What are the names of the cars people used to travel in various dynasties?

In the pre-Qin period, there were strict classifications of cars

The king of Zhou owned five kinds of luxury special cars

The original function of the car was a means of transportation and transportation, but in the Today it has almost become a symbol of identity and status. In fact, this was even more true in ancient times. "Car owners" represented the nobility.

In the pre-Qin period, the most important thing to show your identity was the "road car".

The road car was the car used by the emperor and queen of Zhou in the pre-Qin period. Road carts are also called roller carts. The "wheel" is a crossbar tied to the shaft of the cart for pulling. The driving method is that one piece of wood covers the front of the cart, two people pull it, and one person pushes it.

According to "Zhou Li·Chun Guan Zong Bo Xia", there are five types of road cars based on different decorative materials, which are called the "Five Roads of the King": Jade Road, Chariot Shaft and Weighing Road. The end of the hub head and the yoke are all decorated with jade; the end of the car's materials are decorated with gold; the end of the car's materials are decorated with ivory; the leather road, some materials on the car are wrapped with leather The ends are painted with paint; wooden roads, without the previous four decorative materials, are only painted.

It can be seen from the above that the road car has exquisite manufacturing technology and luxurious decoration. Later, the king of Zhou regarded it as an important treatment and gave it to princes, clan nobles, and relatives to ride and enjoy.

In the Zhou Dynasty, the queen also had special luxury cars, and there were also five styles, called the "Queen's Five Ways": Chong Zhai, Yan Zhai, An Che, Zhai Car, and Chariot Car. Among them, the chariot is a small cart pulled by human power. This can be seen from the structure of the word "chariot": two "husbands" pull one "car".

In the pre-Qin period, nobles generally owned "field carts", which were used as a means of transportation when hunting. This kind of vehicle is pulled by four fat and strong horses, which is full of "horsepower". There is also a "candle", which is a light vehicle with a curtain for the king's envoys to ride.

In the pre-Qin period, people had a strict hierarchy system for riding cars. Different classes used different cars. The cars used by marquis, officials, officials, scholars, and common people were called Xia Zhuan, Xia Man, Mo, and Mo cars respectively. Warehouse cart, service cart. The main differences between these cars are in the level of luxury and materials used, with each one worse than the last. The worst kind of cart is a cart with a cargo box. Common people often use it to haul goods and firewood, and of course it can also carry people. The First Emperor of Qin took a "Donkey Cart" on his eastward journey

Folks began to use donkey carts in the Han Dynasty

By the Qin and Han Dynasties, carts were no longer the exclusive preserve of aristocrats, and were generally used by the people. In the pre-Qin period, horse-drawn carriages and ox-carts were mainly used. In addition to horse-drawn carriages and ox-carts, there were also donkey-carts and mule-carts that can still be seen in modern times.

Like the kings of Zhou in the pre-Qin Dynasty, the emperors of the Qin Dynasty also had their own luxury cars, and the level of luxury was much higher than before. The emperor's special cars of the Qin Dynasty mainly included Jingen cars, An cars and walking chariots. Qin Shihuang took An cars on his eastward journey. Anche was the top luxury car at that time. According to the annotation of "Jijie" written by Pei Si of the Southern Dynasty and Song Dynasty, Anche was "like a clothes cart, with windows and doors. When it is closed, it is warm, and when it is open, it is cool, so it is called "达茌车". also".

The car body of the car is closed and has openable windows to facilitate adjusting the temperature inside the car. You can sit or lie down, which is very similar to a modern RV. Because the body of Qin Shihuang was transported back to Xianyang in this car, the procession became a special funeral vehicle thereafter.

At that time, there was also a kind of carriage, which was also called a sleeping carriage or sleeping carriage. As you can tell from the name, this is a high-end sleeper car where you can sleep on the car, and is exclusively for dignitaries. The wheelbarrow also belongs to the series of high-end official vehicles and is pulled by horses.

The "clothes car" mentioned in "Jijie" is a special car used by ancient ladies. It has an open door in the front and a curtain in the back. It is also a high-end car, also known as a carriage. , can take multiple people. In the Han and Wei dynasties, it was a royal car, and only nobles, nobles, princesses, concubines, etc. were eligible to ride.

