vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
History of the Great Wall of China
Han Chinese power during the tumultuous post-Tang era was represented by the Song dynasty ( 960 -- 1279 ) , which completed its unification of the Chinese states with the conquest of Wuyue in 971 . Turning to the north after this victory , in 979 the Song eliminated the Northern Han , ultimate successors to the Later Jin , but were unable to take the Sixteen Prefectures from the Liao dynasty . As a result of Song 's military aggression , relations between the Song and Liao remained tense and hostile . One of the battlegrounds in the Song -- Liao War was the Great Wall Gap ( 長城 口 ) , so named because the southern Yan wall of the Warring States period crossed the Juma River here into Liao territory . The Great Wall Gap saw action in 979 , 988 -- 989 , and 1004 , and a Song fortress was built there in 980 . Intermittent wars between the Song and the Liao lasted until January 1005 , when a truce was called and led to the Treaty of Chanyuan . This agreement , among other things , required the Song to pay tribute to the Liao , recognized the Song and Liao as equals , and demarcated the Song -- Liao border , the course of which became more clearly defined in a series of subsequent bilateral agreements . Several stretches of the old Great Walls , including the Northern Qi Inner Wall near the Hengshan mountain range , became the border between the Song and the Liao .
History of the Great Wall of China
This long period of wall - building burdened the populace and provoked controversy . Sometime between 1190 and 1196 , during Zhangzong 's reign , the high official Zhang Wangong ( 張萬公 ) and the Censorate recommended that work on the wall be indefinitely suspended due to a recent drought , noting : `` What has been begun is already being flattened by sandstorms , and bullying the people into defence works will simply exhaust them . '' However , Chancellor Wanyan Xiang ( 完 顏 襄 ) convinced the emperor of the walls ' merits based on an optimistic cost estimate -- `` Although the initial outlay for the walls will be one million strings of cash , when the work is done the frontier will be secure with only half the present number of soldiers needed to defend it , which means that every year you will save three million strings of cash ... The benefits will be everlasting '' -- and so construction continued unabated . All this work created an extensive systems of walls , which consisted of a 700 kilometres ( 430 mi ) `` outer wall '' from Heilongjiang to Mongolia and a 1,000 kilometres ( 620 mi ) network of `` inner walls '' north and northeast of Beijing . Together , they formed a roughly elliptical web of fortifications 1,400 kilometres ( 870 mi ) in length and 440 kilometres ( 270 mi ) in diameter . Some of these walls had inner moats ( from 10 to 60 metres ( 33 to 197 feet ) in width ) , beacon towers , battlements , parapets , and outward - facing semicircular platforms protruding from the wall -- features that set the Jin walls apart from their predecessors .
History of the Great Wall of China
One of the first mentions of a wall built against northern invaders is found in a poem , dated from the seventh century BC , recorded in the Classic of Poetry . The poem tells of a king , now identified as King Xuan ( r . 827 -- 782 BC ) of the Western Zhou dynasty ( 1046 -- 771 BC ) , who commanded General Nan Zhong ( 南仲 ) to build a wall in the northern regions to fend off the Xianyun . The Xianyun , whose base of power was in the Ordos region , were regarded as part of the charioteering Rong tribes , and their attacks aimed at the early Zhou capital region of Haojing were probably the reason for King Xuan 's response . Nan Zhong 's campaign was recorded as a great victory . However , only a few years later in 771 BC another branch of the Rong people , the Quanrong , responded to a summons by the renegade Marquess of Shen by over-running the Zhou defences and laying waste to the capital . The cataclysmic event killed King Xuan 's successor King You ( 795 -- 771 BC ) , forced the court to move the capital east to Chengzhou ( 成 周 , later known as Luoyang ) a year later , and thus ushered in the Eastern Zhou dynasty ( 770 -- 256 BC ) . Most importantly , the fall of Western Zhou redistributed power to the states that had acknowledged Zhou 's nominal rulership . The rule of the Eastern Zhou dynasty was marked by bloody interstate anarchy . With smaller states being annexed and larger states waging constant war upon one another , many rulers came to feel the need to erect walls to protect their borders . Of the earliest textual reference to such a wall was the State of Chu 's wall of 656 BC , 1,400 metres ( 4,600 feet ) of which were excavated in southern Henan province in the modern era . The State of Qi also had fortified borders up by the 7th century BC , and the extant portions in Shandong province had been christened the Great Wall of Qi . The State of Wei built two walls , the western one completed in 361 BC and the eastern in 356 BC , with the extant western wall found in Hancheng , Shaanxi . Even non-Chinese peoples built walls , such as the Di state of Zhongshan and the Yiqu Rong ( 義 渠 ) , whose walls were intended to defend against the State of Qin .
