Why is ancient China an advanced area of information dissemination in the world?

The ancients mainly used the following methods to transmit information: flying pigeons, bonfires, fast horses, secret signs, sign language, letters, flags and so on.

China is one of the first countries in the world to establish an organized information transmission system. As early as the Shang Dynasty more than 3, years ago, information transmission was recorded. Passing the post by horse, post transmission is an early organized communication mode. Located in Jiayuguan Railway Station Square, the sculpture of "Postman" is based on the mural tomb of Wei and Jin Dynasties in Jiayuguan. The postman holds a simple document in his hand, and the post horse flies on all fours at a high speed. This brick mural was used as the theme pattern of a small stamp by the First Congress of the All-China Philatelic Federation in 1982, which shows that Jiayuguan is one of the cradles of information culture in China.

the appearance of ancient information transmission can not be separated from the Great Wall, which is "up and down for 5, years, with a length of 1, miles". The word "Great Wall" first appeared in the documents of the Warring States Period. In ancient dynasties, there were different construction forms, so the appellation of this kind of defense engineering was different, such as: Liecheng, Fangcheng, fortress, temporary Luo, boundary trench, side wall, etc., all of which actually referred to the "Great Wall". In fact, the generalized Great Wall was for all the giant military engineering systems in ancient China.

the basic principle that has been followed in the construction of the Great Wall in past dynasties is "adjust measures to local conditions, according to risks, to cause congestion". The first is to build the project according to the base type. The second is to make full use of geographical natural hazards to defend the enemy. The Great Wall is mainly composed of walls, including city barriers, passes, barracks, health centers, piers, towers, observation, communication and other comprehensive functions, forming the most rigorous military defense system in ancient times. Among them, the beacon tower located inside the Great Wall is an important part.

in the western Zhou dynasty, in order to guard against enemy invasion, the "beacon tunnel" was used as the contact signal for border defense emergency. In the ancient history book "Zhou Li", there is a record that "on the passage from the frontier to the hinterland of various countries, a beacon tower is built at regular intervals, one after another. There are oranges on the stage, and there are cages filled with firewood on the heads of oranges. When the enemy invades, the beacon tower sets off fireworks one after another to convey the alarm. Every night early warning, the watchman lights the firewood in the cage and holds it high, and it is called "beacon" to convey information to the leader. During the day early warning, the firewood accumulated on the stage is lit to show urgency with smoke, which is called "embarrassing". In order to make the smoke straight without bending, so that it can be seen from a distance, the ancients often used wolf dung instead of firewood, so it was also called wolf smoke. It was stipulated in the Zhou Dynasty that when the emperor raised a beacon, local governors must immediately lead troops to rescue them and fight against the enemy. It can be seen that the implementation of the beacon system means that a huge and perfect military information contact network has appeared as early as the week. From 1972 to 1976, Chinese archaeologists obtained more than 3, wooden slips of the Han Dynasty through excavation in Juyan, and excavated the site of the beacon towers, which provided us with rich information about the beacon towers of the Han Dynasty. According to the wooden slips, during the Han Dynasty, there were beacon towers from the four counties in Hexi (now Wuwei, Zhangye, Jiuquan and Dunhuang in Gansu Province) all the way to Yanze, and the scale was very large, and the management was extremely strict. It was called "beacon towers facing Wan Li", and it was said to be "five miles and one whistle, ten miles and one pier, three miles and one fortress, and one hundred miles and one city fortress". In addition, various secret codes are used to indicate the number of invading enemies. If the enemy is less than 5 people, one beacon will be fired, and if the enemy is more than 5 miles, two beacons will be fired. In the unearthed "Firefighting Products on the Plug", the regulations of the imperial court at that time, that is, the "joint defense convention", were recorded. This article provides detailed rules such as the category, quantity, transmission method and how to correct the mistakes when the Xiongnu intrudes on different parts, numbers, time, intentions, changes and abnormal weather, and even the captain has to ask for leave if he is sick. This information transmission method has played a certain role in defending the frontier and resisting the enemy.

bonfires transmit information very quickly. In 119 BC, generals Wei Qing and Huo Qubing led hundreds of thousands of troops to attack in a separate way, taking the bonfire as a signal to March. In just one day, this signal spread from Hexi to Liaodong, thousands of miles away. Due to the rapid and timely warning of the beacon, it remained in use until the Ming and Qing dynasties. Yantai City, Shandong Province, was named because the Ming Dynasty set up Wolf Yantai there to prevent the Japanese invasion.

