The evolution of communication methods from ancient China to modern times

1. Beacon fire conveys military information

"Beacon fire" is a communication method used to transmit border military information in ancient my country. It began in the Shang and Zhou dynasties and extended to the Ming and Qing dynasties. It has been known to thousands of people. Over the years, the scale of the beacon fire organization in the Han Dynasty was especially large. On the heights of border military fortresses or traffic hubs, high platforms are built at regular intervals, commonly known as beacon towers, also known as beacons, piers, smoke piers, etc.

There are troops stationed on the high platform waiting for the enemy to invade. During the day, firewood will be burned to give the alarm with "smoke", and at night, firewood will be burned to give the alarm with "beacon" (light of fire). When one tower lights up beacon smoke, neighboring towers will also light up their fires one after another when they see it. They will pass it from tower to tower, thousands of miles away, in order to achieve the purpose of reporting the enemy's situation, dispatching troops and generals, seeking reinforcements, and defeating the enemy.

2. "Hongyan Chuan Shu"

The allusion of "Hongyan Chuan Shu" comes from the story of "Su Wu Shepherding Sheep" in "Han Shu·Su Wu Biography".

According to records, in the first year of the Han Dynasty (100 BC), Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Su Wu, the envoy of the Han Dynasty, Zhonglang, went to the Xiongnu as an envoy and was detained by the Shanyu, the Marquis of Tutankhamun. He was brave and unyielding, and the Shanyu captured him. He was exiled to the uninhabited land of the North Sea (now Lake Baikal) to herd sheep. Nineteen years later, Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty succeeded to the throne, and the Han Dynasty reconciled and got married.

Envoys from the Han Dynasty came to threaten Su Wu and demanded that Su Wu be released. However, the Chanyu refused and could not say so, so he lied that Su Wu was dead. Later, Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty sent envoys to the Huns. Chang Hui, the deputy envoy who went to the Huns with Su Wu and was detained, secretly met with the Han envoys one night through the help of the jailer, told the Han envoys about Su Wu's situation, and He came up with a plan and asked the Han envoy to tell Shanyu: "When the emperor of the Han Dynasty was hunting in Shanglinyuan, he shot a wild goose with a letter written on silk tied to its foot. It was written that Su Wu was not dead, but in a large swamp." The Han envoy was very happy after hearing this, and rebuked Shan Yu according to Chang Hui's words. Chanyu was greatly surprised after hearing this, but could not deny it, so he had to let Su Wu go.

The story of "Hongyan Chuan Shu" has been passed down for thousands of years, and "Hongyan Chuan Shu" has gradually become a symbol of postal communication.

3. Flying pigeons deliver messages

The homing pigeon will not get lost during long-distance flights because of its unique function, that is, it can identify the direction by sensing magnetism and latitude.

There is no clear explanation yet as to when pigeons started delivering messages, but as early as the Tang Dynasty, pigeons were already common. Zhang Jiuling was a politician and poet in the Tang Dynasty. He not only used carrier pigeons to deliver letters, but also gave the carrier pigeons a beautiful name - "Flying Slave". Since then, in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, pigeons have always played an important role in people's communication life.

In our country’s historical records, homing pigeons were mainly used for military communications. For example, in 1128 AD, General Zhang Jun of the Southern Song Dynasty inspected Qu Duan's army. When Zhang Jun arrived at the military camp, he saw that there was no one around. He was very surprised and asked Qu Duan to summon his troops.

Hearing this, Qu Duan immediately handed Zhang Jun the roster of the five armies he commanded and asked him to click on which army he wanted. Zhang Jun pointed to the roster and said: "I want to see your First Army here." After receiving the order, Qu Duan calmly opened the cage and released a pigeon. In an instant, all the soldiers of the First Army were in full gear. Armed, arrived quickly.

Zhang Jun was shocked and said, "I want to see all your troops." Qu Duan opened the cage and released four pigeons. Soon, the rest of the four armies arrived quickly. Facing the troops gathered neatly in front of him, Zhang Jun was overjoyed and even praised Qu Duan.

In fact, the five pigeons released by Qu Duan were all well-trained homing pigeons. They had already been tied with troop deployment documents. Once released from the cage, they immediately flew to the designated location. , send the troop deployment documents to the corresponding troops.

4. Kite communication

Kites have played an important role as an emergency communication tool in ancient times.

Legend has it that as early as the late Spring and Autumn Period, the master craftsman Gongshupan (i.e. Lu Ban) of the State of Lu imitated the shape of a bird, "cutting bamboo wood to make a magpie, and then it flew away without falling for three days." This kind of bamboo wood made of The flying "wooden magpie" made of wood was the predecessor of the kite.

In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cai Lun invented papermaking. People used bamboo strips to make frames and then papered them to become "paper kites". In the Five Dynasties, when people were making paper kites, they tied a bamboo whistle on them. When the wind blew the bamboo whistle, it sounded like a kite, and the word "kite" came from this.

The original kite was made for military needs. Its main purpose was for military reconnaissance or to convey information and military intelligence. After the Tang Dynasty, kites gradually became an entertainment toy and became popular among the people.

