The Great Wall

The Great Wall of China by Franz Kafka (1883-1924) is an imaginative description of this ancient project that raises the points,＂With this method of construction (section by section) many large gaps arose;″＂there are said to be gaps which have never been filled in at all.″It then asks, ＂The wall was conceived as a protection against the people of the north, as was commonly announced and universally known. But how can protection be provide by a wall which is not built continuously?″
As vice-president Dong Yanhui of the China Great Wall Society remarks, ＂Military defense is generally considered to have been the aim of the Great Wall. But it performed a peaceful rather than warlike function.″Dong acted as guide to former US president Bill Clinton and current US president George W. Bush presidents were keen to know why so much manpower, material and funds had been expended on this massive, yet apparently incomplete, defense project throughout the centuries. Dong explains,＂The Great Wall was a means of reconciling China’s nomadic and farming economies. Clashes between the Han and nomadic communities occurred throughout Chinese history. Nomadic ethnic groups north of the Great Wall, such as the Qin and Han Dynasty Huns and Ming Dynasty Mongols, sought pastures for their horses, cattle and sheep. They coveted land in the Central Plains areas that had been settled by Han farmers. Nomad sheep and cattle ruined painstakingly cultivated Han crops, and farmers retaliated by slaughtering nomad livestock.″