I wanted to do something different for this blog. Like my costume blog I wanted to step away from the norm and venture into new waters for myself. Paintings and sculptures and other forms of art from around the world are amazing. It is fun to see how art in other country’s is not just an expression of one’s self but yet an expression of their entire culture. I am drawn to the art of China; their work seems to have a great deal of peace and happiness to it even though throughout the years in which we see this work China was at war. Massive and brutal battles between the peoples of eastern Asia over control of land and government, which lead to fourteen different dynasties; and for this blog I move away from art work on paper and step to the art work of war.
The Great Wall of China
A master architect, like ones we might have encountered in the Northern Renaissance or the Classical period, did not build the Great Wall of China. In a time of war, soldiers and men would have work around the clock to build and fortify such a structure to protect themselves, their families and the country. There can be a lot of confusion over the wall itself, I myself felt a bit betrayed by my high school history teachers when I found out that the great wall that stands today is not the original. In fact the original was built during the Ch’in dynasty from 221- 206 B.C. as a way to protect the smaller states of China from each other. Then after the Han Dynasty took over a massive wall was build to protect the northern board from invasion. Over the years these walls have been eroded away to almost nothing.
Han Dynasty, Great Wall
Over the years other walls were built, but it was not until the Ming dynasty when the great wall saw a total rebirth. The wall that we know today if from the Ming and it played a huge part in the defense of the dynasty. The great wall was used in the Battle of Tumu, but it failed the Ming, as they could not hold back the surging Mongol warriors. After the battle the Ming decided to refortify the walls with brick instead of “rammed” earth, which was used previously. Then another shocking idea was also decided, the Ming chose to change where the wall was going to have its most effect. Prior to the Ming the wall was placed close to central parts of the empire. This time the Ming decided to move the wall away from these populated areas and out to the edge of the empire itself. With Beijing being an exception to this they decided to triple reinforce the wall there. The wall protected the Ming trough many battles including an attack by the Manchu in 1600 A.D.; it was not until 1644 A.D. when the wall failed to protect the Ming as Manchu advanced into Beijing and quickly overthrow the empire and formed the new Quin Dynasty. The Quin quickly pushed the Mongolian resistance out of China an all-future construction of the wall was halted.
Walls over the Dynasties, Click to Enlarge
The wall that we all know today goes from Shanhaiguan to Lop Nur an amazing 5,000 miles. I choose this master of engineering because it was not something that was built to look at and admire, it was built out on necessity without any clue on how important it was to become. The Chinese amaze me, their culture and their sense of art is great. I could have sat here and wrote a dissertation on the Great Wall of China, that is how extensive and involved its history is. I felt that wall deserved at least a small blog in this class to show my aesthetic appreciation for the people and art of China as a whole. Because show one’s love for the Great Wall of China was, and what it stood and fell for is showing respect to the entire culture.
“The Great Wall of China” Wikipedia. 13 April 2010. Web 23 April. 2010
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GreatWallOfHanDynasty.png
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GreatWall_2004_Summer_1.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_the_Great_Wall_of_China.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:20090529_Great_Wall_8185.jpg
