ABSTRACT
The first emperor of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.), Shihuang (ruled from 246 to 210 B.C.), is credited with the building of the so-called Great Wall by ordering his general Meng Tian to link together several pre-existing walls. The Qin had just unified all the earlier Chinese states under one ruler, and the wall was intended to keep out the Xiongnu nomads. Although there would again be periods of competing states within "China Proper," the chief purpose of wall building from now on would be the protection of the sedentary world from the steppe peoples. The wall then became the symbol of every thing that divided these different civilizations.
