Chapter 50 When building the Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China was completed at its northernmost point.This project starts from the southeast and southwest respectively, and finally meets here.In the east-west wall-building army, this method of segmented construction was implemented in a smaller area, so the people who built the city wall were divided into teams of about 20 people, and each team was responsible for building 500 people. meters, and then an adjacent squad builds a section of the same length towards them.But when the two sections were connected, they did not continue to build the Great Wall at the end of the kilometer. To be more precise, the two teams were sent to completely different areas to build the Great Wall.This method naturally created many large gaps, which were filled gradually and slowly, some not even until after the Great Wall was declared complete.Yes, it is said that some of the gaps were not plugged at all, although this is a view that can only be seen in the many legends surrounding this project. There is no way to verify these legends by your own standards, at least not by a single person.

At first, people thought that no matter what kind of meaning it is, it is more beneficial for at least two parts to be practiced together separately.Everyone is saying, everyone knows that the Great Wall was built out of the consideration of resisting the northern tribes.But how can a Great Wall that has not been built together resist it.No, such a wall is not only irresistible, but the building itself is always in danger.Sections of the wall left unattended in desolate areas are vulnerable to repeated damage by nomads, who, frightened by the builders of the Great Wall, change their habitats like locusts, and therefore they probably understand the whole better than we builders. Case.Nevertheless, it is probable that this aspect of the project can only be carried out by this practical method.To understand these things must be considered this way: the Great Wall should be a barrier for centuries; the absolute seriousness of construction, the use of the architectural wisdom of all dynasties and nations, and the continuous personal responsibility of the builders are all necessary to build the Great Wall prerequisites.Although ignorant folks can be used for those rough jobs, men, women, and young people all recommend themselves to earn a lot of money, but the corporal commanding the four civilians should be a person with a brain and an education in the construction industry. A person who can understand the meaning of this matter from the bottom of his heart.The higher the requirements, the higher the results.In fact, although the number of such talents at that time could not meet the needs of the project, it was still considerable.

The work was not done lightly.Fifty years before this project was started, throughout presumably walled China, building technology, and especially masonry, had been proclaimed the most important science, while other trades were acquired only in connection with it. admit.I still remember very clearly that when I was a child, we stood in Mr.'s small garden just as our calves were able to stand firmly. We had to build a kind of wall with pebbles. Of course, it all collapsed when the building was built, and Mr. reprimanded us for not building it firmly. We were so frightened that we ran away crying and screaming to find our parents.It was a small thing, but it typified the spirit of the time.

I was very lucky that when I was twenty years old and finished the most advanced examination in elementary school, it happened to be just in time for the start of construction on the Great Wall.I say lucky because there are many people who have completed the education they could have enjoyed, but have not used it for many years, and have grand architectural ideas in their chests, but they have been in vain.But those who finally come to the project as engineering leaders - albeit at the lowest level - are, in fact, worthy of the job.They are masons who have thought a lot about the project and are still thinking about it, and they feel at one with the project from the moment the first foundation stone is laid in the earth.Of course, apart from the desire to be able to do the most basic work, these masons are also driven by the eagerness to see the project finally completed flawlessly.The folks don't have this kind of mood, and they are only driven by wages.As for the top leaders, and even the middle leaders, in order to stay mentally strong, they hate multiple projects.However, for those who are of lower status and whose talents have not been used to the fullest, other measures must be taken. For example, they cannot be allowed to build bricks one by one in the wild mountains and mountains thousands of miles away from home for several months or even years. Disappointment in this kind of hard work may lead them to lose confidence and, most importantly, make them more and more useless at work.Therefore, people chose the method of building in sections.The 500 meters can be completed in about five years. At this time, these little bosses are naturally exhausted and have lost confidence in themselves, in the project, and in the world.So when they were still rejoicing at the 1,000-meter city wall connection ceremony, they were sent to far, far away places.During the journey, from time to time, they saw sections of the completed city walls towering. When they passed by the boss's residence, they were awarded medals. What I saw was the forest felled for scaffolding, stone mountains were knocked into city bricks, and the singing of devout people praying for the completion of the project can still be heard in various holy places.All this eased their anxiety.After a peaceful life in their hometown, they became more robust.The reputation enjoyed by those who built the Great Wall, the reverence people listened to when they built the Great Wall, and the silent confidence of ordinary people that the Great Wall will eventually be completed, all these tightened their heartstrings again.They bid farewell to their hometown like children with hope forever, and their desire to do their best for the great cause of the nation became irresistible.They came out of their homes before the time came, and the people of half the village kept sending them far, far away.Groups of people can be seen on every road, with corner flags and colorful flags. They have never realized that their country is so vast, so rich, so beautiful, and so lovely.Every farmer is a brother, and a barrier must be built for them, for which he will be grateful for all his life.How coordinated!How consistent!Chest to chest, a kind of folk round dance, the blood is no longer imprisoned in the poor internal circulation, but flows sweetly back and forth in the boundless China.