Great Wall of China
Astronaut William Pogue thought he had seen it from Skylab but discovered he was actually looking at the Grand Canal of China near Beijing . He spotted the Great Wall with binoculars , but said that `` it was n't visible to the unaided eye . '' U.S. Senator Jake Garn claimed to be able to see the Great Wall with the naked eye from a space shuttle orbit in the early 1980s , but his claim has been disputed by several U.S. astronauts . Veteran U.S. astronaut Gene Cernan has stated : `` At Earth orbit of 100 to 200 miles ( 160 to 320 km ) high , the Great Wall of China is , indeed , visible to the naked eye . '' Ed Lu , Expedition 7 Science Officer aboard the International Space Station , adds that , `` it 's less visible than a lot of other objects . And you have to know where to look . ''
History of the Great Wall of China
The deterioration of the Ming military position in the steppe transitional zone gave rise to nomadic raids into Ming territory , including the crucial Ordos region , on a level unprecedented since the dynasty 's founding . After decades of deliberation between an offensive strategy and an accommodative policy , the decision to build the first major Ming walls in the Ordos was agreed upon as an acceptable compromise the 1470s . A
History of the Great Wall of China
The Sino - Japanese conflict ( 1931 -- 45 ) gave the Great Wall a new lease of life in the eyes of the Chinese . During the 1933 defence of the Great Wall , inadequately - equipped Chinese soldiers held off double their number of Japanese troops for several months . Using the cover of the Great Wall , the Chinese -- who were at times only armed with broadswords -- were able to beat off a Japanese advance that had the support of aerial bombardment . With the Chinese forces eventually overrun , the subsequent Tanggu Truce stipulated that the Great Wall was to become a demilitarized zone separating China and the newly created Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo . Even so , the determined defence of the Great Wall made it a symbol of Chinese patriotism and the resoluteness of the Chinese people . The Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong picked up this symbol in his poetry during his `` Long March '' escaping from Kuomintang prosecution . Near the end of the trek in 1935 , Mao wrote the poem `` Mount Liupan '' that contains the well - known line that would be carved in stone along the Great Wall in the present day : `` Those who fail to reach the Great Wall are not true men '' ( 不 到 长城 非 好汉 ) . Another noteworthy reference to the Great Wall is in the song `` The March of the Volunteers '' , whose words came from a stanza in Tian Han 's 1934 poem entitled `` The Great Wall '' . The song , originally from the anti-Japanese movie Children of Troubled Times , enjoyed continued popularity in China and was selected as the provisional national anthem of the People 's Republic of China ( PRC ) at its establishment in 1949 . US
History of the Great Wall of China
In 1952 , the scholar - turned - bureaucrat Guo Moruo laid out the first modern proposal to repair the Great Wall . Five years later , the renovated Badaling became the first section to be opened to the public since the establishment of the PRC . The Badaling Great Wall has since become a staple stop for foreign dignitaries who come to China , beginning with Nepali prime minister Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala in 1960 , and most notably the American president Richard Nixon in his historic 1972 visit to China . To date , Badaling is still the most visited stretch of the Great Wall .
Forbidden City
The Forbidden City is surrounded by a 7.9 metres ( 26 ft ) high city wall and a 6 metres ( 20 ft ) deep by 52 metres ( 171 ft ) wide moat . The walls are 8.62 metres ( 28.3 ft ) wide at the base , tapering to 6.66 metres ( 21.9 ft ) at the top . These walls served as both defensive walls and retaining walls for the palace . They were constructed with a rammed earth core , and surfaced with three layers of specially baked bricks on both sides , with the interstices filled with mortar .
