Rethinking The Ming Great Wall Defense System

The Ming Great Wall Defense System is a theory widely used in today’s academic circles to explain the operation of the nine-sided military towns of the Ming Dynasty.In this theory,the Great Wall is not just a stretched wall,but a complex system that includes different levels of cities and towns(town cities,fortress cities,etc.)and various auxiliary facilities(beacons,post stations,etc.)in the military towns.This paper argues that although this theory is useful for a better grasp of the Ming Great Wall,the implicit structural tendency of the theory will obliterate the spatial and temporal differences in the Great Wall,and the resulting abstraction will probably hinder our understanding of the inherent mechanisms of the Great Wall.Therefore,as the results of The Resource Surveys of the Ming Great Wall in different provinces have been published one after another,it is both necessary and possible for us to expand this theory accordingly.This thesis addresses 36 border fortresses,which are a group of low-grade cities that constitute the eastern part of the Liaodong Great Wall Defense System,as a case study to shed a light on the expansion of the theory of MGWDS.Firstly,the adjustment of the research unit.While acknowledging the significant commonality of the Ming Great Wall,this paper pays more attention to the differences between different sections of the Great Wall.On the basis of the sectional studies,I also make the time scale more precise,emphasizing the different states of the Great Wall of Eastern Liaodong in different historical periods such as Chenghua,Jiajing and Wanli.This constitutes the third chapter of this thesis.The second is the adjustment of the research perspective.The history of the Great Wall cannot be described and analyzed only from a macro perspective,otherwise the many mechanisms of the Great Wall will be ignored and the "system" theory itself will lose its credibility.In Chapter 4,I focus on the specific ways of building and using the border fortresses along the eastern Liaodong and reveal the morphological characteristics and site selection strategies of the border fortresses under the macro layout.Finally,I also call for a re-examination of the research sources of the Great Wall,rather than a direct appropriation of historical materials and existing research results without scrutiny.In Chapter 2,I re-examine the temporal and spatial distribution of the border fortresses along the eastern Liaodong by analyzing historical materials and revising the existing research results,so as to provide a relatively reliable foundation for the aforementioned research.The theory of "Ming Great Wall Defense System" should not only focus on how to abstract the "overall structure",but also how to describe the "structuring".In this thesis,the Great Wall is placed in a specific historical context,and the existing "system" theory is supplemented from the perspectives of temporal and spatial subdivision and case interpretation.This may help us to understand the Great Wall in a both concrete and comprehensive way as the resource surveys of the Great Wall continues.