It becomes easy to understand through these methods of segmented construction, but there are probably various other reasons for it.It is not surprising that I have stayed on this issue for so long. It is the core issue of the entire Great Wall project, and it seems not so important for the time being.I want to present the ideas and experiences of that era and make them understandable, and it is precisely this that I cannot delve into. One must first tell oneself that there were many achievements then, which were only slightly inferior to the construction of the Tower of Babel, and yet, in piety, they were the exact opposite of that building, at least according to one's intentions.The reason I mention this is that when the Great Wall project began, a scholar wrote a book that compared them in great detail.In the book he tries to prove that the failure of the construction of the Tower of Babel is by no means due to the reasons that everyone said, or at least the first reason is not among the well-known reasons.He not only wrote articles and reports to prove it, but also wanted to conduct on-the-spot investigations in person. At the same time, he believed that the project failed because of a weak foundation, and it must have failed because of a weak foundation.In this respect, however, our age far surpasses that long gone.Almost every educated person these days is a professional mason and is unambiguous when it comes to foundations.But the scholar did not discuss these at all, claiming that for the first time in human history the Great Wall would lay a solid foundation for the new Tower of Babel.That is to say, build the Great Wall first and then build the tower.Everyone had a copy of the book at the time, but to be honest, to this day I don't fully understand how he imagined the tower.The Great Wall does not form a circle, but only a quarter or half of a circle. Could it be the foundation of a tower?This can only be counted as intellectual mediocrity.However, as a real Great Wall, the result of countless hardships and lives, what is it for?Why, in this work, describe the plan of the tower, even if it is a vague plan, why make specific suggestions for how to unite and coordinate the forces of the people in this new enterprise?

This book is just one example of a time when people's minds were extremely confused, perhaps precisely because many people were trying to converge as much as possible on one goal.Man's nature is frivolous at its root, like the nature of flying dust, free from any restraint.If it is restrained, it will immediately start to shake the things that restrain it crazily, shaking the walls, chains and itself all flying in all directions. The leadership may not have been indifferent to considerations diametrically opposed to building the Great Wall when determining the segmented construction.We, I am afraid I say this in the name of many, did not know each other until we were copying the edicts, and we found that without the highest leadership, neither our book knowledge nor our insight, Not enough for our little responsibilities in this great whole.In the leadership chamber—where it was located and who sat in it—no one I asked knew, and still doesn't.Probably all human thoughts and desires are hovering in that secret room, and all human goals and desires are spiraling in the opposite direction.Through the window, the afterglow of the God Realm fell on the hands of the leading group depicting various plans.

