Ancient Chinese Dynasties and The Great Wall

by Tzy C. Peng
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Ancient tribes began with a chief for his people.  As the tribe grew, the chief could not control all details of his tribe, and had to delegate his authorities to feudal commanders who would execute the chief's order.  Usually, the feudal commanders were related to the chief by blood, by marriage or by proven loyalty.  At this stage, the command/control system was still evolving and the relations between the tribal chief and his commanders were tenuous at best.  The tribal chief was often challenged by his feudal commanders depending on the relative strength of control.
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	Feudal system existed during the Shang (*1,800-1,100 BCE) and Zhou (*1,100-221 BCE) Dynasties in the ancient China.  Legend has it that the first Emperor of the Zhou Dynasty established numerous fiefdoms to his nearly 100 sons.  A majority of them became feudal lords of their given territories.  Initially, relations between the emperor and the feudal lords were strong and reliable.  Later, as personal greed and selfishness set in, struggles among the feudal lords for more power and land began.  By this time, the Zhou emperors had lost most of the control over the feudal lords and existed in name only.

	Around 770 BCE [the start of Spring-Autumn (*) period], there were probably 20 or so feudal lords.  Annexation of weak feudal lords by strong ones became common occurrence.  Around 450 BCE [the start of the Warring States (*) period], there were only seven major feudal lords left.  These seven feudal lords operated independently of the Zhou Dynasty and of each other.  Actually, there were seven independent states fighting each other constantly for territorial control, hence the name ‘Warring States'.  Each state built walls to defend their own territory from each other as well as from northern nomads.

	At the end of the Warring States Period, one state took all the territories from the other six states.  This victorious state is know as the Qin (*) Dynasty.  Its First Emperor (*) strengthened his control over the empire by replacing the fragmented feudal system with a central administrative system.  China was said to be unified for the first time, i.e. Emperor's orders were absolute, uniformly implemented over the empire, and no longer subject to the control of the feudal lords.

	At the same time, Qin's First Emperor connected all segmented walls built separately by the Warring States.  This connected-wall was the beginning of what later became know as the "Great Walls (*) of China".  It was so named for its unprecedented length, about 10,000 li (* the Chinese measure for long distance, 1 li is about 0.333 miles).  Actually, the original Qin-wall, made of packed clay and straw, was only about 1,650 miles long and was repaired and extended through subsequent dynasties.  Today's Great Wall was the Ming (* 1,368 - 1662 CE) Dynasty's version through a major rebuilding program using brick and mortars.1  This Ming-wall with all its branches is about 4,500 miles long.2

1. Encyclopedia of China, Facts on File Inc. New York, 1999, p. 190-191).
2. Encyclopedia Britannica, micropedia, 15th ed. V. 5, p. 449).