The development history of communication science

First, the development of ancient communication in China

(a) from the beacon tower.

In ancient China, people used communication to communicate with each other very early. According to the ancient cultural relics recorded and excavated in ancient books, our ancestors were able to communicate with each other before they invented writing and used transportation. At that time, people's communication was probably based on things. In Yunnan Province, China, some ethnic tribes were still in the primitive commune stage before liberation. They have no words and no means of transportation, but they have primitive ways of communication: for example, in some tribes of Jingpo nationality, people send peppers to their friends to show that they have encountered great difficulties; The young Zawa people gave their girlfriend a leaf named "Delong" and invited her to date. In the clan, sending gunpowder or lead bullets means going to 〔wǎ〕. If you send a piece of crystal square salt and drill a small hole in the middle, it means that the problem is solved. From these examples, we can easily imagine how ancient people communicated through body language.

The communication method with objects is a very primitive method. Later, people's contacts became more and more extensive, and organized communication methods began to appear.

According to ancient records, in the Wang You period of Zhou Dynasty more than 2,700 years ago, there was a method of transmitting information by bonfire. It is said that in the frontier and on the way to the frontier, a beacon tower is built at intervals, one after another. The beacon tower is full of firewood, and when the enemy invades, it will sound the alarm one by one. When all the princes saw the bonfire, they would send troops to help and fight the enemy.

According to legend, there is a story. Zhou Youwang has a favorite concubine.

She is beautiful, but she always doesn't like to laugh. One day, in order to make her laugh, Zhou Youwang lit a bonfire for no reason. When the governors from all walks of life saw the alarm, they all led the troops to arrive. The result is naturally a trip in vain. I was cheated and nothing happened. In this way, it really made the compliment laugh. But later, when enemy soldiers invaded, all the princes saw the bonfire and didn't believe it, so no one sent troops to save it. Zhou Youwang couldn't resist the enemy's attack because he couldn't get help from various governors. Not only was he killed, but the Western Zhou Dynasty also perished. This story shows that organized communication has appeared in China for a long time.

China has used this bonfire alarm to transmit military information for a long time. From the bamboo slips unearthed later, we can know that in the Han Dynasty, from the four counties in Hexi (now Wuwei, Zhangye, Jiuquan and Dunhuang in Gansu) to Yanze (now Lop Nur in eastern Xinjiang), beacon towers were set up on a large scale, and they were called "five miles and one whistle, ten miles and one pier, three miles and one fort, and one hundred miles and one city village", all of which were under the jurisdiction of local officials. Under the local chief, there are also officials in charge of beacon towers at all levels, such as Dewey, Ghost Guard, Hou Guan, Hou Chang and Xiang Chang. Each station is also equipped with several grades according to the distance. There are different ways to raise and release bonfires day and night. Smoke rises during the day and fires at night. In addition, various secret codes are used to indicate the number of attacks on the enemy, such as setting off two bonfires when the enemy is less than 500, and so on. This kind of organized communication has played a certain role in defending the frontier and resisting the enemy. This way of communication was still used in many places until the Ming and Qing Dynasties. For example, Yantai City, Shandong Province was named after the establishment of Wolf Yantai there to prevent the invasion of Japanese pirates in the Ming Dynasty.

The speed of transmitting military information by beacon is very fast, but it can't convey detailed enemy information from the border, let alone give the above orders. Therefore, with the development of society and the needs of politics and military affairs, a relatively strict postal post system has been formed to deliver government documents and cooperate with the bonfire.

(2) postal and postal communication for more than 2000 years.

During the Zhou Dynasty, the vassal states became their own countries. Due to political and military needs, they often set up post horses and mail cars on the avenue to deliver government documents back and forth. Confucius in the Spring and Autumn Period once said: "The popularity of virtue is faster than the delivery of mail." In other words, the moral theory he advocated will spread faster than mailing orders. It can be seen that the postal communication at that time was not only quite complete, but also quite fast.

