China News Agency, Shijiazhuang, December 22. Question: How long is China's "Great Wall"?

　　——Interview with Zhao Chen, President of China Great Wall Research Institute

　　China News Agency reporter Niu Lin

　　As the oldest and largest architectural system in human history, as well as the largest and most widely distributed world cultural heritage in China, the Great Wall, with its span of two thousand years and tens of thousands of miles in time and space, has become the history of human civilization. Magnificent architectural wonders and historical and cultural landscapes.

　　With China's redefinition of the concept of the Great Wall at the national level, as well as the in-depth study of the Great Wall and the development of the length of the Great Wall, the "Great Wall starts from Shanhaiguan in the east and ends in Jiayuguan in the west, with a total length of about 6,700 kilometers" that remains in the memory of Chinese people. Cognition is now debatable.

　　How long is China's "Great Wall"?

Why is it difficult to calculate the length of the Great Wall?

What are the controversies about the east and west starting points of the Great Wall in China?

Zhao Chen, dean of the China Great Wall Research Institute and a professor at Northeastern University, recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency's "East and West Questions".

The interview transcript is summarized as follows:

China News Agency reporter: With the deepening of the study of the Great Wall, what changes have taken place in the concept of the Great Wall?

What are the types and components of the Great Wall in China?

Zhao Chen:

All along, our understanding of the Great Wall has been incomplete.

When mentioning the Great Wall, most people will think of the "Ming Great Wall" like Beijing Badaling with "long walls".

When talking about the length of the Great Wall in China before, most of them talked about the length of the "Ming Wanli Great Wall".

In the construction history of the Great Wall of more than 2,700 years, the "Ming Wanli Great Wall" is only one of the important components.

In Chinese history, there were three "Great Walls" formed, namely the Qin Wanli Great Wall, the Han Wanli Great Wall, and the Ming Wanli Great Wall.

To count the entire length of the Great Wall, it should include the Great Wall built in the past dynasties, all of which are indispensable.

Schematic diagram of the Qin, Han, and Ming Great Walls.

Drawn by China Great Wall Research Institute

　　Second, in the traditional sense, people think that only the Great Wall is the Great Wall.

For many years, the calculation of the length of the Great Wall has only measured the length of the Great Wall, and most of the measured figures refer to the length of the Great Wall, ignoring the fact that the Great Wall is a complete military defense system, and the strings of forts and beacons are also It belongs to the Great Wall system.

　　Especially the Great Wall located in Northwest China, starting from Gansu, due to changes in the geographical environment and climate, the long wall that best represents the appearance of the Great Wall has gradually decreased.

Entering Xinjiang from Yangguan and Yumenguan to the west, there are gradually no long walls, only a large number of beacon towers and fortresses built along the water source. An important military facility with smooth roads.

This is the west side of the Great Wall.

　　There is a similar situation on the east side.

In Kuandian County, Liaoning Province, the first county of the Great Wall, it is rare to find a continuous long wall. Basically, mountain and water dangers are used to build passes, beacons are used for early warning, and fortresses are used to garrison troops.

Here, there is also the famous "Six Forts of Kuandian".

　　In December 2019, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Construction Plan for the Great Wall, the Grand Canal, and the Long March National Cultural Park."

The plan redefines the concept of the Great Wall at the national level, and clarifies that beacons, fortresses, post stations, passes, trenches, long walls, enemy towers and related remains are collectively referred to as the Great Wall, which greatly enriches the connotation of the Great Wall.

For the first time, the plan clearly included the defense system with the characteristics of the Great Wall built by the ancestors of various ethnic groups into the concept of the Great Wall, "including the Warring States, Qin, and Han Great Walls, the Northern Wei, Northern Qi, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, Xixia, The defense system of the Liao Dynasty has the characteristics of the Great Wall, Jinjiehao, and the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty".

The Great Wall, its supporting walls, and beacon towers, Jinshanling Great Wall, Luanping County, Hebei Province.

Photo by Zhao Chen

China News Agency reporter: Why is it difficult to calculate the length of China's "Great Wall"?

Zhao Chen:

Nowadays, the concept of the Great Wall has changed. In the past, only the length of the Great Wall was calculated, but now beacon towers, fortresses, post stations, passes, etc. are all included. This is a new algorithm, and the new length is obtained.

　　In fact, the Great Wall is not a line, but a systematically distributed belt-shaped building system.

