Great Wall of China: How the Qin and Han Built the First Walls

The Great Wall of China did not begin as one wall. Its origins lie in the separate border walls of rival kingdoms during the Warring States period, which the Qin general Meng Tian linked and extended into a single northern frontier from about 214 BC. A century later the Han dynasty pushed new lines of walls and watchtowers deep into the Gansu corridor, laying the foundations of the most famous defensive system in the world.

Background: walls before the empire

Chinese states built long walls well before China was unified. During the Warring States period (c. 475–221 BC), kingdoms fought constantly, and walls of rammed earth were a practical way to slow invading armies, mark borders and control people moving between territories.

The southern state of Chu is often credited with one of the earliest long walls, a defensive line in what is now Henan sometimes dated to the 7th or 6th century BC. The state of Qi, in modern Shandong, built a long wall across its southern hills that is commonly dated from the 5th century BC onward. Its remains are among the oldest surviving long walls in China.

Other states built walls facing both their Chinese neighbours and the herding peoples of the northern steppe. Wei fortified its western border against Qin. Zhao, under King Wuling (r. 325–299 BC), who famously adopted mounted archery and the clothing of steppe horsemen, built walls along its northern frontier. Yan, in the north-east, built walls toward Liaodong after pushing back the Donghu people in the early 3rd century BC. Qin itself built a wall in the north-west after destroying the Yiqu Rong, probably around 272 BC.

These walls were not the stone ramparts of later postcards. Most were made of rammed earth, packed layer by layer between wooden boards, or of local stone where it was easy to find. They followed river lines, hills and ridges to make the most of natural barriers.

Meng Tian and the Qin linking campaign

In 221 BC King Zheng of Qin completed the unification of China and took the title Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor. Internal walls between former kingdoms now had no purpose, and the emperor ordered many of them torn down. The northern frontier was a different matter.

Beyond the Yellow River lived the Xiongnu, a powerful confederation of steppe peoples. In 215 BC the emperor sent his general Meng Tian north. According to Sima Qian’s Shiji, Meng Tian commanded 300,000 men and drove the Xiongnu out of the Ordos region inside the great northern loop of the Yellow River. That figure comes from a single ancient source and may be rounded, but the scale of the campaign was clearly enormous.

From about 214 BC, Meng Tian secured the conquered land. He garrisoned new counties along the river, and he connected the old northern walls of Qin, Zhao and Yan, filling the gaps and adding new sections. Sima Qian says the wall stretched from Lintao in the west, in present-day Gansu, to Liaodong in the east, a distance of more than 10,000 li. The phrase “wall of 10,000 li” became one of the Chinese names for the Great Wall.

The work was done by soldiers, conscripted farmers and convicts. Qin law sentenced many convicts to hard labour, and one common penalty, chengdan, took its name from building city walls. Conditions were hard, and the human cost became part of the wall’s later reputation.

Meng Tian also oversaw the Qin Straight Road, a military highway linking the capital region to the northern frontier. Wall and road together formed one system: the wall slowed raiders, while the road let the government send troops and supplies north quickly.

How the early walls were built

Qin and Han builders used whatever the landscape offered. In the loess country of the north, walls were made of rammed earth, often several metres thick at the base. In rocky mountains, builders stacked dressed or rough stone. In the desert west, Han engineers used alternating layers of gravel or sand and bundles of reeds, tamarisk branches or other brushwood, which bound the loose material together.

The walls were only one part of the defences. Watchtowers and beacon towers were placed along the line so that signals of smoke by day and fire by night could warn garrisons of an attack. Forts, storehouses and military farms supported the soldiers. Many of these structures survive as low mounds or eroded towers.

The Han extension into the Gansu corridor

The Qin dynasty collapsed in 207–206 BC, and the early Han emperors were too weak to confront the Xiongnu directly. After Liu Bang, the founder of the Han, was trapped by Xiongnu forces at Baideng near Pingcheng in 200 BC, the Han adopted a policy of heqin: marriage alliances and annual gifts in exchange for peace. Raids nonetheless continued.

Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141–87 BC) abandoned this policy. His generals, including Wei Qing and the young Huo Qubing, launched major offensives. In 121 BC Huo Qubing won decisive victories in the Hexi corridor, the narrow strip of land between the Qilian Mountains and the Gobi Desert in modern Gansu. The Han then created new commanderies there, conventionally named Jiuquan, Zhangye, Wuwei and Dunhuang, although the exact founding dates of each are debated by historians.

To protect this corridor, the Han built new walls and lines of beacon towers westward, out to Dunhuang and the Yumen (Jade Gate) Pass. After the campaigns against Ferghana around 104–101 BC, lines of beacon towers were pushed further toward Lop Nur in the Tarim Basin. A separate line ran north along the Ejin River to the Juyan region in what is now Inner Mongolia.

These Han walls protected settlers, soldiers and envoys travelling west. They also guarded the route that later carried silk and other goods to Central Asia, a route linked with the diplomatic journeys of the envoy Zhang Qian.

Key people

• Qin Shi Huang (259–210 BC): the First Emperor, who ordered the northern campaign and the linking of the walls.
• Meng Tian (died 210 BC): Qin general who led the campaign against the Xiongnu and oversaw wall and road building. He was forced to commit suicide after the emperor’s death.
• Modu Chanyu (r. 209–174 BC): the Xiongnu ruler who united the steppe peoples into a powerful state soon after the Qin collapse.
• Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141–87 BC): the emperor whose wars against the Xiongnu led to the western extension of the wall system.
• Huo Qubing (c. 140–117 BC): the Han general whose victories in 121 BC opened the Hexi corridor.

What archaeology has found

The best evidence for daily life on the early frontier comes from the Han period. In 1907 the explorer Aurel Stein excavated Han watchtowers near Dunhuang and recovered wooden and bamboo documents. In 1930–31 the Sino-Swedish Expedition found thousands more at Juyan. Later Chinese excavations added tens of thousands of further slips.

These records include duty rosters, supply lists, signal regulations, letters and legal cases. They show a highly organised frontier bureaucracy, where soldiers logged the signals they sent and received, kept track of grain and weapons, and checked travellers’ passes.

A national survey announced by China’s State Administration of Cultural Heritage in 2012 measured the total length of all historical walls at about 21,196 km. That figure includes walls from many dynasties, not just the Qin and Han.

Myths and facts

Myth: the Great Wall is one continuous wall. In fact it is a collection of many walls built by different states and dynasties over more than 2,000 years, often in different places. Qin and Han walls generally lie further north and west than the famous Ming walls.

Myth: the wall you see near Beijing is the First Emperor’s wall. The brick and stone sections at Badaling, Mutianyu and similar sites were built mostly under the Ming dynasty (1368–1644).

Myth: the wall is visible from space with the naked eye. It is long but narrow and blends into the landscape. It cannot be seen from the Moon, and from low orbit it is very hard to pick out without aids.

Myth: millions of workers are buried inside the wall. Many people did die building the wall, and later legends such as the tale of Meng Jiangnü, whose weeping brought down a section of wall, express that suffering. There is no evidence, however, that bodies were used as building material, and casualty figures are unknown.

Timeline

• c. 7th–5th century BC: Chu and Qi build some of the earliest long walls in China.
• c. 300 BC: King Wuling of Zhao fortifies his northern frontier.
• c. 272 BC: Qin builds a wall in the north-west after destroying the Yiqu Rong.
• 221 BC: Qin completes the unification of China.
• 215 BC: Meng Tian drives the Xiongnu from the Ordos region.
• c. 214 BC: Linking and extension of the northern walls begins.
• 210 BC: Qin Shi Huang dies; Meng Tian is forced to commit suicide.
• 200 BC: Liu Bang is besieged by the Xiongnu at Baideng.
• 121 BC: Huo Qubing’s victories bring the Hexi corridor under Han control.
• c. 104–101 BC: Han campaigns against Ferghana; beacon towers are extended toward Lop Nur.

Why it matters

The Qin and Han walls established the basic idea of a fortified northern frontier that later dynasties repeated for two thousand years. They shaped relations between China and the peoples of the steppe, protected the route to Central Asia, and left a vast archive of frontier documents. Today the earthen ruins in Gansu and Inner Mongolia are a reminder that the Great Wall’s story is far older, and far more varied, than its famous Ming towers suggest.