There is a story in the ancient book Zuo Zhuan: Qin (now Shaanxi) and Jin (now south Shanxi) conspired to attack Zheng (now Zhengzhou, Henan). Zheng is a small country, threatened by two big countries and in a critical situation. In order to repel the enemy's invasion, Zheng sent messengers to the Qin military camp to suggest: "There is a state between Qin and Zheng, and destroying Zheng is only beneficial to gold, not to Qin. It is better to form an alliance with Qin and Zheng. In the future, the envoys of Qin will come to the East and be the masters of Qin. " Qin felt very reasonable, so he stopped fighting and sent Qi Zi and He to Zheng. In order to show reconciliation, Zheng gave the key to the north gate of Zheng Capital to three messengers for management. But people who knew Qi Zi told Qin Mibao that they had mastered the north gate of Zheng State, so please send troops to attack Zheng State. However, when the State of Qin sent troops to Slipzhou (east of Luoyang, Henan Province), they were discovered by Gao Xian, a businessman of the State of Zheng. Gao Xian felt that the motherland was in danger, so he pretended to be the special envoy of Zheng, and paid tribute to the Red Army with twelve cows he trafficked, suggesting that Zheng had already got the news and was prepared. At the same time, he quickly informed the whole country at night with the post office leading to Zheng. When Zheng got the news, he immediately raised his vigilance. Later, I found that Zheng was ready to fight, so I had to stop moving forward and destroy the slippery country by the way. It can be seen that the postal system at that time was of great significance.

With the development of politics, economy and culture, postal communication is becoming more and more complete. After Qin Shihuang unified China, Chidao was built all over the country, which promoted the development of postal communication. In the Tang Dynasty, this system became more prosperous. In the Tang Dynasty, there were three types of postal services: land postal service, waterway postal service and land postal service. There are more than 1600 posts, including more than 260 water posts and more than 80 land posts. The itinerary of the post office is also clearly defined. For example, the post office stipulates that horses walk 70 miles, donkeys walk 50 miles and cars walk 30 miles every day. There are also certain restrictions on the number of horses and chariots used by officials at all levels. Those who don't follow the rules will be punished. In an emergency, the post horse can run more than 300 miles a day. The poet Cen [cé n] participated in the poem "On the way to Longshan for the first time, he was the judge of Yuwen", describing the speed of postal service: "The post stations are one after another, and the mail trucks are like the Milky Way; In 755 AD (Tianbao 14th year of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty), An Lushan fought against the Tang Dynasty in Fanyang (now Beijing). At that time, Tang Xuanzong was in Huaqing Palace (now Lintong County, Shaanxi Province), thousands of miles away from Fanyang, but he got the news soon. It can be seen that the organization and speed of postal communication in Tang Dynasty reached a high level.

During the Yuan Dynasty, due to the expansion of military activities, the communication industry further developed. At that time, there were 1496 post stations in China alone. The Yuan Dynasty transliterated the post office as "Station Red", so it was later called the post office.

Kyle, an Italian official in the Yuan Dynasty? Poirot wrote in his book Kyle? In the book "A Journey to Polo", it is mentioned that there must be a post station every twenty-five miles in the Yuan Dynasty. Each post station has a magnificent house, beds and bedding are made of satin, and all the accommodation needs are available for imperial ministers to rest. he

He said that even if the king came to live, he must feel very comfortable. He also said that there are more than 10,000 stations of this size and 300,000 post horses. Kyle. Polo's description may be exaggerated, but the scale of the Yuan Dynasty post station can be imagined.

In addition, the Yuan Dynasty also followed the method of the Song Dynasty and set up "express shops" in various counties. This kind of courier shop specializes in delivering urgent government documents, which is a bit like the current military mail. It is estimated that there are about 20,000 places in the country. Each store has several stores that deliver documents day and night. These shops have bells hanging from their waists, guns in their hands and torches at night. When they reached the narrow road, they rang the bell hard to tell pedestrians and horses to make way. When we get to the next express store, we will also ring the bell in a far place. When we smell the bells of the lower shops, we will get ready, receive the documents and move on. In this way, one shop after another kept passing by, and it was stipulated to walk 400 miles day and night.

