The Walls Of The North Shall

This is a paraphrase attributed to Qin Shi Huang regarding the construction of the Great Wall, which the Records of the Grand Historian records was ordered around 214 BCE under the command of General Meng Tian. The precise wording is a modern construction; the Shiji records the project in terms of its scale and military purpose rather than as a direct imperial proclamation in these words. Meng Tian mobilized hundreds of thousands of workers — soldiers, convicts, and conscripted peasants — to link and extend existing northern walls against the Xiongnu nomads, at enormous human cost.