Civil travel mostly uses horse-drawn carriages. The horse-drawn carriages used to carry people during the Qin and Han Dynasties came in two types: sedan and open-top. The carriages of sedans were closed, and they were generally used for long distances. Plant a car.

Among the vehicles used for private transportation in the Qin and Han Dynasties, the most noteworthy ones are the donkey carriages and mule carriages. Donkeys, mules and horses are not native to mainland China, but came from the Western Regions. According to the textual research of Gu Yanwu, a beginner in the late Ming and Qing Dynasties, "Donkeys are considered as objects. They became famous in the Han Dynasty. They were filial to the martial arts and filled the forest. They were filial and spiritual and valuable."

Because donkeys are cheap, they are used to carry people. It can be used to pull a cart, and it is suitable for transportation on small trails and mountainous areas. Therefore, as soon as it was introduced, it was used by the people. At that time, savvy people even bought donkeys and rented them to others for transportation. According to "Dongguan Han Ji", Liu Xiu, the famous founding emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, did this kind of thing. When he went to Chang'an to "study college", he and Han Sheng, who lived in the same dormitory, bought a donkey for rent and made money for subsidies. Regarding the living expenses in Chang'an, many modern people jokingly call Liu Xiu's move a work-study program. Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty Liu Xie rode an ox cart when traveling

Sheep carts appeared during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, riding an ox cart was the most fashionable.

Because of its slow speed, the ox cart was not popular with the nobles in the early days. But by the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, due to long-term wars, the number of horses was greatly reduced, and there were no carriages to ride on. At this time, the nobles slowly began to accept ox-carts. In the end, even the palace cars and official vehicles also used ox-carts. Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty Liu Xie The only way to travel is by bullock cart.

Modern archeology can often find oxcarts and oxcarts as burial artifacts in tombs from the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. This is why.

During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the royal clothing carts, book carts, horse carts, medicine carts, painting carts, etc. were all pulled by oxen. Even the emperors used oxen carts when they went out for inspections.

Even Shi Chong, the richest man in the country at the time, used ox-carts for his luxury cars. According to the "Jin Shu Biography of Shi Chong", Shi Chong and Wang Kai traveled and "struggled to enter Luocheng. They worshiped oxen as fast as birds, and Kai could never catch up with them." It can be seen that Shi Chong and Wang Kai rode in ox carts.

The oxcarts of this period were also the most exquisite, and the cattle used for driving were oxen with a gentler temperament. The oxen carts used by the nobles generally have three styles: general oxen carts, partial oxen carts, and open-top oxen carts. Tongyi ox carts are the highest grade, with a large curtain covering the roof from front to back; Pianyi ox carts have curtains that only cover the hood; open-top ox carts have no hood.

Ride on a sheep cart was also popular among the nobles during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Sheep carts cannot be used for long-distance travel and are generally used as recreational vehicles. Sima Yan, Emperor Wu of the Western Jin Dynasty, liked to ride around in a goat cart in the harem. If the goat cart stopped at the door of a concubine, he would stay at that concubine's house. According to the "Book of Jin: Biography of Concubine Hu", some concubines came up with many tricks to compete with Concubine Hu for favor, such as inserting bamboo leaves in front of the door or sprinkling salt water on the ground to lure sheep over.

In the private sector, the use of donkeys and donkey carts further expanded during this period, and became one of the preferred means of transportation for Chinese people in the future.

It is worth mentioning that car-making technology also made great progress during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. The "Guide Car", which is iconic in the history of Chinese vehicles, and the "Jiligu Car" have the same principle as modern taxis. ” were all applied during this period. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, "walking chariots" became popular

There were various types of royal "shoulder carriages" and "walking chariots"

Cars developed due to the needs of transportation. In the Tang Dynasty, due to the economic With the improvement of strength, exchanges of people and goods from various places became more frequent than before. During this time, many workshops that provided transportation vehicles and manual workshops that produced and repaired vehicles appeared. However, during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, there were no major changes or developments in vehicle models, except that the cars used by nobles were more luxurious.

When Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty visited Jiangdu (now Yangzhou) for the first time, he employed more than 100,000 people to build chariots and carriages, and the honor guard was more than 20 miles long. Returning to Luoyang from Yangzhou, there was a guard of honor for Beijing with thousands of cars and ten thousand horses. The royal family of the Tang Dynasty also had its own large fleet, but compared to the Sui Dynasty, it used fewer cars and only used them when traveling for major national events. However, private cars were quite active.

