Pictures and stories of ancient people delivering messages, more?

China is one of the first countries in the world to establish an organized information system for transmission. As early as the Shang Dynasty, more than three thousand years ago, the transmission of information has been recorded.

Transmission by horseback was called post, and postal transmission was an early form of organized communication. Located in Jiayuguan Railway Station Square, "stagecoach" sculpture, it is taken from the Jiayuguan Wei and Jin Dynasty mural tomb, stagecoach hand holding documents, stagecoach four feet in the air, speed. This brick mural picture in 1982 was the first congress of the All-China philatelic federation as a small chapter stamps theme pattern, which shows that Jiayuguan is one of the birthplaces of Chinese information culture.

During the Qin and Han Dynasties, a whole set of postal system was formed. Especially in the Han Dynasty, the instruments passed were divided into grades, and the instruments of different grades were to be passed by special persons and horses in the prescribed order and time. Sending and receiving these documents should be registered, indicating the time, in order to clarify the responsibility.

Sui-Tang period, the stagecoach business has been unprecedented development. Tang Dynasty official postal traffic lines to the capital Chang'an as the center, to the four sides of the radiation, straight to the border areas, roughly 30 miles to set up a post station. According to the "six canons of the Tang Dynasty", there were 1,639 post stations in the country at its peak, and more than 20,000 people specializing in postal service, including 17,000 postal soldiers. Postal stations were divided into three kinds: land, water, and both waterways, and each station was equipped with a post house with post horses, donkeys, post boats, and post fields.

The Tang Dynasty also had express provisions for the journey of the post, the land post fast horse a day to go 6 post that is 180 miles, and then soon to travel 300 miles a day, the fastest requirement of 500 miles a day; walking staff 50 miles a day; against the water boat, river 40 miles, river 50 miles, the other 60 miles; along the water, all the provisions of the 100 to 150 miles. The poet Cen Sen wrote in his poem "On the Way to Longshan, Presenting Judge Ziwen", "A post passes a post, and the post riders are like star streams; they send to Xianyang in the morning, and the curtain reaches the head of Longshan Mountain". Here he compared the stagecoaches to shooting stars. On the 9th day of the 11th month of the 14th year of Tianbao, An Lushan rebelled in Fanyang. At that time, Tang Xuanzong is Huaqing Palace, the two places are separated by three thousand miles, within six days Tang Xuanzong knew the news, the transmission speed of 500 miles per day. This shows that the organization and speed of postal communication in the Tang Dynasty had reached a very high level.

Song dynasty will be all the official documents and letters of the organization called "delivery", and the emergence of "urgent delivery store". The urgent delivery of the stagecoach horse collar tied with a copper bell, in the road Mercedes-Benz, daytime ringing bell, night fire, crash death is not responsible. Store for horses, several stores for people, rain or shine, day and night. Southern Song Dynasty in the early years of the anti-golden general Yue Fei was Song Gaozong to twelve gold medals from the front line to force the recall of Lin'an, this kind of gold medals is the urgent delivery store to pass the gold sign, containing 100,000 fire meaning.

There are also bells and drums, fireworks, pigeons, semaphore, wolf smoke and other ways to convey information

Ancient communication

Overview

In ancient times, China used to beat drums to convey information, the earliest when the end of primitive society.

By the time of the Western Zhou Dynasty, China already had a relatively complete postal system.

In the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, with the political, economic and cultural progress, postal communication was gradually completed.

During the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Wei's greatest achievement in postal history was the formulation of the Postal Order.

One of the signs of the development of postal communication in the Sui and Tang dynasties was the increase in the number of postal stations.

During the Yuan Dynasty in China, there was another great development of postal service.

The most important feature of the reform of the postal system in the Qing Dynasty was the merger of "post" and "post".

After the middle of the Qing Dynasty, with the establishment of modern postal service, the old postal system was gradually eliminated.

Beacon to pass military intelligence

"Beacon" is a communication method used to pass border military intelligence in ancient China, began in the Shang Dynasty and the Zhou Dynasty, extended to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and practiced for thousands of years, especially in the Han Dynasty, the scale of the beacon organization for the big. In the border military fortress or traffic high, every certain distance building a high platform, commonly known as beacon platform, also known as beacon flint, pier beacons, smoke pier. Garrison on the platform to guard, found that the enemy invasion, burning firewood during the day to "burnt smoke" alarm, burning firewood at night to "raise the beacon" (fire) alarm. A burnt beacon smoke, neighboring stations also see the successive lifting of the fire, passing from one station to another, in a flash, in order to achieve the report of the enemy, deploying troops, seeking reinforcements, to overcome the enemy to win the purpose.

