great wall

by felix hanzhang liu
The great wall of China, one of the seven wonders of the world. A true sight, laid across 50 thousand kilometers of terrain. 2500 years of history trapped into this overly stretched millions of pieces of stone. A long brick itself can weigh over 2000 kilograms. A big normal brick weighs over 30 kilograms. All these bricks that we admire today, this spectacular phenomenon that we appreciate with greatness, was raised from the ground by human flesh. Every brick by brick demanded by the emperor to keep the nomadic “barbarians” away from China. Around the same historic period the so called Macedonians barbarians invaded south and conquered Greece, Egypt, the Middle east, and Persian empire, even reached the Himalayas. It was spending gory for the Chinese emperors to build super walls to avoid the fate of being tramped by the north barbarians like Ancient Macedonians. It started since Zhou dynasty and kept on building until 2000 years later at the end of the Ming dynasty. People were often tired to death or starved to death, and they were all buried underneath the tourist sight we all look at today.

So, does this mean that all those years of work and death, is good for Chinese culture? It goes down for millenniums and will show that China has something for people to marvel at. If we put it in simple words, will it be good to exploit citizens to death, and don’t give them a proper burial, and say that it is good for future purposes? Same thing with the Terracotta warriors. So the millenniums of work trying to accomplish this expedition to stretch rock over the length of north China, was in a way, beneficial to us. Is it cruel enough?

We take happiness and pride over a cruel and bloody history. We take pride, in this making of the great wall. We take pride over unhappiness, over a huge bridge raised from the ground by the nutrients that death provides. Because this is something that no other country did. Numerous people suffered and died from the centuries of wall building. The Qin dynasty used 5% of the whole population of the country to build the wall, killing millions. In the Qi dynasty they send 1.8 million people every time. In the Sui dynasty, people dead building the wall ranges from 100 thousand to 1 million. All that blood spilled on the great wall, making it the murderer of countless lives. But today at present we are just taking pride in the great, mighty, spectacular wall.

长城
刘翰章
中国长城，世界七大奇观之一，一个真正的历史景观，横跨5万公里。2500年的历史被锁定在延绵万里的数百万块石头中。长的砖块可以重达2000公斤，普通砖块重达30公斤。今天我们所欣赏的所有这些砖块，我们所欣赏的伟大壮观的长城，都是由血肉之躯从地面修建而起。皇帝要求用一块接一块的砖建起长城，让游牧的“野蛮人”远离中国。在西方历史上，所谓的古代马其顿野蛮人入侵南部，征服了希腊、埃及、中东和波斯帝国，甚至到达了喜马拉雅。人们花了血淋淋的代价为中国皇帝建造了超级城墙，以避免被像马其顿人一样的野蛮人蹂躏的命运。长城的修建从周代开始，一直延续到2000年以后的明末。人们常常疲倦至死或饿死，他们都被埋葬在我们今天看到的旅游景点下面。

那么，这是否意味着这些古人的辛劳和死亡，是对中国文化的形成有好处的事呢？长城存在了几千年，终于成了中国的令人人惊叹的世界奇观。简单来说，公民被压榨致死，却形成了未来文化奇迹，供我们今天欣赏。兵马俑也是一样。数千年来横跨整个华北的修建城墙的历程，在某种程度上对我们今天的人有益。这是否太残忍了？

我们为残忍和血腥的历史而感到幸福和骄傲，因为这座巨大的城墙是借助死亡所提供的营养物而从地面生长起来的。仅仅因为这景观是我们中国独有的。许多人在上千年的围墙修筑中受苦及死去。秦朝用当时全国5%的人口修建长城，造成数百万人死亡。在齐王朝，他们每次送180万人去修筑长城。在隋朝，修建长城死亡的人估计在10万到100万之间。所有的血溅在长城上，使它成为杀死无数生命的凶手。而今天，现在，我们正在为伟大、宏伟、壮观的城墙而自豪。