The Great Wall

Understanding China and the Chinese Mindset

Photo by Max van den Oetelaar on Unsplash

For a long time, I had very little interest in the Great Wall of China. I couldn’t grasp its significance. I couldn’t see the point of 7-meter-high walls built along the thousand-meter mountain range. It seemed like a monumental waste of time and resources. My initial thought was that, according to the Western narrative, it must be nothing more than a display of vanity and tyranny.

I was wrong...

Its origins lie in centuries of conflict between the settled farmers of the Central Plains and the nomadic herders of the north, representing a fundamental clash between two distinct cultures and ways of life. The wall was initially built by various warring states as a strategic defence against raids from these nomadic tribes. It was later unified and expanded by Qin Shi Huang to secure the borders of the newly unified China.

In this article, I want to share my thoughts and reflections on this extraordinary architectural feat and its enduring legacy, examining how this structure, with its origins dating back 2,500 years, continues to shape China today.

The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China is often regarded as a monument of the ultimate show of power by Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. Like many other aspects of Chinese culture, this perspective is often shallow and biased. The Great Wall wasn’t just a physical wall to keep chaos and troubles out. It was also a psychological bulwark that shaped China’s perception of itself and the world outside.

Stretching over thousands of miles across mountains, deserts, and plains, the Great Wall endures as one of the most ambitious feats of human engineering. But its true legacy is hidden in the Chinese psyche as a boundary between order and disorder, civilisation and barbarism, us and them.

Originally constructed to defend against raids from nomadic tribes of the north, the Great Wall evolved into a symbol of resilience. It wasn’t a single structure, but a series of layered defences rebuilt across many dynasties, each one reaffirming the idea that what lay inside The Great Wall was ours, and worth protecting. It is home, the Motherland. That safety and unity were physical as much as they were cultural and spiritual.

The Great Wall of China encapsulates the cultural outlook of many Chinese over more than two millennia. It’s always about what’s inside the Great Wall: a profound sense of continuity, a wariness of invaders, and a belief that survival often means knowing where to draw the line. And what it takes to hold it. It’s about how the Great Wall protected China and shaped its national identity.

The Clash of Cultures

The Great Wall of China was built to separate centuries of conflict between two fundamentally different cultures. Inside the wall were the farmers of the Central Plains, whose livelihoods depended on cultivating fertile lands and building stable communities.

As people of the soil, farmers hate wars and disruptions. People are a valuable resource because they allow food production to scale up. This, in turn, leads to greater security for the future. Farmers prefer stability and do not like to move because they cannot take their livelihood with them.

Outside the wall stood the nomadic herders of the northern and western steppes, who roamed vast expanses of grassland in search of grazing grounds for their livestock. Herders compete for access to grasslands to support their livestock. Herders do not like large populations, so massacres often followed raids. They must move, expand, and conquer.

These contrasting cultures, rooted in geography, climate, and survival strategies, created an enduring clash that shaped the course of Chinese history.

Farmers vs. Herders

At the heart of this divide lay the stark differences between farming and herding societies. The people of the Central Plains lived in a region with abundant annual rainfall, typically over 400 millimetres. Climate conditions determined their lifestyle as people of the soil. It enabled them to cultivate crops such as wheat, millet, and rice. Agriculture fostered sedentary lifestyles, large populations, and complex social structures. Villages grew into towns, towns into cities, and cities into states, all interconnected by shared traditions, governance systems, and economic networks. For these farmers, land was their source of food, wealth, and identity. It was everything.

In contrast, the nomads of the steppe inhabited a harsher environment where rainfall rarely exceeded 200 millimetres annually, dwindling further as it stretched towards the desert. They relied instead on herding animals, such as horses, sheep, goats, and cattle. Mobility was crucial to their survival; they required vast tracts of open land with minimal human presence to sustain their herds. Nomadic groups lived in small, decentralised bands, prioritising flexibility, speed, and adaptability over permanence or hierarchy.

