There are many legends and stories regarding the Great Wall and make your China travel more interesting. One of the
most famous is about Meng Jiang Nv. In the Qin Dynasty (221 B.C. - 206 B.C.), a young man named Fanqi Liang escaped from the Great Wall construction site and hid in a private garden where he came across the owner's pretty daughter. They fell in love and got married. Unfortunately, Fanqi Liang was found, captured and returned to the construction site. Meng Jiang Nv waited day and night for her husband. Winter came but Fanqi Liang failed to return. Meng Jiang Nv sewed some warm clothes to take to her husband. She arrived at the construction site but Fanqi Liang was nowhere to be found. She was then informed that Fanqi Liang had been dead and his body was built into the Great Wall. Meng Jiang Nv stayed by the wall and wept for days and nights. Deeply moved by the girl's bitter weeping, a 400-kilometer section of the Great Wall collapsed and exposed the bones and bodies of many dead men. Meng Jiang Nv cut her fingers and dripped her blood on the dead until her blood flowed into one. Knowing that this was her husband, she buried him and then drowned herself.
In addition to Meng Jiangnv's story, another famous one is the legend of the Beacon Tower. This story happened during the Western Zhou Dynasty (11th century BC-711 BC). King You had a queen named Bao Si, who was very pretty
. King You liked her very much, however Bao Si never smiled. An official gave a suggestion that setting the beacon tower on fire would frighten the King's subjects, and might make the queen smile. King You liked the idea. The subjects were fooled and Bao Si smiled at the sight of the chaos. Later enemies invaded Western Zhou, King You set the beacon tower on fire to ask for help. No subjects came to help because they had been fooled once before. Thus, King Zhou was killed by the enemy and Western Zhou came to an end.
Beautiful stories and legends about the Great Wall help to keep alive Chinese history and culture. In each dynasty after the building of the Great Wall, many more stories were created and spread.
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