Xinying’ao

Xinying’ao

Xinying’ao

A tangible remnant of the Ming and Qing Dynasties' Southern Great Wall in China – Xinying’ao. This is the best-preserved garrison fortress along the entire Southern Great Wall.

In the past, when constructing the Southern Great Wall, watchtowers were built every five li, checkpoints every ten li, and military posts every fifteen to thirty li. Between the posts, walls were connected, artillery platforms installed, lookouts erected, and garrison fortresses constructed. Depending on the terrain, the wall followed the mountains and valleys, artillery platforms were set up at strategic points, watchtowers were built between sections of the wall, and checkpoints, watchtowers, and garrison fortresses were established according to local conditions. Their shapes varied – some were in a triangular formation, some in a straight line, others in a plum blossom pattern – with no fixed design. Their functions were as follows: the wall served to strictly guard the border, the artillery platforms were for intercepting attacks, the watchtowers for patrolling and surveillance, the garrison fortresses for gathering and protecting border residents; the watchtowers could both defend and engage in combat.

However, the inhabitants of our Xinying’ao fortress were not temporarily gathered border residents. The ones stationed here were hereditary garrison soldiers.

Although the practice of “garrison farming to avoid disaster” dates back to Jiang Wei during the Three Kingdoms period, the nationwide garrison soldier system truly began with the “farming to support the army” policy initiated by Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty. After over 20 years of warfare to unify the country, the economy was in dire straits due to prolonged conflict, nearly pushing people to the brink of survival. This led Zhu Yuanzhang to realize that “the nation has just been stabilized, and both the people’s wealth and strength are exhausted — like a fledgling bird whose feathers must not be plucked, or a newly planted sapling whose roots must not be shaken.” As a result, he implemented a series of measures to encourage production and allow the people to rest, thereby stimulating GDP growth. One of the most important of these measures was the implementation of the garrison farming system, “farming to support the army.” Zhu Yuanzhang once proudly claimed, “I maintain a million troops without costing the people a single grain of rice.”

After Zhu Yuanzhang’s fourth son, Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan, seized the throne, the politically astute Yongle Emperor (who sent Zheng He on seven voyages to the Western Seas) further refined the “farming to support the army” system, gradually establishing a structure where three-tenths of the border forces guarded the cities and seven-tenths farmed, while two-tenths of inland forces guarded and eight-tenths farmed. The residents living in Xinying’ao today are descendants of those garrison soldiers.

Xinying, as the name suggests, refers to newly built barracks, and “nao” is a local dialect term meaning a hill that resembles a head in shape. It’s clear to all that this stone-built garrison fortress and the large trees planted in front of it have withstood centuries of time, yet people still refer to it by its original name from when it was first built – “Xinying’ao.” Though the residents of the fortress are no longer garrison soldiers of the Southern Great Wall, they are reluctant to leave the place their ancestors have lived for generations, carrying on their lives from one generation to the next with contentment.