There are many examples of the military use of kites in history books. During the conflict between Chu and Han in the early Han Dynasty, Liu Bang besieged Xiang Yu in Gaixia. Han Xin suggested to Liu Bang, the king of Han Dynasty, to make a large kite out of silk and bamboo wood, put a bamboo whistle on it, and fly it over the Chu camp at night, making a whining sound. The Han army sang Chu songs on the ground, which aroused the Chu army's homesickness, thereby disintegrating the Chu army's morale and winning the war.

5. Communication Tower

In the 18th century, French engineer Claude Chape successfully developed a practical communication system that accelerated the speed of information transmission. The system consists of several communication towers established 230 kilometers between Paris and Lille.

A wooden pillar is erected on the top of these towers, and a horizontal crossbar is installed on the wooden pillar. People can rotate the wooden pole and swing it to various angles under the operation of ropes. There are two vertical arms at both ends of the horizontal crossbar, which can also be rotated.

In this way, each tower can form 192 different configurations through wooden poles, and nearby towers can use telescopes to see information representing 192 meanings. In this way, it is passed on in sequence, and it only takes 2 minutes to complete a message transmission within a distance of 230 kilometers. This system made great contributions in the French Revolutionary War in the 18th century.

6. Signal flags

Signal flags have been used for communication on ships for more than 400 years. The advantage of flag communication is that it is very simple. Therefore, even though modern communication technology is quite advanced today, this simple communication method is still retained and has become an important method of short-range communication.

When communicating with signals, signal flags can be used alone or in combination to express different meanings. Usually a single flag is flown to indicate the most urgent, important or commonly used content.

For example, flying the A letter flag means "there are divers under my ship, please move away from my ship slowly"; flying the O letter flag means "someone has fallen into the water"; flying the W letter flag means "my ship is under the water". Medical assistance required" etc.

7. Postal delivery

Based on physical delivery. Although fewer and fewer people write letters nowadays, the simpler, the more real, the more innocent, the more sincere. Letters are the best way to transmit information. The simplest and most pristine way, not to mention information leakage caused by too fast transmission speed;

Express delivery is a need for the development of human society, mainly because with the improvement of human material living standards, the demand for services has expanded. It is also getting higher and higher, but its development is restricted by transportation and cannot be accelerated without convenient transportation.

8. Telephone

Telephones are divided into fixed telephones, mobile telephones and Internet telephones. The advantages and disadvantages of the transmission method are basically the same as those of the Internet method. The difference from the Internet method is that the telephone cannot be transmitted directly. Text and pictures are different from the postal method in that they cannot deliver physical objects.

9. Fax

Fax is the fastest growing non-telephone telecommunications service in the past two decades.

Still images such as text, charts, photos, etc. recorded on paper are turned into electrical signals through scanning and photoelectric conversion, and are transmitted to the destination through various channels. At the receiving end, they pass through a series of reverse signals. The process of transformation, the communication method of obtaining a copy of the record similar to that of sending the original, is called facsimile.

The main fax technologies are: scanning technology, recording technology, synchronization and phase technology, and transmission technology. The communication process of fax includes scanning, photoelectric conversion, image signal transmission, recording conversion, receiving scanning and synchronization.

Fax is a PSTN-based telecommunications signal that relays fax signals through equipment. Directly due to the rapid development of science and technology, electronic network fax has gradually become a new generation communication tool to replace fax machines.

10. Satellite phone

A phone based on a satellite communication system to transmit information is a satellite phone.

Satellite phones are the product of modern mobile communications. Their main function is to fill in areas that cannot be covered by existing communications (wired communications, wireless communications) terminals and provide more complete services for people's work. In modern communications, satellite communications cannot be replaced by other communication methods. All communication functions provided by existing commonly used communications have been applied in satellite communications.

11. Telegraph

A telegraph is a written message transmitted by electrical signals.

Communication is getting faster and faster, and the role of the telegraph is no longer very important. Maybe one day the telegraph will disappear from our lives.

Telegraph is a type of communication service and the earliest method of using electricity for communication. It uses current (wired) or electromagnetic waves (wireless) as carriers, and realizes human communication methods for long-distance transmission and exchange of information through coding and corresponding electrical processing technology.

The telegraph greatly accelerated the circulation of news and was one of the important inventions of industrial society. Early telegraphs could only communicate on land. Later, submarine cables were used to carry out transoceanic services.

At the beginning of the 20th century, radio telegraphs began to be used, and telegraph services could basically reach most areas on the earth. Telegraph is mainly used to transmit text messages. The use of telegraph technology to transmit pictures is called fax.

12. Data communication

The information transmitted in computer networks is digital data. The communication between computers is data communication. Data communication is a communication method that combines computers and communication lines. . In data communication, according to the number of data bits transmitted each time, communication methods can be divided into: parallel communication and serial communication.

Parallel communication is to transmit 8-bit binary data at the same time, requiring 8 transmission lines from the sending end to the receiving end. Parallel mode is mainly used for short-range communication. For example, data communication within a computer is usually performed in parallel mode. The advantages of this method are fast transmission speed and simple processing.

Serial communication only transmits one bit of binary data at a time, and only one transmission line is needed from the sending end to the receiving end. Although the transmission rate of the serial method is low, it is suitable for long-distance transmission. Serial communication is commonly used in networks (such as public telephone systems)

Baidu Encyclopedia - Ancient Communication

Baidu Encyclopedia - Communication methods