This fundamental difference in lifestyle created inherent tensions. For the nomads, densely populated farmland represented both opportunity and threat. Raids provided access to scarce resources, including food, tools, textiles, and slaves. But because large settlements disrupted their need for open space, entire villages were often slaughtered during raids to eliminate competition and ensure future access to grazing lands. To the nomads, killing villagers wasn’t just an act of cruelty; it was a strategic necessity.

So the farmers of the Central Plains viewed the nomads as barbaric invaders who threatened their way of life. Their focus was on protecting their farms, families, and communities from destruction. Over time, they developed organised armies, fortified cities, and sophisticated administrative systems to defend against incursions. Unlike the nomads’ hit-and-run tactics, the people of the Central Plains relied on disciplined troops, strategic planning, and long-term solutions to secure their borders.

China struggled with nearly 700 years of wars and invasions during the Warring States period until Ying Zheng, the ruler of the Qin State, sought to end all the wars, unify China under a single dynastic empire, and keep the invaders out for good.

Qin Shi Huang

In 221 BCE, Ying Zheng unified China under a centralised state, ending 700 years of chaos and warfare, and called himself Qin Shi Huang Di, meaning The First Emperor of Qin (259–210 BCE). Qin Shi Huang’s first task was to secure the borders against the nomadic threat. He ordered the construction of a monumental defensive system that would later become known as the Great Wall of China. Building on earlier walls constructed by individual states during the Warring States period (475–221 BCE), Qin Shi Huang unified and expanded these fortifications into a cohesive network spanning 5000 kilometres.

Constructed mainly using forced labour from criminals, conscripts, soldiers and even political prisoners, the wall served several purposes. First, it acted as a physical barrier, impeding the movement of mounted nomads and giving Qin forces valuable time to mobilise in response to raids. Second, it functioned as a psychological deterrent, signalling the might and determination of the newly unified empire. Finally, it reinforced the cultural boundary between “civilisation” (the agrarian society within) and “barbarism” (the nomadic world beyond).

How does the Great Wall work?

At first glance, the Great Wall might seem like an impractical solution to the threat posed by nomadic tribes. Only recently did I learn that the wall’s design reveals a profound understanding of military strategy, geography, and psychology. Far from being a physical barrier, the Great Wall was a system that neutralised the nomads’ greatest strengths while leveraging the advantages of settled agricultural societies.

Neutralising the Nomads’Advantage

The nomads were masters of mobility. Their cavalry could strike quickly, raid villages, and retreat before organised resistance could respond. These hit-and-run tactics allowed them to operate effectively in small numbers, often overwhelming larger but slower-moving infantry forces. For centuries, this asymmetry gave the nomads a significant edge over the Chinese armies of the Central Plains.

The Great Wall altered this dynamic. While individuals or small groups could scale parts of the wall, their horses could not. This effectively turns cavalry into infantry once they cross over. Without their horses, the nomads lost their speed, agility, and ability to strike unpredictably. Moreover, the act of scaling the wall itself slowed them down, giving the Chinese defenders time to respond.

Once inside, the nomads are at a severe disadvantage. Chinese armies were typically composed of large, well-trained infantry units supported by archers and siege weapons. Even if the nomads managed to breach the wall, they now faced numerically superior forces operating on familiar terrain. The wall thus disrupted the nomads’ most effective advantage: their mobility.

A Network of Watchtowers and Beacons

Another critical function of the Great Wall was communication. Contrary to Hollywood beliefs, soldiers did not patrol its entire length or defend from the walls; instead, the wall connected a series of strategically placed signal towers (风火台) spaced within sight of one another. When danger was detected, soldiers would light fires or create smoke signals on these towers. The signals could be seen from a distance and relayed from one tower to another, allowing messages to travel rapidly across vast distances. These became an early warning system unparalleled in the history of ancient warfare.

This network of signals enabled Chinese commanders to pinpoint the location of an invasion and the direction of its movement. Armed with this information, they could deploy troops efficiently, concentrating their forces at designated points of attack rather than spreading them thinly along the frontier. This ability to anticipate and respond swiftly transformed what had once been chaotic, surprise raids into predictable countermeasures.

