For a long time, the Great Wall of China has been regarded as a unique architectural marvel, not only of China but of humanity as a whole. Most people believe that this monumental structure was conceived by a single individual, Qin Shi Huang, with the intention of preventing invasions from the Xiongnu tribes in the north.
However, a recent assertion by a U.S. academic argues that this is merely a legend.
In 1969, when humanity took its first steps on the moon and looked back at the blue planet, it became clear that only one man-made structure was visible from space: the Great Wall of China, winding like a serpent across thousands of kilometers towards western China. This legendary wall once again ignited the curiosity of millions of tourists and hundreds of researchers, including Arthur Waldron, a scholar from Harvard University’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.
Waldron conducted extensive research on both historical and archaeological fronts, ultimately concluding that the notion of a single wall existing continuously for centuries is simply a myth.
In his work, *The Great Wall of China: From History to Myth*, Waldron presents numerous pieces of evidence and arguments to support his claims. He asserts that the fortifications in China were built sporadically in various locations and at different times, from 700 BC to the present, making the existence of a singular architectural entity as a wall historically inaccurate.
He first emphasizes that during the Han Dynasty and throughout the middle periods of Chinese history, there is no documentation referring to the Great Wall. When the Mongols invaded China in the 13th century, there was no wall that impeded their advance. Chinese writers from this period frequently used a variety of terms to describe different walls, without a single name evoking the idea of a well-known ancient structure. In other words, hundreds of years ago, there was no term in Chinese corresponding to the term “Great Wall” as used by Westerners today.
During the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644), records of discussions on border defense policies do not mention the Great Wall either. Based on this evidence and subsequent documentation, Waldron asserts that much of what we now refer to as the Great Wall was constructed in the latter half of the 16th century, towards the end of the Ming Dynasty. At that time, China employed various strategies to address threats from northern nomadic tribes: trade and diplomacy, swift conquest, and isolation. It was from this third strategy that the Ming emperors sought to isolate the “barbarians of the north” by constructing fortifications. It was only by the late 16th century that the boundaries of the areas traversed by the wall began to take on the form we recognize today.
In the 18th century, detailed reports circulated in Europe about how Qin Shi Huang supposedly built the wall, despite the lack of authentic sources providing such details. By the 19th century, European explorers and encyclopedists concocted folklore surrounding the Qin Dynasty’s wall. Waldron asserts that the winding lines of the wall on maps printed in Beijing are not based on current surveys but rather on surveys conducted by Jesuit missionaries during the Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1912). Even the Chinese do not believe in such sensationalized storytelling. In the late 1920s, explorer Frederick Clapp was reminded by locals that a section of the wall he discovered was not the Great Wall of the Qin Dynasty but a later construction from the Ming period. Yet, the legend continues to thrive and maintain its allure. Today, efforts to sustain the myth of the Great Wall remain ongoing. An encyclopedia about this wonder has recently been published, and an academic framework for “Great Wall Studies” has been established.
However, since Waldron’s work was published, research efforts outside of China aimed at determining the essence and myth surrounding the Great Wall have been intensifying and expanding. Waldron argues that studies presented at an international conference in Beijing, which hypothesized that the fortifications from the Warring States period were connected to form a vast wall during the Qin Dynasty, are “questionable from an archaeological standpoint.” His viewpoint is quite clear: “The Great Wall was largely and comprehensively constructed during the Ming Dynasty, while the Warring States, Qin, and Han periods only saw the restoration and linking of some scattered old fortifications.”
