great Wall.

Well, let's look for the Great Wall from Earth orbits. Moreover, the Beijing travel guide proudly states:

I won't tell you about the Dutch dams, but the astronauts have never observed the Great Wall. The Chinese strongly hoped that their native Chinese astronaut would finally see the Great Wall in 2003.

The Chinese were completely displeased when the European Space Agency (ESA) came to their rescue, it solemnly announced that on March 25, 2004, its satellite had finally photographed a fragment of the Great Wall of China in all its grandiose grandeur. Admiring the achievement of space archeology:

The celebration of ancient Chinese history was spoiled by numerous leisure amateurs, these amateurs insolently ridiculed the outstanding achievement of space archeology. I will give an example of one such kind of incompetent reasoning.

[referring to photo by ESA]

And it’s true, the sensation did not last long, and was soon followed by an official denial.

It has been the fifth year since that incident, but the embarrassed ESA did not provide updated photos. There are other photos from space of the alleged Great Wall of China on the Internet, but these are also nothing more than false interpretations. Riverbeds, irrigation facilities and the like are taken for the Great Wall. So there are no other visible remnants of the Great Wall, except for a grandiose attraction for tourists built not far from Beijing half a century ago.

In general, when did the Europeans become aware of the existence of the Great Wall of China? The famous European traveler Marco Polo (1254-1324), who allegedly lived in China for 17 years (1275-1292), does not write anything about the Great Wall (by the way, he also knows nothing about tea, and says nothing about hieroglyphs). Few serious researchers doubt that the book about the amazing journey of the Venetian Marco Polo was a literary hoax, hardly earlier than the 17th century. However, the fact is that the author of the book could and should have reported on the Chinese miracles that were known to the Europeans of that time. Hence, they were not known.

And what will Brockhaus and Efron say, what is the scientific information about China and its famous Great Wall at the end of the 19th century.

In the 19th century, European travelers saw the ruins of the Great Wall in the vicinity of Beijing and relied on Chinese reports of its antiquity and grandiose size. When the available fragments of the Great Wall were actually erected, it is difficult to pinpoint. The most ancient theoretically acceptable dating falls on the time of the official cessation of construction - the middle of the 17th century.

However, the 17th century is a dubious date for the creation of the legend of the Great Wall. Simply for the reason that the Chinese had neither the technical ability nor the motives to build a wall in the mountains to the surprise of foreigners, even if only a few kilometers. Although defensive structures in mountain gorges and other defiles north of Beijing must have existed. There was a real practical sense in their creation, fortifications were required for defense against the Manchus. In the second half of the 17th century, the Manchus conquered the country (their success was determined not so much by military power as by the internal intrigues and troubles of the Chinese) and established their ruling Qing dynasty in China. Actually, it was under this dynasty in the first half of the 18th century, in the main features of the century, the China known to us was formed.

We do not undertake to assert precisely, in our humble opinion the most plausible time for the creation of the myth of the Great Wall and the erection of its fragments in the form of visual confirmation of the greatness and antiquity of Chinese history is the end of the 18th century, the beginning of the 19th century. Since it was during the reign of the Kangxi (1661-1723) and Qianlong (1736-1795) emperors, the empire expanded and its population increased significantly, China reached its present-day borders in the north, west and south. The authorities of the resulting giant Manchu-Chinese empire established orthodox Confucianism as their state ideology. They also officially approved and published ancient historical chronicles, a collection of classical Chinese writers, and charged Chinese officials with all this ancient cultural heritage to cram and take exams (works on Chinese history and literary works unlawful by the authorities were mercilessly limited and destroyed). By the way, under Qianlong in China, the authorities instilled the cultivation and consumption of tea, stories about a much more ancient history of tea in China are fictions.

The Sino-Manchu state in the Qing era perceived itself as a Middle Empire, considered itself the only center of true culture and civilization, and treated all other states, including European ones, as savage and barbaric countries, tributaries of the Bogdikhan. Located in 1793-1794. in China, the British ambassador, Lord George McCartney - on the embassy ship sailing along the canal to Beijing, the Chinese hung out a banner with the inscription "" - they specially demonstrated a fragment of the Great Wall. After the inspection, which he said that if the whole wall is the same as the part that he saw, then this is.

The fact that the wall was built in the mountains clearly indicates that the Great Wall was originally created to falsify Chinese history. After all, no irrefutable material facts in favor of the antiquity of Chinese history and culture did not exist. Primary sources on Chinese history are fiction close to the historical fantasy genre. Europeans discovered China at the beginning of the 16th century; an influential mission of the Jesuits was at the court of the Chinese emperor for two centuries. The official period of the Jesuit missions in China is 1552 - 1775, but it should be borne in mind that European progressors appeared in China somewhat earlier, and in fact remained in the country after the official closure of the Jesuit mission.