Constructing the entire line at the same time is facing many difficulties, and the leadership group is unable to overcome them even if they really want to. This kind of statement will not be accepted by opinionated observers.As a result, there is such an inference that the leading group deliberately implemented segmented construction.However, building in sections is only an expedient measure and is inappropriate.So there is this kind of inference: what the leadership group wants is not suitable. — Strange deduction!There is no doubt that even on the other hand it has some legitimacy of its own.There is probably no danger in saying this today.There was a code secretly followed by many, even the most eminent, of trying to understand the directives of the leadership as best they could, but only up to a certain point, after which they had to stop thinking.A very sane maxim, which is further illustrated in a metaphor often mentioned later: You don't stop thinking because it might endanger you, not being quite sure it will.Here it is simply impossible to say that it will be endangered, nor can it be said that it will not be endangered.Your fate will be the same as that of the spring river.Its water level rises, it is more powerful, it is closer to the land on its long banks, and it maintains its own nature until it meets the sea, it is more like the sea, and it is more popular with the sea. ——This is the end of my thinking about the order of the leadership group. ——However, the river later overflowed its own embankment, lost its outline and shape, slowed down the speed of flowing downstream, attempted to violate its mission, and formed small seas inland, which destroyed the farmland and grassland, But it could not maintain this momentum of expansion for long, so it had to flow back into its own river, which even tragically dried up in the hot season. ——Don't think so much about orders to the leadership group.

This metaphor may have been particularly appropriate during the construction of the Great Wall, but its impact on my current reports is at least very limited.My investigation is simply a historical investigation.The thunderclouds that had dissipated would no longer spew lightning, so I could look for an explanation of segmented construction that went further than people were then content with.The scope of my thinking ability is narrow enough for me, but the area where I can gallop freely is boundless. Who should the Great Wall be used to defend?Defense of the northern tribes.I am from southeastern China.None of the northern peoples poses a threat to us.We all read about them in the books written by the ancients, whose outrages of nature made ours sigh in our peaceful pavilions.In each of the realistic paintings by the artists, we see the faces that should be punished to hell, with grinning mouths, jaws with fangs and sharp teeth, and closed eyes, which seem to be particularly greedy and will be chewed by the mouth prey.If children are mischievous, just show them these paintings, and they will cry and throw their arms around our necks.That's all we know about these northern countries.We never saw them, staying in our own village, we would never see them, even if they rode straight towards us on their strong horses, - the country is too big for them to reach us, they will never stay in the air.

That being the case, why do we leave our hometown, this river and these bridges, our parents, weeping wives and children who are anxious to be educated, and go to distant cities to study? Why do we still think about the Great Wall in the north?Why?Go ask the leadership group.They know us.The leadership group, who are always thinking about big and worrying things, knows about us and our little craft. They know that we are all sitting in a low hut, and they may or may not be satisfied with the prayers that my father prays in front of the family in the evening. .If I am allowed to think of the leadership group in this way, then I have to say that according to my point of view, this leadership group has existed for a long time, but they did not meet, probably stimulated by a sweet dream in the early morning, and the courtiers hurriedly called a meeting , hastily made decisions, and at night drummed the people out of their beds to explain the decisions, even though it was nothing more than a lantern festival for the god who had shown these gentlemen yesterday a good omen, but the next day No sooner had the streetlights gone out than they were beaten up in a dark corner.In fact, this leading group may have always existed, as did the decision to build the Great Wall.The innocent emperor thought that he ordered the Great Wall to be built.Those of us who have built the Great Wall know that is not the case, and we are silent.

From the construction of the Great Wall to today, I have almost been single-handedly focusing on comparative world history—only this method can touch their nerves to a certain extent—I found in my research that we Chinese have a deep understanding of certain people and countries. One institution is utterly clear, while others are utterly ambiguous.The search for these causes, and especially the latter phenomenon, has always fascinated me and continues to fascinate me now, and these questions relate to the construction of the Great Wall. At least the royal family belongs to one of the institutions we least understand.Of course, in Beijing, or in other words, among the courtiers, they are a little clear about it, although this kind of clarity is more false than real.Even national law teachers and history teachers in institutions of higher learning pretend to know these things like the back of their hands, and pretend to be able to introduce what they know to college students.The lower the level of the school, the less doubtful it is of course for one's own knowledge, and the superficial education creates a huge wave around a few theorems that have been unchanged for hundreds of years. Although they are eternal truths, they are in I'm afraid you will never be able to tell them apart in this kind of cloudy sky and foggy sea.

