154 Guicciardini, Francesco After his conquests, Emperor Yongle (r 1402–24) decided to withdraw to an inner line of defense and divided the northern border into the Nine Defense Areas, each guarded by a garrison along a line that eventually became the Great Wall It stretched from Shanhaiguan (Shanhaikuan) or Mountain Sea Pass in the east to Jiayuguan (Chiayukuan) 1,500 miles to the west It was a gigantic project Stone was used for the lower courses, facing, and gates, while rubble filled the core Huge kilns fired large bricks where stone was not available; bricks were also used for the towers and crenellations Although not uniform throughout most of the wall measured 35 feet high and 25 feet wide at the top with towers every half a mile or so that reach to 50 feet Where the land is mountainous the wall followed the crest of the ridges; it blocked roadways and damned rivers Since the Ming capital Beijing (Peking) was close to the wall (one day’s ride), more than a hundred passes or barriers with monumental gateways guarded strategic points along the eastern section to the sea at Sanhaiguan At the western terminus at Jiayuguan (Chiayukuan) at the northwestern tip of Gansu (Kansu) province another formidable fortress marked the starting point of the Silk Road The Great Wall was Ming China’s inner line of defense against the nomadic Mongols in the north and wall building continued to the end of the dynasty Yet it was not totally effective because the Mongols were able to breach or bypass it Its building exhibited sophisticated technology and consumed vast resources Further reading: Jagchid, Sechin, and Van Jay Symons Peace, War, and Trade along the Great Wall, Nomadic-Chinese Interaction through Two Millennia Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1989; Waldron, Arthur N The Great Wall of China: From History to Myth Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990 Jiu-Hwa Lo Upshur Guicciardini, Francesco (1483–1540) historian, diplomat, and statesman Guicciardini was born in Florence to patrician parents After receiving a humanistic education, he obtained a degree in civil law from the University of Padua and began practicing law in Florence In a calculated maneuver that was designed for political advancement, he mar- ried Maria Salviati, whose family was aligned with the Medici Within a few years of his marriage, he became ambassador to Ferdinand of Aragon for the Republic of Florence and later served in the Florentine government when the Medici family held political power Although Guicciardini was critical of clerical abuses in the church, he did not hesitate to accept political preference from the papacy when it was to his advantage He was an official in several cities and territories in the Papal States under popes Leo X and Clement VII and served as counselor and papal lieutenant general for the latter Guicciardini’s writings on politics and history are extensive They include a history of Florence and a critique of his friend Niccolò Machiavelli’s Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livy However, today Guicciardini is appreciated primarily for his Ricordi and for his magnum opus, The History of Italy The Ricordi’s maxims offer a set of reflections on politics, history, and the conduct of life Those that deal with Guicciardini’s sense of history demonstrate that he held a view of history that differed from that of Machiavelli and humanist historians, who perceived history as exemplary and counseled their contemporaries to imitate ancient Rome Guicciardini stressed that the mutability of human affairs, driven by the conflicting self-interests of leaders, coupled with the unpredict­ ability of fortune make it impossible to derive lessons from history To expect his contemporaries to act like citizens of ancient Rome, he wrote, was similar to expecting a jackass to behave like a horse Guicciardi­ ni believed that the value of history lies in its ability to preserve the memory of the past The History of Italy is the product of his mature thinking about the momentous events that he participated in or was witness to from the l490s to 1534 Its scope and its stress on the self-aggrandizement of the secular and religious leaders of the time give the book an appeal that far exceeds the parochial orientation of humanist history The book opens with the invasion of Italy in 1494 by the forces of Charles VIII of France, an event that Guicciardini regarded as calamitous because it opened the door to repeated invasions by European powers It marked the end of city-state hegemony on the peninsula and the balance of power politics brokered by Lorenzo de’ Medici The discovery of the New World, the spread of syphilis in Europe, and an awareness of the impending rift in Christianity are also features of the book The History ends with the rapacious sack of Rome by the Imperial forces of Charles V and the death of Pope Clement VII Guicciardini was