The Great Wall
The Great Wall was continuously built from the 3rd century BC to
the 17th century AD on the northern border of the country as the great military
defence project of successive Chinese Empires, with a total length of more than
20,000 kilometers. The Great Wall begins in the east at Shanhaiguan in Hebei
province and ends at Jiayuguan in Gansu province to the west. Its main body
consists of walls, horse tracks, watch towers, and shelters on the wall, and
includes fortresses and passes along the Wall.
The Great Wall reflects collision and exchanges between
agricultural civilizations and nomadic civilizations in ancient China. It
provides significant physical evidence of the far-sighted political strategic
thinking and mighty military and national defence forces of central empires in
ancient China, and is an outstanding example of the superb military
architecture, technology and art of ancient China. It embodies unparalleled
significance as the national symbol for safeguarding the security of the
country and its people.
Criterion (i): The Great Wall of the Ming is, not only because of the ambitious
character of the undertaking but also the perfection of its construction, an
absolute masterpiece. The only work built by human hands on this planet that
can be seen from the moon, the Wall constitutes, on the vast scale of a
continent, a perfect example of architecture integrated into the landscape.
Criterion (ii): During the Chunqiu period, the Chinese imposed their models
of construction and organization of space in building the defence works along
the northern frontier. The spread of Sinicism was accentuated by the population
transfers necessitated by the Great Wall.
Criterion (iii): That the Great Wall bear exceptional testimony to the civilizations
of ancient China is illustrated as much by the rammed-earth sections of
fortifications dating from the Western Han that are conserved in the Gansu
province as by the admirable and universally acclaimed masonry of the Ming
period.
Criterion (iv): This
complex and diachronic cultural property is an outstanding and unique example
of a military architectural ensemble which served a single strategic purpose
for 2000 years, but whose construction history illustrates successive advances
in defence techniques and adaptation to changing political contexts.
Criterion (vi): The Great Wall has an incomparable symbolic significance in the
history of China. Its purpose was to protect China from outside aggression, but
also to preserve its culture from the customs of foreign barbarians. Because
its construction implied suffering, it is one of the essential references in
Chinese literature, being found in works like the "Soldier's Ballad"
of Tch'en Lin (c. 200 A.D.) or the poems of Tu Fu (712-770) and the popular
novels of the Ming period.
Integrity
The Great Wall integrally preserves all the material and spiritual
elements and historical and cultural information that carry its outstanding
universal value. The complete route of the Great Wall over 20,000 kilometers,
as well as elements constructed in different historical periods which
constitute the complicated defence system of the property, including walls,
fortresses, passes and beacon towers, have been preserved to the present
day. The building methods of the Great Wall in different times and places have
been integrally maintained, while the unparalleled national and cultural
significance of the Great Wall to China is still recognised today. The visual
integrity of the Wall at Badaling has been impacted negatively by construction
of tourist facilities and a cable car.
Authenticity
The existing elements of the Great Wall retain their original
location, material, form, technology and structure. The original layout and
composition of various constituents of the Great Wall defence system are
maintained, while the perfect integration of the Great Wall with the
topography, to form a meandering landscape feature, and the military concepts
it embodies have all been authentically preserved. The authenticity of the
setting of the Great Wall is vulnerable to construction of inappropriate
tourism facilities.
Protection and management requirements
The various components of the Great Wall have all been listed as
state or provincial priority protected sites under theLaw of
the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics.
The Regulations on the Protection of the Great Wall promulgated
in 2006 is the specific legal document for the conservation and management of
the Great Wall. The series of Great Wall Conservation Plans, which
is being constantly extended and improved and covers various levels from master
plan to provincial plans and specific plans, is an important guarantee of the
comprehensive conservation and management of the Great Wall. China’s national
administration on cultural heritage, and provincial cultural heritage
administrations where sections of the Great Wall are located, are responsible
for guiding the local governments on the implementation of conservation and
management measures for the Great Wall.
