NA TURE 



[December 23, 1909 



THE GREAT WALL OF CHINAA 



IT is two thousand years since Chi-Hwanj^ti estab- 

 lished his fame by building the Great Wall. Dr. 

 Geil, in the preface to his book, suggests that after 

 so long an interval we remain ignorant of the features 

 of this greatest of all mural ramparts. 

 "There is a Great Wall of China; so 

 much the geographers tell everybody, 

 but they do not make it clear 

 whether it is built of China; or 

 why it is, or how long it is, or 

 how long it has been." We must re- 

 mind the author that accurate details 

 concerning the wall have been avail- 

 able for at least two centuries. The 

 Jesuit missionaries under I'he auspices 

 of the Emperor Kang-hi surveyed the 

 wall from the eastern seaboard to the 

 desert of Turkestan. Its course was 

 set down on their map, published in 

 1718, the first authentic map of the 

 Empire. This was accompanied by a 

 narrative of their survey, giving an 

 account of the wall, its measurements, 

 its lengl'h, and the materiar used in 

 building. Later geographers followed. 



The work done, however, by pre- 

 vious travellers need not detract from 

 the merit of the journey made by Dr. 

 Geil. His route lay over one thousand 

 miles in a very rough country, and 

 among people who are not given to 

 welcoming the stranger at their gate, 

 yet the author seems to have covered 

 tihe ground rapidly, and to have en- 

 joyed immunity from the delays, dis- 

 comforts, and accidents that impede 

 the progress of the explorer in eastern 

 Asia. He must be congratulated also 

 on securing an admirable series of 

 photographs to illustrate his volume. 

 Taken alone, they supply a valuable 

 pictorial representation of this wonder- 

 ful barrier, affording evidence of the 

 skill of the builders who at that early 

 period and with the most priniilive 

 appliances overcame engineering diffi- 

 culties that would prove formidable in 

 lour own day with all the facilities 

 afforded by science. 



Dr. Stein b:is recently discovered that 

 the wall I xiiiuK much further west 

 than was jjrcvinuslv known, along a 

 desert track in Turkestan, hitherto un- 

 e.xplored. He also found documentary 

 evidence to show that part of this 

 western extension was erected two cen- 

 turies B.C., during the reign of Chi- 

 Hwangti. 



Dr. Geil gives an account of the life 

 and work of Chi-Hwangti at some 

 length, whom he calls "Chin."^ He 

 was a reformer who built the Greai 

 Wall to shut out t'he Huns, extended 

 and consolidated the Empire, made 

 highways to facilitate intercommunica- 

 tion, and was a promoter of agriculture 

 and industry. He was a prince of 

 hustlers, with an eye to national de- 

 velopment and the filling of his treasury. 



In order that he might pose, and be handed down to 

 posterity, as first Emperor of China, he burnt the 

 classic writings and ancient chronicles of the 

 Empire, and put to death more than four hundred fol- 

 lowers of Confucius, an act which earned for him 

 the lasting hatred of the literati. The building c' 



P/ic/o. by H. 



He was a 

 man of bour»dless ambition and fantastic wickedness. 



1 " The Great Wall of China." By Dr. William Edga 

 351. (London ; lohn Murray, 1909.) Price 21J. net. 



2 Chi-Hwangti, Second Emperor of the Tsin dj nasty. 



Geil. Pp. 



NO. 2095, VOL. 82] 



the wall, his greatest work, was accomplished by 

 forced labour, and the builders, under pain of death, 

 had either to give their unremitting toil or be built 

 into the wall as part of the material for their country's 

 defence. "Cliin" was an economist. 