In our country's history, there is another in order to win the hearts of the beauty of the beacons lit at will, ultimately leading to the death of the country's "beacons play the vassals" of the story.

The Zhou Dynasty, known historically as the Western Zhou, established its capital at Haojing after the destruction of the Shang Dynasty. In the early days, the king of Zhou consolidated the state power, successively divided his brothers, relatives, and meritorious officials to all parts of the country as vassals, established vassal states, and set up a whole set of systems, agriculture, handicrafts, and commerce have had a certain degree of development.

The allusion to the transmission of letters by geese

The allusion to the transmission of letters by geese comes from the Book of Han in the biography of Su Wu. Su Wu biography" in the "Su Wu shepherd sheep" story. According to records, han wu emperor day han first year (100 BC), han envoy general su wu mission to xiong nu by leather hou monu detained, he is brave, monu will be exiled to the north sea (present day lake Baikal) no man's land shepherding. 19 years later, han zhaodi successor, han and the murder of the peace, marriage. Han envoys came to the murder, asked to release Su Wu back, but Shan Yu refused, but could not say, so they lied that Su Wu has died. Later, Emperor Zhao of Han Dynasty sent another envoy to Xiong Nu. Chang Hui, the deputy envoy who went to Xiong Nu with Su Wu and was detained, through the help of the forbidden pawns, met with the Han envoy secretly one night, told the Han envoy about Su Wu's situation, and came up with a plan for the Han envoy to speak to Shan Yu: "When the Son of Heaven of the Han Dynasty hunted in the Shanglin Garden, he shot a goose, with a letter on silk tied to its foot, which said Su Wu is not dead, but in a great swamp." The Han envoy was very glad to hear this, and rebuked Shan Yu according to Chang Hui's words. Shan Yu was amazed to hear this, but he could not deny it, so he had to release Su Wu.

The Green Bird Transmits Letters

According to China's ancient wondrous book "The Classic of Mountains and Seas", there are three green birds***, named Zhaolan and Ziyan (there is another green bird whose name the author did not consult), which are the attendants and messengers of the Queen Mother of the West, and they are able to fly over thousands of mountains and rivers to transmit messages, and deliver the good tidings of good fortune, happiness, and joy to the earth. It is said that the Queen Mother of the West once wrote a letter to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and the Queen Mother of the West sent the green bird to deliver the letter, and the green bird carried the letter from the Queen Mother of the West all the way to the Hall of Cheng Hua in front of the Han Palace. In later myths, the green bird evolved into the phoenix, the king of all birds.

Li Jing, the lord of the Southern Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem, "The bluebird does not send letters beyond the clouds, and the lilac knots the sorrows in the rain"; Li Bai of the Tang Dynasty wrote a poem, "I wish that the three bluebirds could repay the long-lasting love for each other"; and Li Shangyin wrote a poem, "There is no way to go to the Pengshan Mountain, but the bluebird is attentive to visit it". The green bird is very attentive to visit", Cui Guofu has a poem "Remote thinking of Han Wu Di, the green bird a few times", borrowed from the allusion to the "green bird to pass the book".

The Yellow Ear

The pigeon is more familiar with the pigeon because now there are pigeon associations and long-distance pigeon races are often held. The fact that pigeons do not get lost in long-distance flights stems from a feature unique to them, namely, the ability to recognize direction by sensing magnetism and latitude.

There is no clear statement about the exact time of the beginning of pigeon messenger, but as early as in the Tang Dynasty, pigeon messenger was already very common. The fifth generation Wang Renyu "Kaiyuan Tianbao remains" book in the "pigeons" records: "Zhang Jiuling when he was a teenager, the family raised pigeons. Every letter with the pro-knowledge, only to tie the book on the feet of the pigeon, according to the teachings of the place, fly to cast. Jiuling eye for flying slaves, the people were all surprised." Zhang Jiuling was a politician and poet in the Tang Dynasty, he not only used carrier pigeons to deliver letters, but also gave them a beautiful name - "Flying Slave". Since then, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, pigeons have been playing an important role in people's communication life.

