New Tales of the Great Wall
Wing Tung Yiu, Group 3: Fiction, Shatin Tsung Tsin Secondary School
ome say “The future is amazing to discover.” They are trying to figure out the unknowns on the Earth
and explore something new. However, I have loved studying the past since I was small, especially the
Chinese History. History records the truth. Also, I can learn about the sorts of mistakes humans made in
the past and avoid making the same mistakes. Because of my passion in studying history, I became a
historian. But……until I met her, I find out the “truth” that what I had believed was just a beautiful lie……
In an accidental chance, I was invited to take part in a “World History Meeting 2012” in Beijing. During the
meeting, there were a lot of historians from different countries and they exchanged discoveries through
interflow meetings. Having no interests in those social meetings, I just sat there at the corner. However, a girl
took the initiative and chatted with me. Though she looked young, her knowledge of history is enough to make
anyone gape in awe. She was obviously, an experienced historian.
At first, I just wanted to treat her with courtesy. But after chatting for a while, I found that she had the same
interests as me—we both love Chinese history! I was very excited to find a like-minded friend who could share
my point of view on Chinese history with.
“
The Great Wall in Beijing is amazing, isn’t it? It is made up of stone, brick, wood and it linked up the
northern borders of China from east to west. It can protect the safety of China; avoid being invaded and
encourage trades. Though the process of building the Great Wall is expensive, is it worth it?” I asked her
agitatedly.
“
Um……I do not think it is amazing. The building of Great Wall only builds more estrangement and
misunderstanding septum to separate the Chinese.” She said calmly after musing over my question for a moment.
Wondering why she answered like this. I asked her to tell me more about her thoughts out of curiosity.
“
Not known to anyone, there’s an inside story in building of the Great Wall. The story is told that……”
Then, she began her story….
At the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shi Huang was the first emperor of China. He was an ambitious person and he
wanted to have the strongest dynasty which would never fall. He heard that there was a famous prophet who
came from the west that could foresee future events so he decided to seek help from him.
“
My dearest prophet, I heard that you can foreknow things by seeing through the crystal ball, is it true?”
asked Qin Shi Huang with his heart filled with hope.
“
Yes, it is true. So what can I help you with?” said the prophet.
“
Well that’s good! I want to find a way to keep my Qin Dynasty to stay strong for 1 million years and
became the most powerful dynasty in the Chinese history. All the people in the future will glorify my
successfully built dynasty and my name of course, will go down in history. If you can give me a helping hand, I
promise you can have endless wealth in rest of your life.” smirked Qin Shi Huang.
The prophet looked into her crystal ball carefully. After a few minutes, she said, “As I can see in the crystal
ball, in the 19th century, a country called Germany will become a very strong country in the world.”
“
What made them successful? I mean, anything special about the country?” the emperor questioned the
prophet closely.
“
They have a great armament powers and a callous wall called “Berlin Wall”, but……”
“
That’s enough!” Qin thundered at him.
As soon as Qin Shi Huang heard the prediction said by the prophet, he decided to build a wall in China
which was stronger than the one in Germany. He named it the “Great Wall” of China and started his
construction on the Great Wall.
He ordered the solider, General Meng Tian, with an army of 300,000 forced labourers to build the part of
the new wall. When the Great Wall was firstly joined together, ten years had passed. During the construction,
300,000
workers were forced to join, including those conscripted labourers and soldiers. They worked from day
to night but they were not treated well by Qin Shi Huang. Owing to the arduous work and poor conditions both
for living and construction, a lot of workers died in the course of the building of the Great Wall. Some of their
remains were even buried under the wall. Yet, Qin Shi Huang thought he did the right thing and never felt sorry
for his people.
After many years, Qin Shi Huang summoned and asked the prophet again to see if it was good enough to
have the strongest dynasty in Chinese history. However, surprisingly, the answer was negative.
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Shortlisted