Folktales about the Great Wall. Legends. Idioms. Proverbs. Folk songs and ballads.

1. Meng Jiangnu

During the Qin Dynasty, there was a kind and beautiful woman named Meng Jiangnu. One day, she was doing housework in her own yard when she suddenly realized that there was a man hiding under the grapevine, which scared her so much that she was about to shout, only to see the man waving his hands and pleading: "Don't shout, don't shout, save me! My name is Fan Xiliang, I came to escape." It turned out that Emperor Qin Shi Huang was taking people as laborers to build the Great Wall, and many people had already died of starvation and exhaustion! Meng Jiangnu saved Fan Xiliang and saw that he was well-read and clear-eyed, and fell in love with him, while Fan Xiliang also fell in love with Meng Jiangnu. The two of them were so in love with each other that they sought their parents' permission and were ready to be married.

On the day of the wedding, Meng's family was decorated with lanterns and guests, a joyous scene. Look at the sky is almost dark, drinking wine people are gradually dispersed, the bride and groom are about to enter the bridal chamber, suddenly heard the chicken fly dog barking, then broke into a team of vicious officers and soldiers, can not be said, with a chain lock, hard to Fan Xiliang captured to the Great Wall to do the work. The good reason for the happy event into an empty, Meng Jiangnu grief and indignation, day and night thinking of her husband. She thought: I'd better go to the Great Wall to look for him instead of sitting at home and worrying. Right! That's it! Meng Jiangnu immediately packed up and went on her way.

On the way, I do not know how much wind, rain and snow, trekking through how many dangerous mountains and rivers, Meng Jiangnu did not cry a bitter, did not drop a tear, finally, with tenacious perseverance, with her husband's deep love, she arrived at the Great Wall. At this time, the Great Wall is already a very long wall composed of a site, Meng Jiangnu site by site to find over, but never see her husband. Finally, she summoned up courage and asked a group of workers who were about to start work, "Do you have a Fan Xiliang here?" The laborer said, "There is such a person, a newcomer." When Meng Jiangnu heard this, she was more than happy! She asked again, "Where is he?" The civil worker said: "has died, the corpse has filled the foot of the city

Suddenly heard this terrible news, really like a bolt from the blue, Meng Jiangnu only feel a black eye, a burst of heartache, cried out. She cried for three days and three nights, so much so that even heaven and earth were moved. The sky is getting more and more gloomy, the wind is getting more and more violent, only to hear "clatter", a section of the Great Wall was cried down, revealing the body of Fan Xiliang, Meng Jiangnu's tears dripped on his bloody face. She had finally met her beloved husband, but he could never see her again, for he had been killed by the brutal Emperor Qin Shi Huang.

2. The Legend of the Dingcheng Brick

The Dingcheng Brick refers to a brick placed on the eaves platform at the back of the gate tower of the western urn of the Jiayuguan Pass.

Legend has it that during the Ming Zhengde period, there was a repairer named Yi Kaizhan who was proficient in the nine-nine algorithms, and all the buildings, as long as he was calculated, the labor and materials were very accurate and frugal. Supervise the repair of the supervisor tube do not believe, to calculate the number of bricks Jiayuguan, easy to open account after detailed calculations, said: "need 99,999,999 bricks." Supervisor tube according to the brick, and said: "if more than one or less than one, are to cut off your head, punished all the craftsmen labor for three years." After completion, only one brick remained, placed in the west urn gate tower on the rear gable. Supervisor of the tube found rejoicing, is trying to take this deduction Yi Kai Zhan and all the craftsmen's wages, but Yi Kai Zhan panicked and said: "that brick is the gods put, is the fixed brick, if you move, the city building will collapse." Supervisor tube heard, do not dare to pursue. From then on, this brick has been put in place, no one dares to move. Now, this brick is still retained in the Jiayuguan fortress above.

3. Ice Road transport stone

When, the construction of Jiayuguan City, the need for thousands of blocks of 2 meters long, 0.5 meters wide, 0.3 meters thick stone, craftsmen in the Black Hills will be chiseled after the stone, but the people can not lift, the car can not be pulled, and the mountain is too high and far away, can not be transported. Guys chiseling stone while worrying, see the winter season is coming, the stone has not been transported from the mountain out of a piece, if you want to delay the schedule, there is no money is small, this head can be difficult to protect. We are long boo short sigh, at this time, suddenly the mountain top a muffled thunder, from the white clouds floating down a piece of silk, the craftsmen hastened to catch, only to see above the hidden several lines of words, we look at it after a sudden realization, according to its actions. Waiting for the arrival of winter, the crowd from the mountains to the city to build a road, splashing water on the road surface, so that it formed an ice road, and then put the stone on the ice road skidding transportation, the results are very smooth to the stone to the Jiayuguan Pass under the city, not only there is no delay in the construction period, but also saves a lot of construction time. In order to thank God for his blessing, the craftsmen built a temple near the city and enshrined the god, and it became a place where the craftsmen had to worship after they left their jobs.

