Ancient Defensive Projects (2)

In ancient China, city walls emerged as early as in the Shang Dynasty (16^th- 11^th century B.C.). at that time, city walls were made and then tamped hard enough to make it solid and strong. The city walls were narrow on top, and wide at the bottom, forming a ladder-shaped cross section.

City walls appeared in the period when primitive society was developing into slavery society. It foretold the contention for and redistribution of property and power. It also foretold that human civilization would take the place of primitive ignorance. Although the deep ditches and moats around cities still bore traces of the clan society, the city wall already stood high in the twilight of a new ear. Even the imperial palace walls had the features of defensive works. It was the fierce fighting among primitive people that brought about the everlasting defensive projects on a large scale.

The techniques of soil tamping have been in use for a long time in China. Brick-faced walls did not appear until the Song Dynasty, and from then on brick-faced walls were on the increase. Chang’an, the capital city of the Tang Dynasty, enjoyed a reputation for having soil-tamped walls. Its gates, ramparts and corners were faced with bricks. The palace and royal city walls of Luoyang, the Eastern Capital of the Tang Dynasty, were all coated with bricks, inside and outside, which showed its wealth and prosperity, and the ever-increasing importance of its geographical position. The Yuan Dynasty saw some changes, as is seen from the historical site of Dadu, capital city of the Yuan Dynasty. The outer city walls were soil-tamped, but the royal city walls within the city were not only soil-tamped but also coated on the outside with natural flat stones. The palace in the royal city had its outside walls covered with bricks and inside walls covered with stones. According to historical records, the palace city walls were constructed with bricks. Because it cost too much to coat the walls with bricks, this practice took a long time to become popular. Brick walls then became very popular after the first half of the Ming Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, city walls at the county level were mostly brick structures, and soil-tamped walls could hardly be seen.