As a fortification, its structure not only includes a long wall, but also beacons and fortresses distributed longitudinally with the wall on both sides of the wall.

It is an algorithm to only calculate the linear length of the Great Wall; the Great Wall is regarded as a belt, and the two sides of the long wall are interactive, not only the east-west length, but also the north-south length, and sometimes the branch walls protruding (from the main line of the Great Wall A separate section of the defensive wall formed separately, with crenel walls on both sides), this is another algorithm.

Overlooking the Great Wall and its branch walls, Huangyaguan, Ji County, Tianjin.

Photo by Zhao Chen

　　Moreover, most of the Great Wall in China is actually not connected, and many areas rely on natural dangers without the need to build the Great Wall.

So, should the length of mountain and river risks be counted?

Or just calculate the length of the Great Wall itself?

In this regard, academic opinions are not unified.

In addition to mountain and river dangers, the Great Wall also has dangers of snow-capped mountains and deserts.

According to which standard to carry out statistics is an urgent problem to be solved.

The Great Wall takes advantage of the dangers of the mountains, and the top of the Great Wall stops extending to the cliff.

The picture shows Huangya Pass in Jixian County, Tianjin City.

Photo by Zhao Chen

　　As we all know, in addition to the Great Wall on land, China also has Great Walls on the sea, such as the Laolongtou Great Wall in Shanhaiguan District, Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province, the Great Wall of Shanhaicheng Island Defense System in Xingcheng Ancient City, Liaoning Province, the Jiangnan Great Wall in Linhai City, Zhejiang Province, and the Great Wall built in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The coastal defense military system, etc.; there is also the Great Wall on Water, that is, the Great Wall crosses the water, and the middle is built like a bridge hole, such as the Jiumenkou Water Great Wall across the Jiujiang River in Suizhong County, Liaoning Province, and the Shahukou Water Great Wall in Shuozhou City, Shanxi Province.

Great Wall resources are distributed in 15 provinces, autonomous regions, and 404 counties (cities, districts) in China, covering almost half of China.

In the census of cultural relics, when most provinces counted the length of the Great Wall, the resources of the Great Wall that were not declared in those places and not recognized by the state were basically not included in the calculation.

The Great Wall on Water, the Great Wall at Jiumenkou, Suizhong County, Liaoning Province.

Photo by Zhao Chen

　　Counting the length of the Great Wall is not an easy task. It is necessary to unify the surveyors' understanding of the Great Wall, unify the measurement standards, and unify the calculation methods in order to minimize the error in the measurement of the length of the Great Wall.

　　It needs to be explained here that it is not that the previous statistics are wrong, but that with the development of the times, our cognition has changed, the definition of the Great Wall has changed, and the calculation formula and length of the Great Wall have also changed accordingly.

China News Agency: What are the controversies about the east and west starting points of the Great Wall in China?

Zhao Chen:

With the exploration of the length of the Great Wall, new discoveries have been made about the east and west starting points of the Great Wall in China.

　　In the 1980s, scholars based on the records in "History of the Ming Dynasty Bing Zhi": "Thus, in the end of the Ming Dynasty, the frontier defense was very heavy. It started from Yalu in the east and arrived in Jiayu in the west, stretching for thousands of miles, and defending by dividing land." They believed that Jiayuguan was the Great Wall. the westernmost point of .

So, is there a Great Wall to the west of Jiayuguan?

With the deepening of the understanding of the Great Wall, Jiayuguan continues to the west and is more than 300 kilometers away in a straight line, which is the important pass of the Great Wall established in the Han Dynasty-Yumen Pass.

So, is there a Great Wall to the west of Yumen Pass?

In 1997, relevant academic organizations identified and jointly issued the "Commemorative Cover of Hundred Passes of the Great Wall", and designated the Beacon in Xinjiang as the westernmost beacon of the Great Wall of China.

　　Is there a Great Wall to the west of Beacon Tower?

For this reason, the China Great Wall Research Institute has inspected Xinjiang several times, and finally discovered the Great Wall ruins in Wuqia County at a longitude of 394.65 kilometers west of the Beacon in Bedieli. The beacon tower at the westernmost end of the Great Wall of China.

The Mashrepu Beacon in Wuqia County, Xinjiang is the westernmost beacon of the Great Wall that can be found so far.

Photo by Zhao Chen

　　Nevertheless, regarding the issue of "the west starting point of the Great Wall", the China Great Wall Research Institute proposed four "west starting points", namely: the line between the Mashrepu Beacon in Wuqia County, Xinjiang and the Artush Beacon; The first line of Jianggale and Stone City; the first line of beacons in Wushi County and Aheqi County, Xinjiang; the first line of beacons in Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang.