But according to my opinion, questions about the royal family should be asked of the common people, because the common people are the ultimate support of the royal family.Of course, I can only talk about my hometown here.Apart from the gods of Saturn and the colorful and wonderful sacrifices to them throughout the year, we only have the emperor in our minds, but not the current emperor.In fact, if we know the current emperor, or know some specific circumstances about him, we will keep him in our minds.Of course we always want to know something about it, this is the only curiosity we have, but it is so strange to say, it is almost impossible to know anything, not from the pilgrims who have traveled a lot, since It is not understood in the villages near and far, and it is not understood by the boatmen who have not only sailed in our small rivers, but also crossed the great rivers.Although I heard a lot, I couldn't deduce anything from it. Our country is so vast that no fairy tale can go out of its borders, and the sky has just covered it... Beijing is only a dot, and the imperial palace is only a small dot.However, the emperor is so big that it fills every layer of this world.But the present emperor is also a human being like us, and like us, he also needs to lie on a bed. Although the bed is more than enough, it may still be short and narrow.Like us, he sometimes stretched his arms and legs, and when he was very sleepy he yawned with his delicate mouth.But how do we know this, thousands of miles away in the south, we are almost at the edge of the Tibetan plateau.Besides, every piece of news, if it ever gets to us, arrives very, very late and is long out of date.The emperor was surrounded by a large number of prominent but hard to see courtiers—servants and friends dressed in viciousness and hostility, they were the balance of the monarchy, and they always wanted to shoot the emperor down with poisonous arrows.Monarchy is immortal, but individual emperors fall, and even entire dynasties eventually fall to the ground, dying with a grunt.People will never know about these struggles and sufferings. They are like latecomers, standing at the end of a crowded alley, quietly eating the dry food they brought, while in the middle of the market square in the distance ahead, there is Execute their masters.There is a legend that clearly reflects this relationship.Your Majesty, this is how the story is told, for you, for you, for you, for your poor servant, for you, this shadow that fled before the emperor's holy light, and the emperor gave you an edict when he was lying on his bed before his death.He asked the messenger to kneel beside the bed and whispered the edict into his ear.He attached great importance to this edict, so he asked the messenger to repeat it in his ears.He nodded to show that the repeated edict was correct.In the presence of all those who witnessed the death of the emperor—all obstacles were destroyed, and on the high and wide open steps stood circles of the great men of the empire—the emperor sent the messenger away up.The messenger left immediately.He is strong and tireless, stretching out this arm for a while, and stretching out that arm for a while, struggling to make a way for himself in the crowd.When confronted with resistance, he points to his chest, where there is the sun's mark, so that he can move forward more easily than anyone else.But there are so many people huddled together, and their residences can't be seen at a glance.If an open field lay before him, he would walk so fast that you would probably soon hear his fist beating on your door.But in fact it is not the case, his sweat will be in vain.He is still squeezing desperately in the room of the inner palace, and he will never be able to squeeze out.Even if he could squeeze out, it was useless, he would have to fight his way down the steps.Even if you squeeze down the steps, it’s useless, you have to pass through several courtyards, and after passing through the courtyards, you will be surrounded by a palace, with steps and courtyards, and another palace. It will take thousands of years to continue like this.When he finally rushed out of the outermost palace gate—however, this would never happen—the capital appeared before him, and the center of the world was filled with sediments that fell from high places.No one can squeeze out from here, even with a will. —But when dusk falls, you sit by the window and dream of the will. This is how our people look at the emperor, so disappointed, but also so full of hope.They don't know who the current emperor is, and they even have doubts about the name of the dynasty.Many of these things are taught in order in school, and yet people are so perplexed about it that even the best students can only wonder along.The long-dead emperor is enthroned in our village, and the emperor who can only be heard in the song issued an edict not long ago, and the monk read it out in front of the altar.The oldest battle in history is only now being fought, and a red-faced neighbor rushes into your house with the news.The women in the harem are extravagantly raised in brocade cushions, and their cunning attendants alienate them from noble virtues. Their desire for power is inflated, they are insatiable, they indulge in pleasure, and they commit crimes again and again.The longer time passes, the more frighteningly gorgeous all the colors become.Once, the whole village learned through wailing that a queen drank her husband's blood thousands of years