BRICK ON THE WALL

That lone brick..

The Great Wall of China wasn’t built in a day. Or century. But the most recognised stretches only came up under the Ming dynasty when the structure was extended to its final length.

The primary threat driving this endeavour came from the north.

One such threat was a Muslim horde from Mongolia led by one Timur. The man later earned much infamy as the marauder who sacked Delhi.

An intel on Timur’s Chinese ambitions triggered a spate of reinforcements along the Wall.

These reinforcements were in the form of strong “fortresses” at strategic points along the Wall, primarily in the Gansu region, as that’s where Timur was most likely to attack. They would double as watchtowers and be made of sun-baked adobe.

One of these was planned in a pass between two hills around an oasis in the middle of the Gobi desert; this is where the Timur was expected to pass through on his way into China.

The pass was called Jiāyù Guān, lit. “Jiayu Pass,” and so was the fortress.

Fortunately, the raid never happened as Timur died long before he got there. The fortress, however, was still a necessity to avoid any future threats, so they went ahead with the plan anyway.

Two more passes would come up later but this one still remains the most intact.

Back in the day, this spot was the westernmost frontier of China. The fortress had to offer airtight defense which is why it was planned with a full three-layer security — an inner fortress, an outer fortress, and a moat.

And this is where an interesting legend comes in.

The project’s supervisor Lu Fu, goes the legend, demanded an exact estimate of the building materials needed for the job. The task of making the estimate fell upon one Yi Kaizhan, an engineer on the roster.

But coming up with a number wasn’t as easy as it sounds.

The engineer was expected to be absolutely accurate. Off by even one brick and he would hang. But having extra was safer than falling short, so he drew an estimate and added one to the count, just to be safe.

The bricks arrived. Work commenced.
When the project was completed, the spot was dominated by a brick fortress that was at once both beautiful and formidable.

The trapezoid earthen structure stood more than 30 feet high and covered an area of 360,000 square feet. It was enormous.

That’s when Yi realized.

He was left with one extra brick.

In other words, his original estimate had been that accurate.

But something had to be done about the brick. He could not have any leftover construction material.

So he engraved the extra adobe “Yi’s brick” and placed it on a ledge. While Yi was his name, the word is also Chinese for one, so the engraving was a clever wordplay meaning “one brick.”

Upon placement, he explained it away as a magic brick sent from heaven.
He called his brick ding cheng zhuan, or “the brick to balance the fort” against strong desert winds.

“Should anyone remove it, the pass would fall and kill the person.”

The supervisor bought it and Yi walked free, a celebrated engineer, the best in all of China!

More than 600 years down the line, the solitary adobe still sits.

Right where Yi Kaizhan placed it.

On a ledge above Hui Ji Men, one of the two gateways through the structure. The locals now joke about tripping it and bringing the fortress down.

What a badass Engineer. !

References:

The Great wall by John Man.