The four "west starting points" are the westward direction of the four sections of the Great Wall. They lead to different mountain passes and different border countries.

Schematic diagram of the west starting point of the Great Wall.

Drawn by China Great Wall Research Institute

　　Also in the 1980s, it became a consensus in the academic circle that the Great Wall started from Hushan Mountain in Dandong City, Liaoning Province.

Mr. Luo Zhewen, a Chinese ancient architect and "the first person of the Great Wall", once said that "the Hushan Great Wall is a commemorative starting point", and wrote "the starting point of the eastern end of the Great Wall-Hushan Great Wall".

　　In October 2022, the China Great Wall Research Institute conducted a field investigation at the border between China and North Korea in Kuandian County, Dandong City, Liaoning Province, and found that the Xinglongbao Beacon, currently located in Hongshi Town, Kuandian County, may be the easternmost point from the Yalu River in China to the border between China and North Korea. The beacon at the end of the Great Wall is "the first flint at the east end of the Great Wall".

The beacon tower is located on the main peak at an altitude of 209 meters. From the analysis of the existing structure, it may be the remains of the early Great Wall.

"The first flint at the eastern end of the Great Wall" - Xinglongbao beacon in Hongshi Town, Kuandian County, Dandong City, Liaoning Province.

Photo by Zhao Chen

　　It has to be said that the wisdom and grand strategy of "adapting measures to local conditions" shown by the ancients at the "East and West Starting Points of the Great Wall" still needs to be explored and discovered through field investigations in the future.

China News Agency reporter: How long is China's "Great Wall"?

In what areas can the study of the Great Wall study still make breakthroughs?

Zhao Chen:

It was written in previous history textbooks that the Great Wall stretches from Shanhaiguan in the east to Jiayuguan in the west, with a total length of about 6,700 kilometers. This length refers only to the length of the Great Wall in the Ming Dynasty, and this data has not been updated.

In April 2009, China's State Administration of Cultural Heritage and the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping jointly announced the length of the Great Wall, which was 8,851.8 kilometers.

As mentioned earlier, the Great Wall was formed three times in Chinese history, so this data is not the full length of the Great Wall.

The Great Wall at Sea, the old leader of Shanhaiguan District, Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province.

Photo by Zhao Chen

　　According to the latest definition of the Great Wall, combined with historical documents, the length of the Great Wall built in the past dynasties in China is more than 100,000 miles; according to the records of the remains of the Great Wall sites in the past dynasties in the modern documents currently available, the length of the Great Wall is calculated to be more than 25,000 kilometers.

However, due to the different recording standards of various provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, this number is not completely accurate and can only be used as a preliminary reference.

　　Research on the Great Wall must cross borders.

Archaeological research solves the problem of the age of the Great Wall ruins, architectural research solves the problem of the protection of the Great Wall itself, military research solves the problem of the system defense of the Great Wall, ethnic research solves the problem of why the Great Wall was built, and philosophical research solves the problem of the spiritual symbol of the Great Wall. In other words, archaeology, architecture, military affairs, ethnicity, philosophy and other disciplines are needed to conduct cross-border research to solve the problem of the length of the Great Wall.

(use up)

Respondent profile:

　　Zhao Chen, Dean of China Great Wall Research Institute, doctoral supervisor, and professor of Northeastern University.

Director of China Ancient Architectural Cultural Heritage Research Committee, Director of Ancient Village Research Committee of Chinese Anthropology and Ethnology Research Association, Director of China Folk Literature and Art Association, Director of National Excellent Course, National Excellent Resource Sharing Course, and National Video Open Course Lecturer.

Deputy editor-in-chief of the Great Wall Volume of "Encyclopedia of China".

　　 Committed to the study of the Great Wall, ancient architecture, and ancient villages.

His main works include "Digital Great Wall", a national key book publishing planning project during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, and "Damei Village—Fenggang", "Fuling", "Zhaoling", "Baishoufang", "Baishifang", "Wenchangzu Court", "Li Bai's Hometown 5.12" and so on.

　　 The key projects include the first digital Great Wall resource bank - the Ming Great Wall resource bank, and the major commissioned project of the Social Science Planning Fund of Liaoning Province - the study of the characteristics of Liaoning on the spirit and cultural connotation of the Great Wall.