Some Problems Of The Western Han Great Wall

The Great Wall of the western Han dynasty (206B.C.-9A.D.), the second unified dynasty, has a long history of building and is longer than that of the Qin(221B.C-207B.C.) and the Ming (1368A.D.-1644A.D.)dynasties. In addition, it is the first Great Wall built in the western region. Though archaeological surveys on the Great Wall have been going on for years, the study of the Great Wall in question is inadequate, with previous studies focusing on introducing the status quo of the Great Wall. As a result, up to now, the reason of building the Great Wall, the system and the functions of the Great Wall are still quite unclear.The emergence of a new thing is the result of both external and internal factors and the Great Wall in the Western Han Dynasty is no exception. In this case the external reason was the Hun’s (Xiong Nu) invasion during early Western Han Dynasty. Hun people’s livelihood was subjected to climate changes and natural disasters and they often got into trouble when odds against them, which forced the Hun to cross the Great Wall, raiding and plundering the border areas of the Western Han Dynasty. The racial discrimination of the Western Han Dynasty against the Hun ignited conflicts, which fuel by Chinese defectors.The internal reason is that Western Han Dynasty was not strong enough in comparison with the Hun in its early years. The Western Han Dynasty defeated the Hun in the reign of Emperor Wu Di (156B.C.-87B.C). But the wars cost dearly and natural disasters consumed a lot of the national wealth. As a result, the national treasury was empty and the people were reduced by half. The Hun proved hard to wipe out and the fruits of Emperor Wu’s victory needed to be protected, which could only be possible through conquest or liaison marriage with the Hun as proved by historical experiences. Due to long-time conflicts, every emperor of the Western Han Dynasty was aware of the Hun’s threat. Compared with wars, it was a better choice to build the Great Wall which cost less to protect the fruits of victory and to address the uneasiness. During the reign of Emperor Wu Di, the Great Wall was built in a massive scale and afterwards it was just repaired and maintained occasionally.The Great Wall of the Western Han Dynasty stretches across Jilin Province, Liaoning Province, Hebei Province, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Gansu Province and has been perfected and become more and more systematic. The Great Wall is a holistic defense system, with the wall and the fosses as defense, the beacon tower as defense and a means of transmitting military information, the castle as support, and the hedge and the buried picket-fence as a protective screen. The wall is the main body, complimented by the beacon towers, the castles, the passes, etc. They retain more or less their original appearance, each has its own feature. The sequence of the links of this comprehensive chain is:a) the Tian-tian (Heavenly Field), b) the fosses, c) the hedges, d) the wall, e) the pass, f)the beacon tower and g) the castle.The Great Wall of the Western Han Dynasty not only prevented nomadic invasion but also controlled the people inside. The function of preventing foreign aggression can be achieved by the defense system and garrison soldiers actively cooperating with each other. The wall, though effective, was not able to completely get rid of the Hun. Besides, a lot of fugitives were constantly emerging in the northern border of Western Han Dynasty, induced by other fugitives, lured by the Huns and prompted by poverty. The Western Han Dynasty put strict control over the fugitives by means of border surveillance and proactively tracking the fugitive stealing across the northern border. But as long as the government did not raise the standard of living in the north border, the fugitives would not be fully controlled. And, though in the north border the administration of postal delivery and the Great Wall system were the same, the Great Wall system had not the function of postal delivery.