The post offices in Ming Dynasty basically followed the old system. After the mid-Qing Dynasty, modern postal service gradually developed, replacing the ancient postal system.

Postal communication for more than two thousand years has played a certain role in border defense and economic and cultural exchanges, but it is a heavy burden for the broad masses of the people. For example, in order to let his favorite concubine, Yang Guifei, eat fresh litchi branches, Emperor Tang Ming set up a post station for her from Chang 'an (now Xi 'an) to Fuling, Sichuan, flying day and night to transport fresh litchi. Du Mu, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote: "When the world of mortals rode the princess, no one knew it was litchi." These two famous poems are a satire on this matter. Another example is that during the reign of Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty, the governor of Guizhou wrote a letter to the emperor, telling the story of the sufferings of Guizhou Post Station. He said that the most bitter and tiring thing in the world is the post station, and the most dangerous and farthest thing is Guizhou. If a husband lifts a station, his shoulders will be broken; if a horse walks a station, his hoof will be lame and his spine will rot. Even the Miao people are forced to be unable to farm or weave, and they are dying day by day, fleeing and being displaced. In fact, this phenomenon is common in postal communication of various dynasties in history. These are just two typical examples.

(3) People's Information Bureau and Overseas Chinese Examination and Approval Bureau

The post station is the communication agency of the government and can only deliver official documents. In addition to the Song Dynasty, high-ranking officials were allowed to attach letters to their families, and private letters were generally not allowed. In this case, if private people need communication in an emergency, landlords and wealthy businessmen can also send servants or hire porters to deliver books from a distance; Ordinary people only have to entrust someone to convey it, which is not only slow but also urgent, and it is often delayed or lost. There are many stories about Biography of Wild Goose in China ancient books, so it is conceivable how difficult it is for ancient people to communicate. Later, due to the development of production and the needs of life, people communicated frequently. People who go out to work in business, soldiers who were forced to fight in wartime, and people who fled their hometown all need to communicate with relatives and friends in their hometown. In particular, businessmen from all over the world need to communicate more urgently in order to exchange business information, negotiate trade and send bills. Therefore, the business of non-governmental mail delivery should rise at the right time. Around the Tang Dynasty, between Chang 'an and Luoyang, there were "post donkeys" mainly serving private businessmen. At that time, there was another method called "flying money", that is, businessmen from all over the world deposited the money from selling goods in Chang 'an in the institutions of Chang 'an local government, and then took all the money from the local government with receipts. This is actually the bud of exchange business. At that time, a kind of handwritten or woodcut newspaper called "Di [d ǐ] Newspaper" was published, which spread to all places by mail, just like newspapers published now. In the Ming dynasty, there was a people's information bureau that delivered letters for the people. Some people's information bureaus in southwest provinces are called "Ma Xiangyue". According to legend, the origin is this: the farmers who moved to Xiaogan Township, Macheng County, Hubei Province, because they missed their hometown, made an appointment to push their fellow villagers back to their hometown several times a year, bringing native products and letters back and forth, and later formed a professional people's information bureau.

The People's Information Bureau began to appear in coastal cities with convenient trade along the Yangtze River, and then gradually developed to the mainland until the northeast and northwest provinces. The period of Daoguang, Xianfeng and Tongzhi in Qing Dynasty (A.D. 182 1 to 1874) was the most prosperous period for the development of the People's Information Bureau. At that time, there were thousands of large and small news bureaus in China. Since the Qing government signed a five-port trade treaty with Britain, Shanghai's commerce and transportation have developed abnormally, and various public affairs bureaus have expanded their organizations one after another, setting up a general number in Shanghai and setting up semicolons, joint numbers or agency shops in various commercial ports. Small-scale people's information bureaus will operate together. In this way, China's commercial ports and Dashi with convenient transportation have become sparse non-governmental communication networks.

