Do you know another "Great Wall" in Nanjing?

Speaking of the Great Wall, everyone knows that there is a Great Wall in Beijing. There is also a famous saying that "He who has not been to the Great Wall is not a true man!"

This Great Wall has undergone construction and improvement during the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Spring and Autumn Period, the Warring States Period, the Qin Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty. Most of the buildings we can see now are those that were overhauled during the Ming Dynasty.

Many people may not know that the rulers of the Ming Dynasty also built another "Great Wall" in Nanjing.

➤ About the Great Wall

In fact, the Great Wall is not a specific term, but in everyone's subconscious mind, when we mention the Great Wall, we mean the Great Wall of China.

The Great Wall is a defense system with city walls as the main body, combined with a large number of cities, barriers, pavilions and signs.

This name first appeared in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. "Historical Records: The Family of Chu" records: " King Xuan of Qi built a long wall on the mountains, extending east to the sea and west to Jeju, more than a thousand miles, to defend against Chu."

This "Great Wall" in Nanjing is actually a defense system built by the rulers, which is what we know today as the Nanjing Ming City Wall.

In 1356, Zhu Yuanzhang personally led his troops and divided them into three groups to capture Jiqing Road (now Nanjing) in ten days, and renamed it Yingtian Prefecture. "Yingtian" means responding to the will of heaven.

Here, Zhu Sheng, a founding hero of the Ming Dynasty, proposed to Zhu Yuanzhang to "build high walls, store up grain, and delay claiming the throne", and the construction of the "Great Wall" in Nanjing began. In early 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself emperor, named the country Ming, and established the capital here.

Nanjing served as the capital during the Six Dynasties period (called Jiankang).

The capital of Nanjing was further expanded on the basis of the Jiankang City of the Six Dynasties. The Nanjing Ming City Wall was also built in combination with Nanjing's terrain and landscape features: the Qinhuai River in the south is a natural moat, and Houhu Lake (now Xuanwu Lake) in the north serves as a barrier; Zhongshan Mountain and other hills block the east and west sides, forming a three-dimensional military fortress with unique defensive characteristics on all sides.

The Nanjing Ming City Wall surrounded Nanjing. At that time, there were four layers of encircling city walls, from the inside to the outside, namely the palace city, the imperial city, the capital city and the outer city.

The construction of the city wall defense system was very important and consumed a lot of manpower and material resources. Zhu Yuanzhang spent more than 20 years mobilizing 280,000 workers from all over the country to participate in the construction. It was not until 1393 (the 26th year of the Hongwu reign of the Ming Dynasty) that the whole system was completed.

➤Story of the City Wall

The construction of Nanjing's Ming City Wall consumed about 350 million bricks, which came from all over the country. According to historical records, the bricks and stones of the Ming City Wall were jointly undertaken by 32 prefectures and 148 counties across the country.

In order to ensure the quality of the bricks, the relevant person in charge and the workers in the brick factory are required to leave their names on them so that they can be held accountable after acceptance. The bricks are large in size and a single brick can weigh up to 20 kilograms.

Nanjing's Ming City Wall has 13 inner city gates and 18 outer city gates, collectively known as "inner thirteen and outer eighteen".

The construction of city walls in various places was also adapted to local conditions.

The Stone City "is built on the mountain and on the river, with a rugged and solid terrain and a unique momentum". To build the city wall here, one only needs to utilize the existing steep stone wall and only build a very low brick wall on the top of the mountain.

In 1937, the invading Japanese army entered Nanjing and the war spread to Zhonghua Gate. The Japanese tanks were just below Zhonghua Gate. A shell was fired and hit the city wall, which was instantly destroyed.

It can also be seen in the photo that at that time there were four words "Swear to Avenge the National Hegemony" hanging on the city wall, which was very eye-catching.

What is sad is that among the 13 city towers in Nanjing at that time, Zhonghua Gate was the only one that retained the style of the Ming Dynasty.

The existing Ming Dynasty city gates include Jubao Gate (Zhonghua Gate), Shicheng Gate (Hanxi Gate), Shence Gate (Heping Gate) and Qingliang Gate. Except for Shence Gate, which still retains the tower built during the Qing Dynasty, the towers of the other city gates no longer exist.

➤Two wall bricks

The wars in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China and the Anti-Japanese War caused varying degrees of damage to various parts of Nanjing's Ming City Wall. For example, Zhengyang Gate in the capital originally had one outer city wall and two inner city walls, but after the war, it was believed for a long time that it only had one inner city wall.

In the early days of the People's Republic of China, when the country was relatively weak and building materials were scarce, the government allowed the demolition of bricks to build dormitories for some enterprises, schools, and factories, which caused great damage to the ancient city wall.

Before there was an official government document, and due to insufficient education and publicity, the people at that time did not take any spontaneous measures to protect Nanjing Ming City Wall, a precious historical building.

There are holes in some places on the wall, with bricks exposed. Vegetable farmers and nearby residents directly take them out and use them as tools for setting up stalls or as benches for resting. It is really sad to see the ancient wall bricks with a history of more than 600 years being used in this way.

After seeing this, local resident Ms. Xie quietly "stole" two bricks and took them home;

It was not until November 2016 that the Nanjing Ming City Wall Management Center launched the "Returning Every Brick to the Warehouse" campaign, asking citizens to provide clues about scattered city wall bricks and return the lost bricks free of charge for the restoration of the ancient city wall.

A total of 80,000 bricks have been recovered, including this brick that was carefully kept.

Of course, part of the Nanjing Ming City Wall is missing and there are no bricks to repair it. What should we do?

After much thought, we decided to use green plants, which can not only cover the dilapidated walls, but also add some color to the gray walls. For example, Zhengyang Gate (now Guanghua Gate) was reshaped with four plant walls.

Nanjing Ming City Wall is the Great Wall of Nanjing. The royal archives of the Ming Dynasty record that the length of the Ming City Wall was "a circumference of 17,342 feet", which is equivalent to 34.349 kilometers in today's system; currently 25.1 kilometers are intact.

Even with the damage, it is still the longest, largest and best preserved ancient city wall in China and even in the world.

As the "Records of Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty" says, the rise of a generation must be accompanied by its own creation. The construction of Nanjing Ming City Wall is the embodiment and crystallization of the military culture of the Ming Dynasty, a typical example of adapting measures to local conditions, and an innovation in ancient Chinese architecture.

The cultural connotation of Nanjing's Ming City Wall is worth our careful appreciation, and the city wall that has withstood more than 600 years of wind and rain is worth our protection.