4. Goat pack bricks

Jiayuguan City, the wall is 9 meters high, but also in the wall above the construction of dozens of different sizes of buildings and numerous palisades, with the number of bricks is very impressive, at that time, the construction conditions are very poor, there is no lifting equipment, relying on manual handling. At that time, the construction conditions were very poor, there was no lifting equipment, all relied on manual transportation. The bricks used in the repair of Guancheng were burned in places 40 miles away. After the bricks were burned, they were pulled to the bottom of the city by oxcarts and then carried up by hand. Due to the high city, the only up and down the slope of the horse road, up and down is very difficult, although sent many people to the wall on the back of the brick, each exhausted, but back to the brick is still in short supply, the progress of the project has been seriously affected. One day, a goat herding children came here to play sheep, see this scene, a bright idea, take off the belt, the two ends of each bundle on a brick, hitched to the goat, and then, with a hand to clap the back of the goat, the body of the lightweight goat, pack brick a trot on the wall climbed. People watched and surprised and happy, have followed suit, a large number of bricks soon transported on the city wall.

5. Strike the stone swallow song

According to legend, there is a pair of swallows nesting in the Jiayuguan Pass soft far door. Early in the morning, the two swallows flew out of the gate, at sunset, the female swallows fly back first, until the male swallows flew back, the gate is closed, can not enter the gate, then sadly touched the wall and died, the female swallows grief, from time to time to send out a "chirp" swallows chirping sound, and has been sadly singing to the death. After her death, her spirit will not be dispersed, and every time someone strikes the wall with a stone, she will send out "chirping" swallows to confide in others. In ancient times, people in the Jiayuguan Pass can hear the sound of swallows as the sound of good luck, generals out of the war, Mrs. hit the wall to pray, and later developed to the generals out of the gate before, with their families and children, together with the corner of the wall to hit the wall to pray, so that the formation of a custom.

6. Wannian gray and Yanjing City

People say, is the first Qin Shi Huang repair of the Great Wall of China. In fact the beginning of the Great Wall was not built by him. Early in the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States period before Qin Shi Huang, there was a king of Yan, his country is small, few soldiers and horses, weak, at any time there is a danger of being eaten by neighboring countries. In order to preserve his kingdom, the king of Yan commandeered his people and built a high city wall on top of a mountain at the border of his kingdom to prevent invasion by foreign enemies.

Because lime was not yet available at that time, he built the wall with stones and bricks plastered with mud. In order to save time and repair the wall as soon as possible, he ordered that work should not stop even in winter. Cold days, and mud have to use hot water, so the people will carry the big iron pot to the site, with three stones support up, add firewood to boil water. Over time, the iron pot was burned a big hole, full of water leaked out of the pot; the fire under the pot doused. But the people also accidentally found that the water sprinkled on the stone supporting the pot, hot stone met the water and exploded, exploded many white noodles, the people look at, think, very strange. A man put this white flour with water and and, feeling that it was more moist than mud, and sticky, he smeared it on the stone bars and brick cracks.

The next day, the people realized that the stone and brick joints were much stronger than those made with mud. The people of Yan were inspired, and from then on, they burned lime to plaster the joints of the walls.

Later, Qin Shi Huang unified China, and in order to keep his imperial throne, he also followed the Yan king's method to build the Great Wall of China. When the construction began, he issued a decree that allowed the original Yan people to take over the lime-burning work. Therefore, all the lime used in the construction of the Great Wall was burnt by Yan people. Where the Great Wall is repaired, where the ash is burned on the hillside, and the quality of the burnt ash is so good that it is called "ten-thousand-year ash", meaning ten-thousand years of no deterioration.

After the Great Wall was finished, the other people went back to their places. Because the people of Yan were meritorious in burning ash, Emperor Qin Shi Huang plucked down gold and silver and built a town just for the people of Yan Yuan, which is now Beijing. Therefore, at that time, Beijing was called Yanjing, and the mountains where the Yan people had used stones to burn ash were collectively called the Yanshan Mountains.

The Great Wall was built during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods and lasted for more than 2,000 years, with a total length of more than 50 million meters. The Great Wall that we refer to today refers to the Great Wall built in the Ming Dynasty, which is 6.35 million meters long, starting from Jiayuguan Pass in Gansu Province in western China and ending at the Yalu River in Liaoning Province in northeastern China. It is like a robust dragon, crossing the mountains, passing through the wall, penetrating the grassland, crossing the desert, undulating on the top of the lofty mountains, on the other side of the Yellow River and on the shore of the Bohai Sea. In ancient and modern times and at home and abroad, anyone who has been to the Great Wall has marveled at its majesty, grandeur and arduous engineering. The Great Wall is a rare treasure and a monument of extraordinary art, which symbolizes the indestructible will and strength of the Chinese nation to survive forever, and is the pride of the Chinese nation as well as the pride of the whole mankind. Evaluation by the World Heritage Committee: Around 220 B.C., Qin Shi Huang, who unified the world, connected some intermittent fortifications built earlier into a complete defense system to resist the invasion from the north. During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD), the construction continued, making the Great Wall the longest military installation in the world. Its cultural and artistic value rivals its historical and strategic importance.