The Great Wall: History and Insight

This book offers a comprehensive and in-depth exploration of the construction history of the Great Wall and the development of its associated culture. It centers on how the Great Wall has, for over two millennia, embodied the Chinese nation’s sense of identity and its enduring ideal of peaceful governance. Tracing a narrative that bridges past and present, the book highlights the enduring significance of the Great Wall as a symbol of China’s response to three fundamental challenges faced by all civilizations: survival, the establishment of social order, and the ongoing advancement of culture.

Consisting of 18 chapters, the book sequentially describe the concepts of family, country, and peace that the Chinese people have developed in the process of moving from traditional society to modern China. It takes the Great Wall as a perspective to prove historically that the Chinese nation is a peace-loving people without aggressive genes. Placed in today’s context of building a community of human destiny, this work is of even greater practical significance.

Dong Yaohui is the executive vice president of the Great Wall Society of China, a famous expert on the Great Wall, an expert member of the Expert Service Center of the Ministry of Personnel of the People’s Republic of China, an invited researcher of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and a guest researcher of Peking University.

He is the author of more than ten monographs, such as The Great Wall of Ming Dynasty, Collected Tiles: Essays on Great Wall Research, Watching the Great Wall-- Dong Yaohui on the Protection of the Great Wall, etc.