A Hunger Artist and Other Stories (Oxford World's Classics) by Franz Kafka

Author:Franz Kafka
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2012-03-13T16:00:00+00:00

At the Building of the Great Wall of China

THE Great Wall of China has been completed at its northernmost point. The construction was extended from the south-east and the south-west and brought together here. This system of building it in sections was also followed on a small scale within the two great armies of labourers, the eastern and western armies. This was done by forming groups of about twenty workers, who had the task of building a section of wall of about five hundred metres in length; a neighbouring group then built a wall of the same length to meet it. But then, after the union had been accomplished, construction was not in fact continued at one end of the thousand metres; rather, the groups of labourers were sent off to other regions entirely to build the wall. Of course in this way great gaps arose which were only filled slowly, bit by bit, many of them not until after it was proclaimed that the building of the wall had already been completed. Indeed, there are said to be gaps that have never been filled in at all; according to some they are much longer than the parts that have been built, though this may be an assertion belonging to one of the many legends that have arisen around the wall and which cannot be confirmed by any one individual, at least not with his own eyes, nor his own measurements, because the wall extends so far. Now you would think from the start that there would in every sense be greater advantage in building continuously, or at least with continuity within the two main sections. After all, as was widely proclaimed and well known, the wall was intended as a defence against the tribes from the north. But how can a wall that is not continuous be a defence? Indeed, a wall like that is not only unfit to be a defence—the structure itself is in constant danger. Those sections of the wall standing in desert places can of course be destroyed over and over again by the nomads, especially as these tribes, alarmed by the building of the wall, changed their dwelling-places with the incomprehensible speed of locusts—which is perhaps why they had a better overview of the wall’s progress than even we, the builders, had. In spite of this, the building probably could not have been carried out in any other way than it was. To understand that, one has to consider the following: the wall was meant to be a defence for centuries, so the most careful construction, the use of building-lore from all times and all peoples, the constant feeling of personal responsibility on the part of the builders, formed the indispensable basis of their work. For unskilled work, it’s true, ignorant day-labourers from the people, men, women, children, anyone who offered themselves for good money, could be used, but even to lead a group of four day-labourers, a skilled building-worker, an intelligent man was needed, one capable of sympathizing deep in his heart with what was at stake here.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.