Kite communication

The kite, which we use for entertainment today, played an important role as an emergency communication tool in ancient times.

Legend has it that as early as the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, the master craftsman of the State of Lu, Gongshu Pan (i.e., Lu Ban), had modeled after the shape of a bird, "chipping bamboo and wood as a magpie, into the flight, three days not", which was made of bamboo and wood as a material that would fly the "wooden magpie", which was the predecessor of the kite. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cai Lun invented papermaking, and people used bamboo gabions to make a frame, and then used paper to paste it, which became the "paper kite". In the Five Dynasties, when people made paper kites, they attached a bamboo whistle to them, and when the wind blew the bamboo whistle, the sound was like the sound of a kite, and the word "kite" came from it.

Originally, kites were made for military needs, and their main purpose was to be used for military reconnaissance, or to transmit information and military intelligence. It was only after the Tang Dynasty that kites gradually became an entertaining toy and were spread among the people.

Lighthouses

Lighthouses originated as signaling beacons in ancient Egypt. The world's earliest lighthouse was built in the 7th century B.C. It was located on Cape Baba in the Darnell Strait and stood like a huge bell tower. At that time people burned firewood in the lighthouse and used its firelight to guide their course.

In 280 BC, the ancient Egyptians built a lighthouse on the island of Pharos opposite the city of Alexandria, Egypt, on the order of King Tolomei II Philadelph, which was 85 meters high and burned wood day and night to use the flames and columns of smoke as a sign to aid navigation. Faros lighthouse is known as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, destroyed by an earthquake in 1302. 9 century, France in the Gironde estuary surgical Duon reef on the establishment of the lighthouse, has been twice rebuilt, the existing built in 1611.

Among the old lighthouses, Italy's Leghorn Lighthouse is still in use today. This lighthouse was built in 1304 in stone and is 50 meters high. The first lighthouse in the United States was the Boston Lighthouse built in 1716. After that, in 1823, built a lens lighthouse, 1858 built a power lighthouse, 1885, the first caisson method of building lighthouses on soft foundations, 1906 inaugurated the first gas flash tower. 1850, the world's only 1570 lighthouses, in 1900 increased to 9,400. By early 1984, the total number of lighthouses, including other illuminated beacons, had exceeded 55,000.

Communication towers

In the 18th century, the French engineer Claude Chapey succeeded in developing an accelerated communication tower. Chapey succeeded in developing a practical communication system to speed up the transmission of information. The system consisted of a number of communication towers erected 230 kilometers between Paris and Lille. At the top of these towers was erected a wooden post on which was mounted a horizontal cross-bar which could be turned and swung at various angles by the operation of a rope. At the ends of the horizontal bar are two vertical arms, which can also be turned. In this way, each tower could be formed into 192 different configurations by means of the wooden poles, and nearby towers with telescopes would be able to see the messages indicating the 192 meanings. Passed down in this order, a message could be completed in only 2 minutes over a distance of 230 kilometers. The system was instrumental in the French Revolutionary War in the 18th century.

Signal flags

Signal flag communication has been used on ships for more than 400 years now. The advantage of signal flag communication is that it is very easy, so even though today's modern communication technology is quite advanced, this easy way of communication is still preserved as an important way of proximity communication. When conducting flag communication, signal flags can be used individually or in combination to indicate different meanings. Usually a single flag is flown to indicate what is most urgent, important, or commonly used. For example, flying an A flag means "there are divers below our ship, please slow down and move away from our ship"; flying an O flag means "someone is overboard"; flying a W flag means "our ship needs medical assistance" and so on.

Signals

For 200 years in the 15th and 16th centuries, fleet commanders commanded their ships by firing their guns or hoisting their sails, and in 1777 Admiral Howe, Commander of the British American Fleet, was the first to write a signaling book when he printed one. Later, Admiral Lord Popham used a number of flags as "shorthand" letters to create a complete alphabet of semaphore, and in 1805, when Lord Nelson was commanding the Battle of Trafalgar, his last signal before he was killed in action was Popham Signal No. 16: "Sail close to the enemy, and fight at close quarters."

