How to send a message before?

The ancients mainly used the following methods to transmit information: flying pigeons, bonfires, fast horses, code words, 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 3000 years ago, there were records of information transmission in Shang Dynasty. Post-horse relay is an early organized mode of communication. The "Postman" sculpture is located in Jiayuguan Railway Station Square, based on the mural tomb of Wei and Jin Dynasties in Jiayuguan. With a simple document in his hand, the postman galloped at high speed on all fours. This brick mural was taken as the theme of a small stamp by the First Congress of the All-China Philatelic Federation 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 five thousand years, with a vertical and horizontal distance of one hundred thousand miles". The word "Great Wall" first appeared in the documents of the Warring States Period. In ancient dynasties, due to the different architectural forms, the titles of such defense projects were different, such as: Fierce City, Fangcheng, Fortress, Linluo, Jiegou, Side Wall and so on. All these actually refer to the Great Wall. In fact, the Great Wall in a broad sense refers to 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 "adapting to local conditions and adapting to risks". The first is to build the project according to the base type. The second is to make full use of geographical and natural disasters to defend the enemy. The Great Wall is mainly composed of city walls, including ramparts, passes, barracks, health centers, piers, towers, observation, communication and other comprehensive functions, forming the most stringent military defense system in ancient times. Among them, the beacon tower located in the Great Wall is an important part.

During the Western Zhou Dynasty, in order to guard against enemy invasion, the "bonfire tunnel" was used as the contact signal for border defense emergency. In the ancient history book "Zhou Li", it is recorded that "on the passage from the frontier to the hinterland of various countries, a beacon tower is built at intervals, one after another. There are oranges on the stage, and there are cages full of firewood on the heads of oranges. When the enemy invaded, the beacon tower set off fireworks in succession to convey the alarm. Every night, the watchman lit the firewood in the cage and held it high, calling it a "lighthouse" to convey information to the leaders. During the daytime warning, the firewood piled up on the stage is lit, and the smoke is used to indicate the urgency, which is called "embarrassment". 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. The Zhou Dynasty stipulated that when the emperor raised a bonfire, local governors must immediately lead troops to rescue 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 last week. From 1972 to 1976, archaeologists in China obtained more than 30,000 wooden slips of the Han Dynasty through excavation, and excavated the beacon tower site, which provided us with abundant information about the beacon tower 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) to Yanze, with a very large scale and extremely strict management. Known as "Beacon Tower vs Wan Li", it is said that it is "five miles and one whistle, ten miles and one pier, three miles and one castle, and a hundred miles and one castle". In addition, various secret codes are used to indicate the number of invading enemies. If the enemy is less than 500 people, one beacon will be launched, and if the enemy is more than 500 miles, two beacons will be launched. In the unearthed Firefighting Articles, the provisions of the imperial court at that time, namely the Convention on Joint Defense, were recorded. This article stipulates the detailed rules such as the category, quantity, mode of transmission, and how to correct mistakes when the Huns invade different parts, time, intention, changes, abnormal weather, and even when the captain is sick. This way of information transmission has played a certain role in defending the border and resisting the enemy.

The bonfire conveys information very quickly. In BC 1 19, General Wei Qing and Huo Qubing led hundreds of thousands of troops to attack separately, marching with bonfires as signals. In just one day, this signal spread from Hexi to Liaodong thousands of miles away. Because of the rapid and timely warning of beacon tower, it has been used until the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Yantai City, Shandong Province, was named after the establishment of Wolf Yantai here in the Ming Dynasty to prevent Japanese invasion.

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

In the Western Zhou Dynasty, in order to meet the needs of the communication between the king of Zhou and the princes, a post station was set up every 30 miles on the avenue, and horses and weekly cars were prepared, which were specially responsible for delivering official documents, receiving officials and transporting goods. Confucius once said: "The popularity of virtue is faster than posting." In other words, the moral theory he advocated spread faster than postal money orders. It can be seen that postal communication at that time was not only quite complete, but also quite fast.

A whole set of evacuation system was formed in Qin and Han Dynasties. Especially in the Han Dynasty, the documents delivered were graded, and the documents of different grades should be delivered by special personnel and special horses in accordance with the prescribed order and time. Sending and receiving these documents must be registered and marked with time to show responsibility.

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the cause of evacuation developed unprecedentedly. The official postal transport line in the Tang Dynasty centered on Chang 'an, the capital city, radiating in all directions and reaching the frontier, with a post station about 30 miles away. According to the Six Codes of the Great Tang Dynasty, at its peak, there were 1 639 post stations in China, with more than 20,000 people specializing in postal services, including 1.7 million post soldiers. The post is divided into three types: land post, water post and waterway merger. Each station is equipped with a station house, a post horse, a post donkey, a post boat and a post yard.

In the Tang Dynasty, there were also explicit provisions on the itinerary of the post station. Lu Yi's trotters walk six posts a day, that is, 180 Li, and then there are about 300 Aliri, and the fastest requirement is 500 Aliri. Pedestrians travel 50 miles a day; Sailing against the current, the river is forty miles, the river is fifty miles, and the other six miles; When it is good, specify 100 to 150 miles. The poet Cen Can wrote in the poem "A Judge on the Road to Longshan" that "after a post, the post rides like a Milky Way; Pingming sent Xianyang, the curtain and the top of the mountain. " Here, he compares the post horse to a meteor. On November 9th, 14th year of Tianbao, An Lushan rebelled in Fanyang. At that time, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty was in Huaqing Palace, three thousand miles apart. Within six days, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty learned the news, and the speed of communication reached 500 miles per day. It can be seen that the organization and speed of postal communication in Tang Dynasty reached a high level.

In the Song Dynasty, all official documents and letters were called "delivery", and "express delivery shop" appeared. There is a bronze bell tied to the collar of the riding whistle in a hurry. Running on the road, ringing the bell during the day and lighting a fire at night, the person killed is not responsible. Shopping for horses, shopping for people, rain or shine, day and night. In the early years of Southern Song Dynasty, Yue Fei, an anti-gold general, was forcibly recalled to Lin 'an from the front with 12 gold medals by Song Gaozong. This kind of gold medal is a gold plate sent by express delivery, indicating urgency.

The post office is the communication agency of the government and can only deliver official documents. Except in the Song Dynasty, senior officials were allowed to attach letters to their families, and private letters were not allowed. Personal letters can only be sent by. 1975, archaeologists unearthed two wooden slips in the tomb of A Qin, Hunan. The first letter was written to Zhong jointly by Heifu and Jing. The second letter, written by Jing to Zhong, is the earliest known letter from home 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 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 moved to Xiaogan Township, Macheng County, Hubei Province to reclaim land in Sichuan missed their hometown and made an appointment to elect fellow villagers to return home several times a year, bringing souvenirs and letters. Over time, a fixed organization named "Maxiang Covenant" was established. Later, a professional People's Information Bureau was established.

Postal communication played a certain progressive role in frontier defense and economic and cultural exchanges, and became 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.