The Italian Jesuit achieved enormous influence at the court of the Chinese emperor. In 1601, he was admitted to the court of the Bogdykhan, whom he impressed with his amazing learning and mechanical clock.

And not surprisingly, before the arrival of the Europeans, Chinese society was at an extremely low level of development, managed to develop only extremely primitive forms of religious beliefs (by the way, Matteo Riccia got into the pantheon of Chinese gods as the spirit of the clock). The Jesuits spread information about the deep antiquity of the Chinese civilization and gave rise to a fashion for Chinese exoticism in Europe of the 17th-18th centuries. However, from their reports it is clear that the Chinese court artists do not know how to draw properly, the court scholars are extremely ignorant, and that Ricci supposedly knows the original Chinese characters much better than the Chinese themselves. Let us note that this is the state of affairs after at least half a century of the activity of European cultural traders. Matteo Riccia left colorful sketches of his arrival at the Chinese court.

What contribution the Europeans made to the development of Chinese civilization, including the formation of ancient Chinese history and culture, we do not know for certain. However, according to many indirect signs, the leading and guiding role of the Jesuits was very, very significant, if not decisive. And not only in terms of the formation of Chinese culture and ideas about its ancient history, but also the political influence of the Jesuits in China was very great.

The story of the meeting of the Jesuit resident with the Wanli emperor (reigned 1572-1620), we have cited not only to demonstrate the level of Chinese scholarship, this wonderful emperor is directly related to the history of the Great Wall:

So, it is quite possible that the wise Jesuits initially slipped the project for the construction of the Great Wall to Wanli, who was heavily addicted to opium. Why did they need it, we cannot judge.

Let's return to the question, why, after all, the Great Wall was led in the mountains. There are reasons here, except for those that may have recreated and extended, perhaps, the old fortifications of the Pre-Manchu era that were in the gorges and mountain defiles. The construction of an ancient historical monument in the mountains has its advantages. It is difficult for an observer to ascertain whether the ruins of the Great Wall really stretch back thousands of kilometers along the mountain ranges, as he is told. In addition, in the mountains it is impossible to establish how old the foundations of the wall are. Over the course of several centuries, stone buildings on ordinary ground, carried by sedimentary rocks, inevitably plunge into the ground for several meters, and this is easy to verify. And on rocky ground, this phenomenon is not observed, and a recent building can easily be passed off as very ancient. And besides, there is no large local population in the mountains, a potential inconvenient witness to the construction of a historical landmark.

It is unlikely that the original fragments of the Great Wall north of Beijing were built on a significant scale, even for China in the early 19th century, this is a difficult task. In our opinion, those several tens of kilometers of the Great Wall, which are shown to tourists, for the most part were first erected under the Great Pilot Mao Zedong. Also a kind of Chinese emperor, but still it cannot be said that he is very ancient.

For the sake of scrupulousness, we note that in the north-west of China there are sections of the Great Wall several tens of kilometers long. However, the western part of the wall was not built of stone, but is filled or adobe. In general, according to Chinese historians, the most ancient and longest part of the wall, erected in the steppes and deserts, was a rammed earth rampart 3-5 meters high. It is clear that the ancient traces (foundations) of such a structure cannot be found, and those on the surface are quickly destroyed. Chinese historians bitterly blame the deteriorated modern ecology, mercilessly destroying a historical landmark of a worldwide scale.

We suspect that the ecology of the Shanxi deserts, as it was, has remained the same. In the local climate, an adobe wall, and even more so an earthen embankment, will be blown away completely in a few decades. Having estimated the usual rates of wind erosion, it is not difficult to guess that the adobe wall passed off as part of the Great Wall was made quite recently, and it did not last long. This is what the Great Wall looks like in its western section:

Sorry sight. In the article by A. V. Galanin, in which I found these photographs, a witty assumption is made that in reality the Great Wall was intended to protect against the advancing sands. Or as a signpost for caravans. It is difficult to think of a more ridiculous explanation of what to do.

Oh, there in the steppes they also formed the "ramparts of Genghis Khan". The deeper into Asian history, the more fun and fun. I believe that at the beginning of the 20th century, these ramparts were poured by the Chinese as a fragment of the Great Wall to confirm the validity of their historical claims on the territory of Mongolia. Then the savvy Mongols attributed their creation to Genghis Khan, and so they repulsed the Chinese historical aggression.

Let's note an amusing incident, rightly pointing out the obvious senselessness of the Great Wall from a military point of view, A. V. Galanin expresses a bold hypothesis for what purpose the ancient Chinese built a stone wall in the mountains:

Well, it cannot be ruled out that the Chinese will soon be credited with the invention of the ancient Chinese railway. Many will believe.

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