In 1817, Captain Mariette of the British Navy compiled the first internationally recognized letter number. The Boat and Sea Signal Flags*** had 40 faces, including 26 letter flags, 10 number flags, 3 surrogate flags and 1 answer flag. The shapes of the flags are different: dovetail, rectangle, trapezoid, triangle and so on. The colors and patterns of the flags also vary.

Responders: Enthusiasts | 2010-5-6 17:48 | Prosecution

After King Xuan of Zhou died, his son, Ji Gongne (pronounced niè), assumed the throne, and he was King You of Zhou. King Yu of Zhou did not care about state affairs, but just ate, drank and had fun, sending people around to look for beautiful women. A minister named Baogao (褒珦) advised King Yu, but King Yu not only didn't listen to him, but also put Baogao in prison.

The king was imprisoned for three years. The people of the Berg family did everything they could to get Berg out. They bought a pretty girl in the countryside, taught her to sing and dance, dressed her up, and offered her to the King of Yu to atone for the sins of Berg Liang. This girl was a member of the Baosi family and was called Baosi (褒姒).

King You was so happy to have Bergsie that he released her. He favored Bergsi-Si very much, but Bergsi-Si was in a sullen mood since she came to the palace, and she did not smile once. King You tried his best to tell her to smile, but she could not.

King Yu of Zhou made a reward: whoever could make the Queen Consort smile, he would be rewarded with a thousand taels of gold.

There was an ass-kisser named Guo (虢) Shifu (虢) who came up with a sneaky idea for King Yu of Zhou. In order to protect himself against the attacks of the Injuns, the Zhou Dynasty built more than 20 beacon towers around Mount Li (southeast of LinTong in present-day Shaanxi Province), one for every few miles of land. If the Injuns attacked, the soldiers guarding the first pass would set fire to the beacons; the soldiers at the second pass would also set fire to the beacons when they saw the smoke and fire. When the soldiers of the second pass saw the smoke and fire, they also burned the beacon fire. When the nearby lords saw the beacon fire, they would send their troops to come to the rescue. Guo Shi Fu said to King Yu of Zhou, "Now that the world is at peace, the beacon has not been used for a long time. I would like to ask the king to go up to Mount Li with the queen for a few days. At night, let's light up the beacon fire, so that the nearby lords will see it and come here, and be fooled. The Empress will laugh when she sees these many soldiers and horses pouncing."

King Yu of Zhou clapped his hands and said, "Excellent, let's do it!"

They went up to Mount Li and really set the beacon fire on it. When the neighboring lords got this alarm, they thought that the Injun Rong had come over and quickly led their troops to rescue them. But when they got there, there wasn't even a single soldier from the Injun army, and all they heard was the sound of music and singing on the mountain, and they were all flabbergasted.

King Yu sent someone to tell them that they had worked very hard and that there was nothing wrong here, but that the king and his wife were just playing with fireworks, so you

Go back to your homes!

The lords knew that they had been tricked and went back.

Baosi didn't know what the hell they were up to, and when she saw several lines of soldiers and horses coming from the foot of Mount Li in a chaotic manner, she asked King You what was going on. King You told her everything. Baosi really laughed a little.

When King You saw that Baosi had smiled, he rewarded Guo Shi Fu with a thousand taels of gold.

King You doted on Bergsi-Si, and later simply abolished the queen and the crown prince, made Bergsi-Si the queen, and made Bergsi-Si's son, Bo Sui, the crown prince. When the queen's father, a vassal of the state of Shen, got the news, he linked up with the Injun to attack Haojing.

When King Yu heard the news of Inu Rong's attack, he panicked and ordered the beacons on Mount Li to be lit. The fire was lit, but the lords did not pay any attention to them because they had been fooled last time.

Smoke billowed from the beacon in the daytime and flames burned at night, but no one came to their rescue.

When the Injun soldiers arrived, Haojing had few soldiers and horses, so they barely resisted for a while, and were beaten by the Injun soldiers. The men and horses of the Injuns came into the city like a tidal wave, and killed King Yu of Zhou, Guo Shifu, and Boshi, who was born to Bergs. That Bergsie, who did not open her smile, was also snatched away.

By this time, the lords knew that the Injun had really struck into Haojing, so they united and came to the rescue with a large army. When the leader of the Inu Rong saw that the army of the vassals had arrived, he ordered his men to loot all the precious possessions that the Zhou Dynasty had gathered over many years, and set fire to them before retreating.