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The Great Wall is regarded as a treasure of Chinese civilization and one of the great world cultural heritage sites.It enjoys equal fame with the Pyramidsin Egypt. Today, whoever visits the Great Wall is amazed at its majestyand magnificence. It represents the indestructible will of the Chinese nationand the indomitable spirit of mankind.
During the 2,000 years of its history,a great number of stories and legendsabout the Great Wall have been handed down, among which, the legend aboutMeng Jiangnu was the most popular. It is said that when Emperor Yingzheng of theQin Dynasty was building the Great Wall,a young man named Fan Xiliang wasforced to do labour on the third day after his marriage to Meng Jiangnu. Beforelong, Fan Xiliang died of exhaustion and cold and hunger, and was buried underthe Great Wall. Not knowing the death of her husband, Meng Jiangnu made some padded clothes and set off alone to look for him. When she got to the destination and was told of her husband's death, the heart—broken woman could not locate thewhereabouts of his body. She sat down at the foot of the Great Wall and startedcrying. She cried day and night, and her wailing made the wall fall. She finallysaw her husband's bones under the wall.Desperate with grief, she jumped into thesea and died.
The construction of the Great Wall was the cruelest forced labor in anydynasty in China. During the nearly 2,000 years from the Spring and Autumn Period(770 BC—476 BC) to the Ming Dynasty (1368—1644), the defense work underwentmany repairs, which meant the press ganging of countless number of people inthe work. Hence, the story about Meng Jiangnu was typical, telling us that theGreat Wall we see today was built at the expense of the lives of countless Chinesepeople.
