CHN6
GREAT WALLS ISSUE
FRONT PAGE
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FOCUS ON THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA
The Great Wall of China is the most enduring and best-known material remains of ancient
China, and its near-mythic presence is positioned at the heart of China's cultural heritage
endeavour, yet its conservation remains under threat. The central government has slowly
wheeled legislation into position to protect these systems of crumbling defences sporadically
built over more than millennia by different dynasties in different places, but the legislators
move more slowly than local governments and developers. The law remains but a letter of
intent. The preservation of the various Great Wall systems was highlighted during the events
surrounding China's first Cultural Heritage Day, celebrated on 10 June. In this issue we
examine new, and old, chapters and byways in the long history of China's much abused Great
Walls …
EDITORIAL
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Well Below Par: Moves to De-Commercialise the Wall
On 23 May 2006 the Johnnie Walker Open tee'd-off on top of Juyong Pass, one of the Great
Wall's best-preserved ancient fortress gates. The top of the Great Wall was decked out for the
occasion with Astroturf and hoardings. The swinging five-irons made a mockery of Chinese
government efforts to downgrade commercial activity along the Great Wall…..
FEATURES
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The Great Wall Survey Begins
Barely a week goes by in the pages of Beijing Youth Daily without an update on the first GPS
survey of the Great Wall, currently being conducted within Beijing municipality. But when
will a total survey of the walls ever be completed?
chn6yue
When Is a Wall a Great Wall?
The literature on the Great Wall continues to swell and archaeologists continue to identify
new sections of wall that previously went undocumented. We examine three interesting recent
additions to the Great Walls files that have not been accepted by many scholars: a fort and set
of walls constructed by General Yue Fei (1103-1141) of the Southern Song dynasty, a cave
settlement below a beacon tower north of Beijing, and an adobe rampart built by returning
Mongols near China's border with Kazakhstan.
chn6elm
The Elm Tree Palisades: The Great Wall of the Northern Song
Within the annals of China's more than two and a half millennia of building Great Wall
defensive systems, the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127) is generally regarded as one of the
very few ruling polities that did not engage in the construction of some form of defensive
barricades along its northern borders. However, in an article published in the May 2006 issue
of Inner Mongolia Social Sciences, Dr. Tao Yukun, a historian at Inner Mongolia Normal
University, puts paid to that view. She shows, convincingly, that in the 11th century the rulers
of the Northern Song drew on aspects of the long-standing defensive policy, formulated by
China's rulers of the Qin and Han dynasties, of erecting walls and barriers to prevent the
southern incursion of peoples inhabiting the vast Eurasian steppe. But, as Ms Tao describes,
the 11th century Song dynasty's Ministry of Defence implemented a 'green belt' defensive
policy that took the form of 'elm tree palisades' (yusai), a sustainable, living 'great wall' that
would have partly offset environmental degradation in northern China.
ARTICLES
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China's Signals of War in the Smoke of the Wolf
'The smoke of the wolf' (langyan) is an evocative Chinese metaphor for warfare, which first
made its appearance in literature during the late-Tang period in the 9th century. The wolf has
negative connotations in the Chinese language, and a plethora of lupine expressions cover the
range of vicious and rapacious human qualities. However, it was not the fiery breath of the
predatory wolf that gave rise to the term 'wolf smoke.' Standard wisdom had it that the word
has its origins in the belief that the smoke from burning wolf dung was not dispersed by the
wind, and so a clear straight plume of smoke made it the ideal signal fire that could be seen
over long distances. The dung of the camel is also said to have this property, according to
some ancient sources. The early scientific explanation for this view was that this property of
the smoke derived from the straight intestines of the two animals. Prior to the days of modern
anatomy, this view went unchallenged. By the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), leading scientists,
including Li Shizhen, Fang Yizhi and Xu Guangqi, all accepted the view that dried wolf dung
was used for military signal smoke because it rose vertically into the air echoing the straight
alignment of the wolf's intestines. Overlooking the white magic implicit in why 'wolf smoke'
should rise vertically into the air, this information was enshrined as 'canon' in The Great
Kangxi Dictionary. Military men even took the theory on. Qi Jiguang (1528-1587), the
renowned Ming general associated with the Great Wall defences to the north and north-east of
Beijing, extolled the virtues of wolf dung fires. He should have known better. When burned,
dried wolf dung emits smoke which disperses readily in the breeze. The view that the Chinese
term 'wolf smoke' derived from the use of wolf dung went unchallenged until the recent
publication of an article on the subject by Li Zhengyu. It appears that the threat to the flock
was posed by the wolf itself …
chn6ming
Trapped behind Walls: Ming Historians of the Great Wall
Even though Chinese states and dynasties built long boundary walls for defensive purposes
over nearly three millennia, it was only in the Ming dynasty that scholars examined these
earlier limes in any concerted fashion. Their lasting impact on Chinese scholarship on the
Great Walls is examined here, as is the Ming alarm at national containment and encirclement
that gave rise to their intellectual concerns….
INTELLECTUAL NEWS
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Dedicated to Great Wall Conservation: A Portrait of Three Chinese Scholars
Three scholars of the Great Wall were pioneers of heritage conservation in China. Here we
briefly examine the careers of Luo Zhewen, Cheng Dalin and Dong Yaohui.
chn6bibliog
Bibliography of Recent Chinese Publications on the Great Wall
Comprehensive bibliography of Chinese publications detailing research conducted over the
last 20 years, in simplified characters and English.
chn6glossary
Glossary of Terms Related to the Great Wall of China
An illustrated and discursive glossary outlining the Chinese terminology related to the Great
Walls, its architecture and related items.
BRIEFS
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Heritage and Archaeological Briefs
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The Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries of 2006
At the end of May the State Administration of Cultural Heritage finally announced its list of
the Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries of 2005.
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New Museums in Beijing, Liaoning, Shanxi and Xinjiang
The new Capital Museum in Beijing has finally opened its doors to the public, away from the
Confucian Temple it once occupied. New regional museums have also opened in Xinjiang,
Shanxi and Liaoning. Here we take a look at what these new museums offer.