ED'S HISTORICAL OVERHAUL (Chapter III: The Great Wall of China)

Ed Conrad (edconrad@prolog.net)
12 Dec 1996 11:43:09 GMT

(Rave reviews of the first two chapter's of ``Ed's Historical
Overhaul" -- ``Columbus' Riskless Journey to Discover America" and
``Earliest Man Sure Didn't Arrive in North America by Crossing the
Bering Strait" -- continue to pour in and the really good news is that
it may be available in time for Christmas if I hustle and finish
writing it.)

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> Chapter III: THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

One of the world's most perplexing of life's mysteries, along
with the construction of the pyramids, is WHY the Great Wall
of China was built.

Almost everyone gullibly accepts the proposition that the the Great
Wall (the only manmade object on earth visible from the moon) was
built for only one reason: to prevent China from being invaded.

Then there are others ( i.e., some Chinese historical scholars) who
claim it was built to serve as a permanent barrier between the
agricultural Chinese in the south and the Xiong Nu (the nomadic
cattle-raisers) in the north, since they apparently got along as well
as cats and dogs.

Nonsense!

Anyone with a semblance of common sense realizes that, if the Great
Wall had been constructed to keep an enemy out or to keep the peace
within, it never would've have been extended to such a great length --
nearly 4,000 miles -- and continue through so many isolated areas,
including the mountains and along the borders of deserts, a great
distance from civilization.

And, besides, the Great Wall --- about 25 feet high -- couldn't have
done an adequate job of protecting the Chinese from an invasion
anyway.

This was proven explicitly eight centuries ago when the Mongolian
hordes of Generalisimo Genghis Khan successfully scaled the wall at
numerous locations and eventually conquered most of China.

The real reason The Great Wall of China was originally constructed
had nothing whatsoever to do with preventing an invasion but,
instead, to keep the Chinese inside China.

China's leaders admantly opposed the mingling of their people with
those in neighboring countries -- preventing romantic interludes
and a mixing of the races -- that, with what would be considered
religious fervor, they ordered the start of the mindboggling,
gargantuan undertaking.

This is how concerned the leaders were about the possible
``contamination'' of the Chinese race by mingling -- and mating --
with non-Chinese.

Many scientific textbooks claim that construction of the original
section of The Great Wall began around 400 B.C. but various
scientists, especially the Chinese, seriously question this dating and
believe it had begun much earlier.

Indeed, it did.

Granted, there may well have been a variety of good reasons for
extending the Great Wall later on (after it was almost 2,000 miles
long).

But the sole purpose for starting construction in the first place was
to keep their race pure (which is precisely what a Johnny-Come-Lately
attempted to do -- in an evil, hideous, horrible way -- in Nazi
Germany in the 1930s.)