When people think of China one of the first things they think of is the Great Wall. Designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1987, the Great Wall is over 21,000km in length and almost 3,000 years old. Located in northern China, it was constructed mainly to keep out various groups of northern invaders. General Meng Tian, a military general of the Qin dynasty, was ordered by Emperor Qin Shihuang to take his army of around 300,000 men to fight off some of the nomadic tribes, and to begin construction on the Great Wall. The workers used materials such as stone, bricks, and rammed earth to build the wall. While the Great Wall cannot be seen from the moon, according to NASA, the European Space Agency, and some of the astronauts who have spent time on the International Space Station, it is just visible to the naked eye from an orbit of anywhere from 160km to 320km above the surface of the Earth…but only under very favorable conditions, and only if you know exactly where to look and what you’re looking for!
And it’s not just science that makes the Great Wall interesting. There are a number of legends attached to it as well. Perhaps the most well-known legend behind the Great Wall is the legend of Lady Meng Jiangnü (孟姜女). Set during the Qin Dynasty, a version of the story of Meng Jiangnü begins with a man by the name of Meng who lived in the southern part of China, along with his next-door neighbor, Jiang. One day, a bottle gourd plant sprouted in Meng’s yard and grew rapidly over the wall between the neighbors’ houses, entering Jiang’s yard. Neither Jiang nor Meng had children, so both of them began to take care of the plant as if it were their child. Over time the plant grew bigger and bigger until it finally became ripe in the fall. However, upon opening the gourd, Meng and Jiang found a beautiful baby girl inside. The two families decided to name her Meng Jiangnü, and they raised her together.
Meng Jiangnü blossomed into a beautiful young woman. She was everything to the Meng and Jiang families. But soon Qin Shihuang, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, began recruiting men to build the Great Wall. It’s said that the men were worked to the bone with no rest, and many died of exhaustion. A young scholar named Wan Xiliang ran away from home to avoid this fate, ultimately finding himself in Meng’s yard where he was discovered by Meng Jiangnü. The two young people fell in love with each other, and after a while were married. Everyone was delighted. However, another man, who was also infatuated with Meng Jiangnü, was so outraged when he heard the news of her marriage to Wan Xiliang that he told army officers of Wan’s whereabouts. This resulted in Wan being taken away only three days after the wedding.
Meng Jiangnü was devastated. She waited for a year for her husband to come back, but then decided she couldn’t take the pain anymore and decided to go to him instead. After what seemed like an eternity of crossing mountains and fording rivers, Meng Jiangnü finally arrived at the construction site. She could barely contain her happiness at the thought of seeing her husband at last. But upon hearing that Wan Xiliang had died due to exhaustion, and that had been buried in the Great Wall like so many others before him, Meng Jiangnü collapsed on the ground and sobbed, completely heartbroken.
Shortly after Meng Jiangnü started to cry, a 400km section of wall collapsed. The roar of the destruction overpowered Meng Jiangnü’s desperate wailing. Suddenly, the body of her husband emerged from the rubble, causing her to cry even harder. The emperor happened to be walking along the wall at that time, and he was furious at Meng Jiangnü for making such noise. He was just about to punish her, but when he laid eyes on her he immediately became infatuated with her. Instead of punishing Meng Jiangnü, the Emperor asked her to marry him. She reluctantly agreed but demanded that they first hold a funeral for her late husband. After the funeral, Qin Shihuang was ready to wed Meng Jiangnü, but to his disappointment, the guards informed him that she had killed herself by jumping into the Bohai Sea.
This legend brings to light of all the hard work of the Chinese citizens and also exposes the cruel and inhumane working conditions they had to endure under Emperor Qin Shihuang. Many years after the time of the legend, a temple was built on Fenghuang Mountain, at the foot of the Great Wall, in order to commemorate the story of Meng Jiangnü.
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Images: Unsplash