In essence, the Great Wall served as a physical barrier and a means of communication and intelligence gathering. By slowing down invaders and providing warning, it shifted the balance of power in favour of the defenders. Instead of reacting to the nomads’ unpredictable movements, the Chinese could dictate the terms of engagement.

Psychological Warfare and Symbolic Power

Beyond its tactical functions, the Great Wall also served as a potent psychological deterrent. To the nomads, the sight of an unbroken line of fortifications stretching across the horizon must have been daunting and highly discouraging. It was a testament to the wealth, organisation, and resolve of the Chinese. Scaling such a structure required immense effort, and even then, success wasn’t guaranteed. For many tribes, the wall likely discouraged all but the most desperate or determined attempts at invasion.

For the people of the Central Plains, the wall symbolised security and unity. It reinforced the idea of a shared identity, distinguishing “us” (the civilised, agricultural society) from “them” (the barbaric, nomadic outsiders). This cultural distinction fostered a sense of collective purpose, encouraging communities to invest in maintaining and repairing the wall despite its enormous cost in labour and resources.

Why Dynasties Kept Rebuilding The Great Wall

Given the challenges of constructing and maintaining such a massive structure, one might wonder why successive dynasties continued to repair and enhance the Great Wall. During the Qin Dynasty, the Great Wall was approximately 5,000 kilometres long (about 3,100 miles). This early version, often referred to as the “10,000-li Wall” (with one li roughly equivalent to 500 meters), was eventually extended and rebuilt, especially during the Ming Dynasty, into the more iconic form we see today, spanning a total of 21,000 kilometres in length.

The answer lies in its enduring utility. Every dynasty faced similar threats from northern nomadic groups, including the Xiongnu, Turks, Khitans, Jurchens, and Mongols. Though the specific enemies changed over time, the underlying dynamics remained constant: mobile raiders versus sedentary farmers, agility versus numbers, chaos versus order.

For rulers seeking to consolidate their authority, the wall offered a tangible demonstration of their commitment to protecting the realm. It also employed thousands of peasants during peacetime, creating jobs and helping to prevent unrest among the rural population. In times of crisis, the wall became a rallying point, uniting disparate regions under a common cause.

Moreover, the lessons learned from previous iterations of the wall informed later improvements. Under the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), for example, engineers constructed stronger walls using bricks and stone, added fortified gates, and expanded the network of watchtowers. These enhancements reflected centuries of accumulated knowledge on how best to counter evolving nomadic threats.

How the Great Wall Explains China

The Great Wall was never meant to be impenetrable. Its brilliance wasn’t in brute strength, but in strategy, in how it blunted the nomads’ speed, disrupted their formations, and bought time for Chinese defenders to mobilise. It was designed to alter the enemy’s characteristics. Beyond its military function, the Great Wall carried a more profound message for invaders: We will survive you.

For the Chinese, the Great Wall reinforced a cultural boundary between “civilisation” (內, nèi) and “barbarism” (外, wài), a distinction central to Confucian teaching. This distinction matters. Throughout its long history, China has rarely sought to expand beyond its cultural borders. Its energies have mostly turned inward: toward harmony, continuity, and preservation. The Great Wall is the most enduring proof of that mindset. It was not a launching pad for conquest but a boundary of protection. A line that said: this is who we are, and this is where YOU stop.

This makes China fundamentally different from the nomadic cultures against which it defends itself, as well as from the seafaring colonisers of recent times. Nomads and seafarers pushed outward, initially driven by scarcity and the need for survival, then by ideology, capital, and greed: The bible or the sword. If you are not with us, you are against us. Conquest is a god-given right.

These are the heirs of the western steppe.

And that’s why the West often misreads China. It sees the rise of China as it sees itself. But China is not a mirror. It’s a wall. A Great Wall. It builds to endure, not to dominate. It defends rather than conquers. It is a civilisation shaped by floods, famine, and foreign invasion, not by the need to dominate others.

To understand China, look to the Great Wall. Contemplate what it represents: a civilisation that draws lines to hold itself together. Who, for 5000 years, have faced the outside with resolution and endurance.

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