Although the bonfire transmits military information quickly, it can't fully express profound and complicated military contents. With the development of society and the needs of politics and military affairs, the communication mode of transmitting information by animal power gradually occupies a dominant position, forming a more rigorous post-delivery system for transmitting government documents and cooperating with the warning of the beacon.

in the western Zhou dynasty, in order to meet the needs of the contact between the king of Zhou and the princes, a post station was set up every 3 miles on the avenue, which was specially responsible for delivering official documents, receiving officials and transporting goods. Confucius once said: "The popularity of virtue is faster than posting." That is to say, the moral theory advocated by him spreads faster than the postal order. It can be seen that the postal communication at that time was not only quite complete, but also quite fast.

during the Qin and Han dynasties, a whole set of post-delivery system was formed. Especially in the Han Dynasty, the delivered documents were divided into grades, and the documents of different grades should be delivered by special personnel and special horses in the specified order and time. Send and receive these documents must be registered, marked with time, to show responsibility.

during the sui and Tang dynasties, the cause of post-delivery got unprecedented development. In the Tang Dynasty, the official postal transportation line centered on Chang 'an, the capital city, radiated to all directions, and reached the border area directly, with a post station about 3 miles away. According to "Six Classics of the Great Tang Dynasty", at its peak, there were 1,639 post stations in China, with more than 2, people specialized in post service, including 17, post soldiers. Post stations are divided into three types: land post, water post and waterway merger. Each post station is equipped with post houses, with post horses, post donkeys, post boats and post fields.

The Tang Dynasty also stipulated clearly the itinerary of postal service. The fast horse of Luyi takes 6 postal services a day, that is, 18 Li, and then it will travel 3 Li a day, and the fastest requirement is 5 Li a day. Walking personnel travel 5 miles a day; When sailing against the current, the river is 4 miles, the river is 5 miles, and the other 6 miles; 1 to 15 miles is always stipulated when the water goes well. Cen Can, a poet, wrote in the poem "Judge with a word on the way to Longshan" that "after a post, the post rides like a star stream; Pingming sent Xianyang, the curtain and the top of the mountain. " Here he compares the post riding to a shooting star. On November 9th, 14th year of Tianbao, An Lushan rebelled in Fanyang. At that time, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty was in Huaqing Palace, which was three thousand miles apart. Within six days, Emperor Xuanzong knew the news, and the transmission speed reached 5 miles per day. It can be seen that the organization and speed of postal communication in the Tang Dynasty have reached a high level.

in the song dynasty, all official documents and letters were referred to as "delivery", and "urgent delivery shop" appeared. There is a bronze bell tied to the collar of the horse-riding post in a hurry. When running on the road, the bell rings during the day and the fire is raised at night, and the person killed is not responsible. Shop for horses, shop for people, rain or shine, day and night. In the early Southern Song Dynasty, Yue Fei, an anti-gold general, was forcibly recalled to Lin 'an from the front by Song Gaozong with 12 gold medals. This kind of gold medal is a gold plate delivered by express delivery, which means that it is urgent.

The post station is the communication organization of the government, and only official documents can be delivered. Except for the Song Dynasty, which allowed senior officials to attach home letters, no personal letters were allowed. Private letters could only be sent by people. In 1975, archaeologists unearthed two letters from wooden slips in a Qin Dynasty tomb in Hunan Province. The first letter was written jointly by Heifu and Jing to a man named Zhong. The second letter was written by Jing to Zhong, which is the earliest known family letter in China. It is estimated that these two letters were brought home by fellow villagers who returned home after serving in the army. This shows the difficulty of ancient people's communication.

it was not until the Ming dynasty that the people's information bureau, a communication organization dedicated to delivering letters to the people, appeared. During the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, the immigrants who were moved to Sichuan for reclamation in Xiaogan Township, Macheng County, Hubei Province, missed their hometown and made an appointment to elect representatives of their fellow villagers to return home several times a year to bring souvenirs and letters. Over time, a fixed organization called "Maxiang Covenant" was established. Later, a professional people's information bureau was formed.

postal communication has played a certain progressive role in frontier defense and economic and cultural exchanges, and has become the main form of information transmission in ancient China. Over the years, those ancient ways of information transmission have been replaced by modern convenient and fast communication methods today.