The vehicles used by civilians in the Tang Dynasty were practical and simple in decoration. Some were horse-drawn carriages and some were ox-carts. They were generally driven by a horse or an ox. The literati at that time liked to travel in the mountains and rivers by horse-drawn carriage or ox-cart. The poet Du Mu was a car lover and always took a car when traveling. His famous poem "Mountain Travel" describes what he saw when he went out in a car. Otherwise, it would be impossible to say "Stop and sit in the maple forest at night".

Compared with the Wei and Jin Dynasties, people in the Sui and Tang Dynasties also had their own fashion for riding cars. Taking the nobles as an example, they liked to ride in chariots or carriages. According to "Tang Huiyao" records, there were as many as 7 specifications of royal chariots in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, namely the big phoenix chariot, the big fang chariot, the xianyou chariot, the small light chariot, the fangting chariot, the big jade chariot and the small jade chariot; there were 3 Species: Wuseyu, Changpingyu, Yaoyu.

The chariots and carriages of the Sui and Tang Dynasties were very different from those of the Qin and Han Dynasties. They abandoned the installation of wheels and used human power to lift them. This kind of chariot or carriage was called a "step chariot" or "shoulder carriage" . The famous painter Yan Liben of the Tang Dynasty's "Picture of a Chariot" is a reflection of this fashion of using carriages at that time. In the picture, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty is sitting on a chariot carried by several palace maids, receiving the Tibetan envoys.

After the mid-Tang Dynasty, chariots and carriages gradually spread from the court to the people, and were especially loved by literati, who often traveled by chariots and carriages. This kind of chariot and carriage was the predecessor of the later sedan chair. Sightseeing "long carriages" appeared in the Yuan Dynasty

There were already passenger "cars" in the Ming Dynasty

The Song Dynasty inherited the Tang Dynasty system, and the style of the carriages had little change and development compared with the Tang Dynasty. Maybe people were more sophisticated at that time Attach great importance to the development of water transportation vehicles. It was not until the Yuan Dynasty that vehicles developed again. During this period, there were mainly horse-drawn carriages, ox-carts, and a large number of donkey carts among the people.

In some cities, there are also "long carriages" specially for rent, drawn by horses or oxen. When Marco Polo came to China and arrived in Hangzhou, he saw people riding in such long cars: "On the main road in Hangzhou City, long cars are often coming and going. The cars have tents and can accommodate six people. The city is full of men and women. Renting this car for entertainment purposes means seeing countless cars at all times." Judging from Marco Polo's description, this kind of car is a bit like the sightseeing cars in today's tourist attractions.

The main means of land transportation in the Ming Dynasty were mule carriages, oxen and donkey carriages, wheelbarrows, packs and sedan chairs. The mule carriages of the Ming Dynasty were the most distinctive. Song Yingxing recorded in "Tiangong Kaiwu" that the mule carriages at that time were divided into four wheels and two wheels. The four-wheel vehicle is equipped with a horizontal axle at the front and rear, short columns are erected on the axle, and longitudinal beams are installed on the upper end, and the longitudinal beams carry the carriage. When the carriage stops and the mules and horses are detached, the carriage is flat and very stable.

Mules and carriages are large vehicles that are mostly used to transport supplies. Two-wheelers and wheelbarrows are most commonly used to carry people on a daily basis.

A two-wheeled vehicle specially used to carry people is called a sedan. This kind of car is completely different from the modern fuel-powered car. The wheels are relatively large, and horses, mules, and oxen are generally used for traction. Wooden or bamboo carriages are placed on the body, some have front and rear doors, and some have doors on both sides. There is a window on the side of the compartment, which is covered with a cloth curtain and covered with a cover to protect it from wind and rain. The car has two or more seats, so it is named because the carriage resembles a sedan. This kind of car was used by officials and business travelers at that time; in rural areas, it was generally used to pick up and drop off guests when doing official and official events.

The cars in the middle and early Qing Dynasty were not much different from those in the Ming Dynasty. By the late Qing Dynasty, the changes were huge. With the introduction of modern Western means of transportation such as trains, cars, and trams, ordinary people in China have more and more means of transportation to choose from.