People's Information Bureau is a commercial organization, funded by the owners (commonly known as bosses) and operated by employees. Because its main purpose is to make profits, all human affairs bureaus are competing to set up institutions and build roads in profitable places, and no one pays attention to unprofitable remote areas. The customers of the People's Information Bureau are mainly businessmen. In order to attract business, people's credit bureaus also give their customers various conveniences. For example, at night, after the store closes, people are sent to various stores to receive mail and remit money. Long-term customers can also pay the total amount of credit and even get discounts.

Many poor people in coastal areas of Guangdong, Fujian and other provinces have gone abroad to make a living since they were very young. Others were tricked into working hard in foreign countries by imperialist robbers. At first, these overseas Chinese living abroad were not convenient to contact their families or send back some sporadic money they earned through hard work. Later, some people's news bureaus in Guangdong and Fujian developed their business overseas and organized the Overseas Chinese Approval Bureau to handle the communication and exchange business of overseas Chinese. Because Fujian dialect calls "letter" as "batch" and the letter attached to overseas Chinese remittance as "overseas Chinese batch", the agency that delivers overseas Chinese letters and remittances is called "overseas Chinese batch bureau". In addition to opening in towns with many overseas Chinese in China, the Overseas Chinese Approval Bureau also set up semicolons abroad. According to the statistics of 1930, there are 180 overseas Chinese examination and approval bureaus registered nationwide, belonging to more than 700 semicolons at home and abroad. By 1948, on the eve of national liberation, the number of overseas Chinese approval bureaus at home and abroad had reached more than 100 and semicolon 1000. They have played an active role in facilitating overseas Chinese to send letters and remittances and contact with the motherland, and have been welcomed by overseas Chinese; It also made huge profits.

Since the invasion of China by foreign capitalism, the feudal ruling class has not tried to reform China's official post office, private public affairs bureau and overseas Chinese examination and approval bureau, but one after another invaders have occupied China's postal rights. Although the People's Information Bureau and the Overseas Chinese Approval Bureau were attacked and destroyed by the invading army, they have won the trust of the people for a long time and have not been stifled. Later, Hurd, an Englishman from the General Administration of Customs and Taxation of the Qing government, founded the Customs Post Office, and used his special rights as an official and a foreigner to register the People's Information Bureau, forcing the People's Information Bureau to accept the leadership of the Customs Post Office, restricting the delivery of mail to ships, and raising the general contract fee for mail delivery of the People's Information Bureau, which was resisted by the joint strike. Hurd used another method to reduce the domestic surface mail tariff of customs post from four points to one point, and the local surface mail tariff from four points to half a point. Through capitalist competition, the People's Information Bureau was completely defeated. Even after the Revolution of 1911, the official postal service imitated the advantage of the People's Information Bureau to deliver letters at any time, forcing the official postal courier to implement the delivery system four to eight times, ten times and twelve times a day, even if it caused a courier strike. It was not until 1935 that the People's Information Bureau was forced to close down under the high-handed policy of the reactionary Kuomintang government that the deadline was ordered to end.

-

Before papermaking was invented, the ancients used bamboo or sawdust as writing materials. This kind of bamboo chip is called Jane, and the wood chip is called tying or beating, which is generally called Jane. The ancient book "The Book of Songs" is called "Simplified Book" in the poems written by Wang in the late Yin Dynasty and early Zhou Dynasty. Bamboo tubes in the Han Dynasty are called Han bamboo slips.

(2) In the four counties of Hexi in Han Dynasty, the military commanders guarding important border crossings were called a captain; The military attache guarding the town is called the captain; The military attache in charge of enemy border reconnaissance is called the waiting officer; Managing a beacon pier, that is, a reconnaissance center, is called waiting; The reconnaissance whistle at the grass-roots level is called the captain. A captain usually has three to thirty guards.

(1) "track" is the distance between the two wheels. During the Warring States period, the width of railway tracks was different. After Qin Shihuang unified China, he stipulated that the railroad tracks should be six feet wide. At the same time, Qin Shihuang abolished the original script and unified the national script with a new script called Xiao Zhuan.

(1) the governor, official name. Founded in the early Ming Dynasty, he was the chief executive of a province in the Qing Dynasty and was also in charge of the military.