ago. This is how the people treated the past monarchs, but they also mixed the current monarchs into the pile of dead people.Once, it was a certain time in a certain generation, a royal official who was touring the province came to our village by chance. After inquiring about what we were doing, before getting into the sedan chair, he gave a long lecture to the villagers who were driven over and summed up everything again. At this time, there was a smile on everyone's face, and you glanced at me , I glanced at him again, and then all looked down at the child, lest the official pay attention to me.What's the matter, everyone thought to themselves, he talked about the dead as if he were talking about the living, but this emperor has long since died, and this dynasty has long since collapsed. Mr. officials are making fun of us, but we pretend not to notice, lest Hurt his face.But people can only really obey the current monarch, because everything else is sin.Behind the hastily leaving official sedan chair, a certain person lifted from the collapsed urn stomped his feet and became the owner of the village. Likewise, those of us here generally have very little to do with regime changes and contemporary wars.I still remember an incident from my teenage years.An insurrection broke out in a neighboring province, a neighboring province but very far away.The reasons for the riots don't come to my mind, and they don't matter, reasons for riots arise every morning in that place.People in that place were emotional.One day a beggar who traveled all over the province brought a leaflet for the rioters to my father's house.It was a festival at that time, and our house was full of guests.The monk sat in the middle and looked at the leaflet carefully.Suddenly everyone burst into laughter, the leaflets were torn apart in the scramble, and the beggar who received a lot was kicked out of the house with a stick, and everyone scattered to enjoy the beautiful day.why?The dialects of the neighboring provinces are quite different from ours, and this difference is also expressed in certain forms of the written language, which for us have an archaic flavor.The monk has not finished reading two pages, and everyone has already made a judgment.I have heard about the old-fashioned things a long time ago, and I have not kept them in my heart for a long time.Although—as I remember it seemed to be so—the beggar's words were irrefutable confirmation of that terrible life, but everyone laughed and shook their heads, not wanting to hear a word.Those of us here are so happy to kill the present. If we can deduce from this phenomenon that there is no emperor in our hearts, then it is not far from the truth.I have to repeat: perhaps there is no one more loyal to the emperor than us southern people, but this kind of loyalty does not bring benefits to the emperor.Although there is a sacred dragon coiled on a small pillar at the entrance of our village, and it has been exhaling fiery breath reverently towards Beijing since the beginning of history, people in the village feel that Beijing is much stranger than the afterlife.Could it be that there is really such a village, where houses are lined up in rows and covered with fields, which cannot be seen from our hill, and people stand shoulder to shoulder between the houses day and night, is there really such a village?For us, it is too difficult to imagine what such a city would look like. It would be better if Beijing and the emperor are the same thing, maybe it is just a cloud, a cloud that quietly walks in the long river of time under the sun. The result of these observations was a relatively free and unfettered life, but by no means immoral, and I have seldom encountered in my travels a pure morality like that of my native land.It is a life that is not bound by any laws of the present day, but obeys only the precepts and admonitions handed down to us from antiquity. I have to avoid generalizing, I don't think this is the case in thousands of villages in our province, let alone in China's five hundred provinces.But perhaps I can base my reading on the subject on the basis of my own observations—there is a wealth of information on people during the construction of the Great Wall, and observers can take this opportunity to explore the hearts of people in almost all provinces—according to this All I may say is that the main views of the emperor in the various regions show the same basic characteristics as those in my own country.I have nothing to say about this view as a virtue.It is mainly caused by the ruling group, which in the oldest empire in the world has until today been unable or neglected to train the imperial institutions so clearly that their influence can continue to reach directly to the farthest reaches of the empire border.But on the other hand, the lack of imagination or guessing ability of the people is also related to this. The imperial system is only alive in Beijing, and only in Beijing can the contemporary people feel it. The people have no ability to pull it to the chest of their servants. , their breasts want nothing more than to feel the touch and die in it. This view may not be a virtue.Stranger still, this lack seems to be one of the most important cohesive agents of our nation, yes, if it is allowed to be bolder, the land on which we live.It is much worse to detail here a reason for an accusation that shakes not our hearts but our legs.Therefore, I don't want to continue the research on this issue for the time being.