History of the Great Wall of China
Opinions about the Wall 's role in the Ming dynasty 's downfall are mixed . Historians such as Arthur Waldron and Julia Lovell are critical of the whole wall - building exercise in light of its ultimate failure in protecting China ; the former compared the Great Wall with the failed Maginot Line of the French in World War II . However , independent scholar David Spindler notes that the Wall , being only part of a complex foreign policy , received `` disproportionate blame '' because it was the most obvious relic of that policy .
History of the Great Wall of China
Altan Khan eventually made peace with China when it opened border cities for trade in 1571 , alleviating the Mongol need to raid . This , coupled with Qi and Tan 's efforts to secure the frontier , brought a period of relative peace along the border . However , minor raids still happened from time to time when the profits of plunder outweighed those of trade , prompting the Ming to close all gaps along the frontier around Beijing . Areas of difficult terrain once considered impassable were also walled off , leading to the well - known vistas of a stone - faced Great Wall snaking over dramatic landscapes that tourists still see today .
History of the Great Wall of China
Soon after the establishment of the Tang dynasty , during the reign of Emperor Taizong ( r . 626 -- 649 ) , the threat of Göktürk tribesmen from the north prompted some court officials to suggest drafting corvée labourers to repair the aging Great Wall . Taizong scoffed at the suggestion , alluding to the Sui walls built in vain : `` The Emperor Yang of Sui made the people labor to construct the Great Wall in order to defend against the Turks , but in the end this was of no use . '' Instead of building walls , Taizong claimed he `` need merely to establish Li Shiji in Jinyang for the dust on the border to settle . '' Accordingly , Taizong sent talented generals like Li Shiji with mobile armies to the frontier , while fortifications were mostly limited to a series of walled garrisons , such as the euphemistically - named `` cities for accepting surrender '' ( 受降 城 , shòuxiáng chéng ) that were actually bases from which to launch attacks . As a result of this military strategy , the Tang grew to become one of the largest of all the Chinese empires , destroying the Göktürks of the Eastern Turkic Khaganate and acquiring territory stretching all the way to Kazakhstan .
Great Wall of China
Great Wall of China Simplified Chinese 长城 Traditional Chinese 長城 Literal meaning `` The Long Wall '' show Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Chángchéng Wade -- Giles Ch'ang - ch'eng IPA ( ʈʂhǎŋ. ʈʂhə̌ŋ ) Wu Romanization Saon sen Yue : Cantonese Yale Romanization Cheung sing IPA ( tshœ̏ːŋ. sȅŋ ) Jyutping Coeng sing Southern Min Hokkien POJ Tn̂g - siân Tâi - lô Tn̂g - siânn Alternative Chinese name Simplified Chinese 万里 长城 Traditional Chinese 萬里 長城 Literal meaning `` The 10,000 - li Long Wall '' show Transcriptions Wu Romanization Vae - li saon - sen Yue : Cantonese Yale Romanization Maan lei Cheung sing IPA ( màːn. le̬i tshœ̏ːŋ. sȅŋ ) Jyutping Maan - lei coeng - sing Southern Min Tâi - lô Bān - lí tn̂g - siânn
History of the Great Wall of China
... the land was brackish and arid , crops could not be grown on them ... At the time , the young men being drafted were forced to haul boats and barges loaded with baggage trains upstream to sustain a steady supply of food and fodder to the front ... Commencing at the departure point a man and his animal could carry thirty zhong ( about 176 kilograms ( 388 lb ) ) of food supply , by the time they arrived at the destination , they merely delivered one dan ( about 29 kilograms ( 64 lb ) ) of supply ... When the populace had become tired and weary they started to dissipate and abscond . The orphans , the frail , the widowed and the seniors were desperately trying to escape from their appallingly derelict state and died on the wayside as they wandered away from their home . People started to revolt .
