Stories of Badaling Great Wall

Badaling Great Wall, being the most reputed section of the Great Wall of China, is abundant in legends deposited in its long history of over 2,300 years. Below are the top four widespread Badaling Great Wall stories.

Grand Badaling

 

When Emperor Qin Shi Huang commanded the construction of the Great Wall, nationwide labors and craftsmen were recruited for the project. As they were underfed but overworked, plus the different climate from their hometowns, many workers died soon. So the King of the Hell sent his men to bring the spirits of the dead to the Hell. Before heading downward to the Hell, those men needed to remove the worker's names in the Temple of the City God. However, they were stopped because the City God claimed that the workers should have lived longer. They argued fiercely and didn’t work out a solution.

At last, the King of the Hell and the City God went to the Heaven to ask the Heavenly Emperor to judge the case. The emperor sent an officer to make a field trip and learned that the worker died of too much work on the construction of the Great Wall, which was built to defend invaders. So he dispatched the God of Medicine to cure the workers. The God of Medicine planted various herbal medicines around the Great Wall to help the workers recover soon. To extend thanks to the City God, the Heavenly Emperor, and the God of Medicine, people built temples to worship them around the wall, while there is no one for the King of the Hell because he was too cruel.
 

It was said that the weather was very dry during the time to construct the Badaling Great Wall. Never was a drop of rain seen! The labors were thirsty to die but still needed to carry heavy stone materials for a long way. Day after day, there were faint labors falling down from the hillside. One day, a young lady dressed in blue dropped by and gave the labors a white bottle filled up with water. Though the water was far from enough, the labors drank in turn. Astonishingly, they found that the water could not be drunk up. It seemed that the bottle was endless.

When passing the bottle from one to another, a labor unintentionally smashed it into pieces. All men felt sad and angry. However, they soon discovered that a clear spring popped up at the place where the bottle was broken. All realized that the lady was a fairy to give them water. The spring supplied water for the labors constantly so that they got rid of thirst. The spring was sent by a fairy, hence the name Fairy Spring.
 

When looking southward on Badaling Great Wall, you may see a rice barn-shaped hill in the west and east respectively. A Great Wall story was created on the basis of the two hills.

Since millions of labors were recruited to build the Great Wall, a great deal of grains was consumed every day. Though grains all over the country were requisitioned, they were not sufficient. Many died of starvation. The merciful Heavenly Queen Mother sympathized with the labors, so she transformed two hills around the Badaling Great Wall into barns full of rice. From then on, the labors did not suffer from hunger any longer. After the Great Wall project was completed, the two rice barns were transformed back to hills, but kept the shape of barns.
 

Outside the Badaling Great Wall grows a kind of poisonous weed. One would feel as if being stung by a scorpion when getting close to it. As a Great Wall story goes, this kind of weed played an important role in guarding the central China area. When the Great Wall was completed, patrols and sentries were assigned to each section. At night, they always felt sleepy but had to keep awake in case of unexpected inspection. If found asleep, they would get a thrashing. One of them prayed and begged the Heavenly Emperor to bless them to not fall asleep when on duty. The Heavenly Emperor understood that, so he sent the God of Weed to plant this magic weed outside the Badaling Great Wall. Once intruders touched it, they would be stung and yell, so that the sentries would wake up. With gratitude to the weed, the soldiers protected it more and the weed in turn grew everywhere outside the Badaling Great Wall.
 

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