Show I. I 1 P Pi i Up f Wi N ci 1 r I j C Science Service WN Ur Service x ce f Chinas China's Great Wall WallS S Marked larked North Line of Spreading Empire By EMILY C. C DAVIS DAVISI f I New York Why Why ancient China built her Great Wall Wall- that twisting dragon of a awall wall 1500 miles across the north north north-is is a problem for geog geog- p raphers They see more morein In China ChIn s 's stony guardian than a military defense As a war time barrier the wan wall was Ineffective though thousands of ot Chi Chi- Chinese Chinese nese were worked to death to build It One Jester summed up the re re- result rei re- re i sult suit The Chinese never got over it but the Tartars did Some Chinese have accounted for their Great Wall as a powerful stone dragon built to keep evil spirits out But geographers probing Into an an- ancient ancient dent Chinas China's political and social r problems are beginning to look j upon the Great Wall as a geographic ic affair a ir In a report to the Geographical Review Owen Lattimore geographer geographer geographer pher points out that the Chinese were great wall builders long iong be be- before before before fore the day of ot the Great Wall In feudal days das when China was still made of separate states Fifth Filth to Third centuries B. B C. C these states built walls against one another as aswell aswell well as against the northern barbari barbari- ans v Vague Northern Boundary r So when Emperor Huang Ti formed the states sta s Into an empire j the idea of rigid boundaries was wasi f. f i familiar and all China was driven to concentrate on marking the em em- empires empire's empires empire's empires empire's pires pire's northern line This was done it appears to keep undesirables out and to keep de de- desirables desirables de- de desirables In The wall marked plain plainly ly 1 the northern limit beyond which the empire did not wish to spread This from goats separating sheep was highly desirable for civilized China Tribes in Manchuria Mon Mon- Mongolia Mongolia golia golla and Central Asia were un un- uncouth uncouth un- un uncouth couth and their life in forest des des- desert desert ert or plain was far tar different from Chinas China's intensive farming economy But the Great Wall Vall Mr Latti- Latti Lattimore Lattimore more explains was never nevermore more than thana a vague boundary Th There was pres pres- pressure pressure I sure and pull in a wide border re ie rey gion Barbarians would become y p Cin a d fr tier C Chinese E ot n ties traits 1 P of ver of t les ha rested d' d with b 1 l bel bete in zones zones out from the Great Wall r |