History of the Great Wall of China
Frontier policy under the Tang dynasty reversed the wall - building activities of most previous dynasties that had occupied northern China since the third century BC , and no extensive wall building took place for the next several hundred years .
History of the Great Wall of China
As China opened up in the 1980s , reformist leader Deng Xiaoping initiated the `` Love our China and restore our Great Wall '' campaign ( 爱 我 中华 , 修 我 长城 ) to repair and preserve the Great Wall . The Great Wall was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 . However , while tourism boomed over the years , slipshod restoration methods have left sections of the Great Wall near Beijing `` looking like a Hollywood set '' in the words of the National Geographic News . The less prominent stretches of the Great Wall did not get as much attention . In 2002 the New York - based World Monuments Fund put the Great Wall on its list of the World 's 100 Most Endangered Sites . In 2003 the Chinese government began to enact laws to protect the Great Wall .
History of the Great Wall of China
Despite the significance that the Great Wall seemed to have , scholarly treatment of the Wall itself remained scant during the 20th century . Joseph Needham bemoaned this dearth when he was compiling the section on walls for his Science and Civilisation in China : `` There is no lack of travelers ' description of the Great Wall , but studies based on modern scholarship are few and far between , whether in Chinese or Western languages . '' In 1990 , Arthur Waldron published the influential The Great Wall : From History to Myth , where he challenged the notion of a unitary Great Wall maintained since antiquity , dismissing it as a modern myth . Waldron 's approach prompted a re-examination of the Wall in Western scholarship . Still , as of 2008 , there is not yet a full authoritative text in any language that is devoted to the Great Wall . The reason for this , according to The New Yorker journalist Peter Hessler , is that the Great Wall fits into neither the study of political institutions ( favoured by Chinese historians ) nor the excavation of tombs ( favoured by Chinese archeologists ) . Some of the void left by academia is being filled by independent research from Great Wall enthusiasts such as ex-Xinhua reporter Cheng Dalin ( 成 大林 ) and self - funded scholar David Spindler .
Great Wall of China
The longer Chinese name `` Ten - Thousand Mile Long Wall '' ( 萬里 長城 , Wanli Changcheng ) came from Sima Qian 's description of it in the Records , though he did not name the walls as such . The AD 493 Book of Song quotes the frontier general Tan Daoji referring to `` the long wall of 10,000 miles '' , closer to the modern name , but the name rarely features in pre-modern times otherwise . The traditional Chinese mile ( 里 , lǐ ) was an often irregular distance that was intended to show the length of a standard village and varied with terrain but was usually standardized at distances around a third of an English mile ( 540 m ) . Since China 's metrication in 1930 , it has been exactly equivalent to 500 metres or 1,600 feet , which would make the wall 's name describe a distance of 5,000 km ( 3,100 mi ) . However , this use of `` ten - thousand '' ( wàn ) is figurative in a similar manner to the Greek and English myriad and simply means `` innumerable '' or `` immeasurable '' .
History of the Great Wall of China
The steppe societies of Inner Asia , whose climate favoured a pastoral economy , stood in stark contrast to the Chinese mode of development . As animal herds are migratory by nature , communities could not afford to be stationary and therefore evolved as nomads . According to the influential Mongolist Owen Lattimore this lifestyle proved to be incompatible with the Chinese economic model . As the steppe population grew , pastoral agriculture alone could not support the population , and tribal alliances needed to be maintained by material rewards . For these needs , the nomads had to turn to the settled societies to get grains , metal tools , and luxury goods , which they could not produce by themselves . If denied trade by the settled peoples , the nomads would resort to raiding or even conquest .
