The Great Wall of China (Kafka)
 The Great Wall of China (Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer) is a short story written by Franz Kafka in 1917. It was not published until 1931 seven years after his death. Max Brod selected stories and published them in the collection Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer.Contained within the story is a parable that was separately published as A Message from the Emperor (Eine kaiserliche Botschaft) in 1919 in the collection Ein Landarzt (A Country Doctor).