The Outstanding Universal Value of the Great Wall and all its
attributes must be protected as a whole, so as to fulfill authentic, integral
and permanent preservation of the property. To this end, considering the
characteristics of the Great Wall, including its massive scale, transprovincial
distribution and complicated conditions for its protection and conservation,
management procedures and regulations, conservation interventions for the
original fabric and setting, and tourism management shall be more systematic,
scientific, classified, and prioritized. An efficient comprehensive management
system, as well as specific conservation measures for the original fabric and
setting will be established, while a harmonious relationship featuring sustainable
development between heritage protection and social economy and culture can be
formed. Meanwhile, the study and dissemination of the rich connotation of the
property’s Outstanding Universal Value shall be enhanced, so as to fully and
sustainably realize the social and cultural benefits of the Great Wall.
Long Description
Known to the Chinese as
the 'Long Wall of Ten Thousand Li', the formidable defensive structures built
to ward off invasion of the Celestial Empire by barbarians is called the Great
Wall or the Wall of China by Europeans. The principle of these extraordinary
fortifications goes back to the Chunqiu period (722-481 BC) and to the Warring
States period (453-221 BC).
The construction of
certain walls can be explained by feudal conflicts, such as that built by the
Wei in 408 BC to defend their kingdom against the Qin. Its vestiges, conserved
in the centre of China, antedate by many years the walls built by the Kingdoms
of Qin, Zhao and Yan against the northern barbarians around 300 BC. Beginning
in 220 BC, Qin Shi Huang, the founder of the Empire of the Ten Thousand
Generations, undertook to restore and link up the separate sections of the
Great Wall which had been built in the 3rd century BC, or perhaps even earlier,
and which stretched from the region of the Ordos to Manchuria.
Towards the west, he had
extended the fortifications, the first cohesive defence system of which
significant vestiges still remain in the valley of the Huanghe all the way to
Lanzhou shortly before the accession of the Han dynasty (206 BC). During their
reign the Great Wall was extended even further, and under the emperor Wudi
(140-87 BC) it spanned approximately 6,000 km between Dunhuang in the west
and the Bohai Sea in the east. The danger of incursion along the northern
Chinese border by the federated Mongols, Turks and Tunguz of the Empire of the
Xiongnu, the first empire of the steppes, made a defence policy more necessary
than ever. After the downfall of the Han dynasty (AD 220), the Great Wall
entered its medieval phase. Construction and maintenance works were halted;
China at that time enjoyed such great military power that the need for a
defence policy was no longer felt.
It was the Ming Emperors
(1368-1644) who, after the long period of conflict that ended with the
expulsion of the Mongols, revived the tradition begun by Qin Shi Huang. During
the Ming dynasty, 5,650 km of wall were built. To defend the northern
frontier, the Wall was divided into nine Zhen, military districts rather than
garrisons. At strategic points, fortresses were built to defend the towns,
passes, or fords. The passageways running along the top of the wall made it
possible to move troops rapidly and for imperial couriers to travel. Two
symbolic monuments still proudly stand at either end of the wall - the First
Door under Heaven at Shanhaiguan, located at the wall's eastern end, and the
Last Door under Heaven at Jiayuguan, which, as part of the fortress entirely
restored after 1949, marks its north-western end.
This complex and diachronic
cultural property is an outstanding and unique example of a military
architectural ensemble which served a single strategic purpose for 2,000 years,
but whose construction history illustrates successive advances in defence
techniques and adaptation to changing political contexts. The purpose of The
Great Wall was to protect China from outside aggression, but also to preserve
its culture from the customs of foreign barbarians. Because its construction
implied suffering, it is one of the essential references in Chinese literature.
The Great Wall of the
Ming is, not only because of the ambitious character of the undertaking but
also the perfection of its construction, a masterpiece. The wall constitutes,
on the vast scale of a continent, a perfect example of architecture integrated
into the landscape. During the Chunqiu period, the Chinese imposed their models
of construction and organization of space in building the defence works along
the northern frontier. The spread of Sinicism was accentuated by the population
transfers necessitated by the Great Wall.
That the great walls
bear exceptional testimony to the civilizations of ancient China is illustrated
as much by the tamped-earth sections of fortifications dating from the Western
Han that are conserved in Gansu Province as by the admirable and universally
acclaimed masonry of the Ming period.
0 comments:
Post a Comment