Vast Chinese Walls Series: Humbly Told

Raw, ragged, revealing all humbly told

What stories and meaning within you hold!

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Stone tablets were inscribed and mounted on the Ming Wall at the end of each work season to memorialize construction details and reflect progress made. Most of these tablets have long been removed, either illicitly or for preservation. We passed several “tablet gaps” where these carved stones used to reside.

The opening words of one tablet remaining in situ (at least as of 2012) read:

“In the autumn of the seventh year of the reign of the Emperor Wan Li, two sections of the border defence wall, 69 zhang in combined length, were constructed. One section, which snakes westward from Wong’eryu Gully to Duantouya (Lose One’s Head Cliff), is 53 zhang long. The other starts at Duantouya Cliff, extends westward and ends at the Right Army Barracks at Liangzhu. It is 16 zhang long.”

The tablet goes on to list the names of those who were assigned various tasks by Imperial Envoy Guan Xia, including command, operations, and management. It ends with a statement that “The tablet was placed on the most auspicious day of December, the Seventh Year of the reign of Emperor Wan Li. [1579].”

For the above translation, see Chapter 3.12 (Pages 132-137) in The Great Wall Explained, by William Lindesay O.B.E., China International Press, Beijing, 2012.