Qin And Han Dynasty Great Wall Defense System And Ethnic Relations

The Great Wall is one of ancient China's military defense constructions, regarded as the symbol of Chinese national spirit. It first appeared in the hinterland of the Central Plains during the period of the Spring and Autumn and the Warring states, but later it had been built regularly in the northern frontier to resist against the invasion of the nomads. In the period of Qin and Han Dynasty, both the farming peoples in the Central Plains and the northern nomads had been unified under their own regimes, bounded by the Great Wall and confronted each other. The same kind of situation reappeared time and again in the history of China hereafter. This article is a study about the interaction between the Great Wall and ethnic relation in the period of Qin and Han Dynasty.The article is divided into four chapters. Chapter one describes the interaction of ethnic relations in northern China and the process of construction of the Great Wall from the Warring States period to the Western Han Dynasty. The build of the Great Wall results from contradiction and conflict in national relation of this period, which in turn influences the process of splitting up and forming of the ethnic groups in its peripheral area. During this course, integrated defense system of the Great Wall came into being.Chapter two makes a concrete analysis of internal components of the Great-Wall-defense system in the Qin and Han Dynasty. The analysis reveals that the frontier defence system, which consists of the wall, beacon towers, fortifications, other establishments and relevant institutions, as a matter of fact, is a military defence-line, an economic embargo-line and an artificial demarcation line set up by Chinese imperial court in order to maintain integrity of the empire, to consolidate the stability of the frontier and internal ruling order of the society.Chapter three probe into, in terms of ethnic relations, the Great-Wall-defense-system's function and meaning during the period of Qin and Han Dynasty. As a boundary, the Great Wall never completely succeed in embargoing and segregating. This boundary is fragile and unstable. The existence of the Great Wall and its defence system, had maintained general peace and stability of the northern frontiers, had created the good condition for communication and trade among peoples of northern China. In this meaning, the Great Wall, along which an active zone of ethic assimilation emerged, turn to be a juncture between the nomadic civilization and the agricultural civilization.The last chapter narrates a course that the defense system of the Great Wall had collapsed and been abandoned in the period of the Eastern Han Dynasty.In short, the Great Wall and its defence system in the period of the Qin and Han Dynasty results from the conflict between the nomadic civilization and the agricultural civilization. Their emergence and collapse reflect a relation of assimilation-in-conflict and unification-in-confrontation between northern nomads and farming peoples in ancient China.