Great Wall of China
Soon after Europeans reached Ming China by ship in the early 16th century , accounts of the Great Wall started to circulate in Europe , even though no European was to see it for another century . Possibly one of the earliest European descriptions of the wall and of its significance for the defense of the country against the `` Tartars '' ( i.e. Mongols ) , may be the one contained in João de Barros 's 1563 Asia . Other early accounts in Western sources include those of Gaspar da Cruz , Bento de Goes , Matteo Ricci , and Bishop Juan González de Mendoza . In 1559 , in his work `` A Treatise of China and the Adjoyning Regions , '' Gaspar da Cruz offers an early discussion of the Great Wall . Perhaps the first recorded instance of a European actually entering China via the Great Wall came in 1605 , when the Portuguese Jesuit brother Bento de Góis reached the northwestern Jiayu Pass from India . Early European accounts were mostly modest and empirical , closely mirroring contemporary Chinese understanding of the Wall , although later they slid into hyperbole , including the erroneous but ubiquitous claim that the Ming Walls were the same ones that were built by the First Emperor in the 3rd century BC .
History of the Great Wall of China
In 221 BC , the state of Qin completed its conquest over the other Warring States and united China under Qin Shi Huang , the first emperor of China . These conquests , combined with the Legalist reforms started by Shang Yang in the 4th century BC , transformed China from a loose confederation of feudal states to an authoritarian empire . With the transformation , Qin became able to command a far greater assembly of labourers to be used in public works than the prior feudal kingdoms . Also , once unification was achieved , Qin found itself in possession of a large professional army with no more internal enemies to fight and thus had to find a new use for them . Soon after the conquests , in the year 215 BC , the emperor sent the famed general Meng Tian to the Ordos region to drive out the Xiongnu nomads settled there , who had risen from beyond the fallen marginal states along the northern frontier . Qin 's campaign against the Xiongnu was preemptive in nature , since there was no pressing nomadic menace to be faced at the time ; its aim was to annexe the ambiguous territories of the Ordos and to clearly define the Qin 's northern borders . Once the Xiongnu were chased away , Meng Tian introduced 30,000 settler families to colonize the newly conquered territories .
History of the Great Wall of China
Meanwhile , the outer defenses were gradually moved inward , thereby sacrificing a vital foothold in the steppe transitional zone . Despite the withdrawal from the steppe , the Ming military remained in a strong position against the nomads until the Tumu Crisis in 1449 , which caused the collapse of the early Ming security system . Over half of the campaigning Chinese army perished in the conflict , while the Mongols captured the Zhengtong Emperor . This military debacle shattered the Chinese military might that had so impressed and given pause to the Mongols since the beginning of the dynasty , and caused the Ming to be on the defensive ever after .
History of the Great Wall of China
昔日 長城 戰 In olden days , battles along the Long Wall 咸 言 意氣 高 Were described with praise and awe . 黃 塵 足 今 古 But today , the past is no more than yellow dust 白骨 亂 蓬蒿 White bones jostled amongst the grass . --
History of the Great Wall of China
In 1550 , having once more been refused a request for trade , the Tümed Mongols under Altan Khan invaded the Xuan -- Da region . However , despite several attempts , he could not take Xuanfu due to Weng Wanda 's double fortified line while the garrison at Datong bribed him to not attack there . Instead of continuing to operate in the area , he circled around Weng Wanda 's wall to the relatively lightly defended Gubeikou , northeast of Beijing . From there Altan Khan passed through the defences and raided the suburbs of Beijing . According to one contemporary source , the raid took more than 60,000 lives and an additional 40,000 people became prisoners . As a response to this raid , the focus of the Ming 's northern defences shifted from the Xuan -- Da region to the Jizhou ( 薊 州 鎮 ) and Changping Defence Commands ( 昌平 鎮 ) where the breach took place . Later in the same year , the dry - stone walls of the Jizhou -- Changping area ( abbreviated as `` Ji - Chang '' ) were replaced by stone and mortar . These allowed the Chinese to build on steeper , more easily defended slopes and facilitated construction of features such as ramparts , crenelations , and peepholes . The effectiveness of the new walls was demonstrated in the failed Mongol raid of 1554 , where raiders expecting a repeat of the events of 1550 were surprised by the higher wall and stiff Chinese resistance .
Great Wall of China
None of the Europeans who visited Yuan China or Mongolia , such as Marco Polo , Giovanni da Pian del Carpine , William of Rubruck , Giovanni de ' Marignolli and Odoric of Pordenone , mentioned the Great Wall .