Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) is the first dynasty to have a centralized state power. The monarch at the time is Qin Shihuang. During his reign, he continued to build and connect the Great Wall. He took men away from their families and sent them to the boarder to build the Great Wall. A lot of men died because of excessive labor while building the Great Wall. Our story is one of Chinese mythology set inthis period.
The cry of Meng Jiangnv
A beautiful girl named Meng Jiangnv lived in Qin dynasty. During the time, Qing Shihuang was gathering all the man power to build the Great Wall. There were officers grabbing men everywhere in the country and sending them to the Great Wall, which is how Meng Jiangnv and Fan Qiliang met. Fan Qiliang was running from the officers and Meng JIangnv found him hiding in her yard. So, her parents helped hide him in their house. They soon fell in love and got married. But only three days after their wedding, the officer came and took Fan Qiliang away.
Meng Jiangnv was left at home worried sick. She waited and waited but there was no letter from her husband. Six months had passed, she still didn’t hear form Fan. It was almost winter time, so she made Fan a winter coat and decided to deliver it to him. She walked such a long way, she got lost, she got hurt but she never stopped. When she finally arrived at the Great Wall, people who worked with Fan told her that he died because of starvation and excessive labor and his body is buried under the Great Wall. She was furious and devastated. She cried and cried and her love moved the heavens. The heavens sent a rainstorm and it rained so much that it flooded the great wall and the body of Fan is revealed.
Qin Shihuang, the emperor, heard of the girl who destroyed the Great Wall and went to the Great Wall. He was so captured by the beauty of Meng that he forgot his anger about her destroying the Great Wall. He asked her to be his concubine. Meng said that she would be his concubine only if Qin Shihung did three things for her. First thing, Qin Shihuang must build a tomb for Fan Qiliang. Second thing was that Qin Shihung would wear heavy mourning apparel like Fan QIliang’s son was. The third thing was she wants to go to the sea. Qin Shihuang agreed, he did the first two things and while they were sailing on sea, Meng Jiangnv jumped into the sea and killed herself.
