What did ancient people use to deliver letters and how?

Correspondence in Ancient Times

Overview

In ancient times, China used drums to convey messages, the earliest when at the end of primitive society.

By the time of the Western Zhou Dynasty, China already had a relatively complete postal system.

In the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, with the political, economic and cultural progress, postal communication was gradually completed.

During the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Wei's greatest achievement in postal history was the formulation of the Postal Order.

One of the signs of the development of postal communication in the Sui and Tang dynasties was the increase in the number of postal stations.

During the Yuan Dynasty in China, there was another great development of postal service.

The most important feature of the reform of the postal system in the Qing Dynasty was the merger of "post" and "post".

After the middle of the Qing Dynasty, with the establishment of modern postal service, the ancient postal system was gradually eliminated.

Beacon military information

"Beacon" is used to pass the border military intelligence in ancient China, a method of communication, began in the Shang and Zhou Dynasty, extended to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, phase Xi thousands of years, especially in the Han Dynasty, the scale of the beacon organization for the big. In the border military fortress or traffic high, every certain distance building a high platform, commonly known as beacon platform, also known as beacon flint, pier beacons, smoke pier. Garrison on the platform to guard, found that the enemy invasion, burning firewood during the day to "burnt smoke" alarm, burning firewood at night to "raise the beacon" (fire) alarm. A lit beacon, the neighboring platform to see the fire also raised, one by one platform to pass, a thousand miles in a flash, in order to achieve the report of the enemy, deploying troops, to seek reinforcements, to overcome the enemy to win the purpose.

In the history of our country, there is another in order to win the hearts of beauty and randomly lit beacons, ultimately leading to the death of the country's "beacons play the vassals" of the story.

The Zhou Dynasty was known as the Western Zhou Dynasty after it destroyed the Shang Dynasty and established its capital at Haojing. In the early days, the king of Zhou consolidated the state power, successively divided his brothers, relatives, ministers of merit to all parts of the vassal, the establishment of the vassal state, but also established a set of systems, agriculture, handicrafts, commerce have had a certain degree of development.

The allusion to "the transmission of letters by wild geese"

The allusion to "the transmission of letters by wild geese" comes from the "Book of the Han", in which "Su Wu's biography" reads "The transmission of letters by wild geese". Su Wu biography" in the "Su Wu shepherd sheep" story. According to records, the first year of Emperor Wu Tianhan (100 BC), the Han Dynasty envoys, General Su Wu, the Huns were Diogou Shan Yu detained, his courage, Shan Yu will be exiled to the North Sea (now Lake Baikal) in no man's land shepherding. 19 years later, Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty succeeded to the throne of the Han and the murder of the Han Dynasty and the marriage of the reconciliation. Han envoys came to the murder, asked to release Su Wu back, but Shan Yu refused, but could not say, so they lied that Su Wu has died. Later, Emperor Zhao of Han Dynasty sent another envoy to Xiong Nu. Chang Hui, the deputy envoy who went to Xiong Nu with Su Wu and was detained, through the help of the forbidden pawns, met with the Han envoy secretly one night, told the Han envoy about Su Wu's situation, and came up with a plan for the Han envoy to speak to Shan Yu: "When the Son of Heaven of the Han Dynasty hunted in the Shanglin Garden, he shot a goose, with a letter on silk tied to its foot, which said Su Wu is not dead, but in a great swamp." The Han envoy was very glad to hear this, and rebuked Shan Yu according to Chang Hui's words. Shan Yu was amazed to hear this, but he could not deny it, so he had to release Su Wu.

The Green Bird Transmits Letters

According to China's ancient wondrous book, "The Classic of Mountains and Seas", there are three green birds***, named Zhaolan and Ziyan (there is another green bird whose name the author did not access), which are the attendants and messengers of the Queen Mother of the West, and they are able to fly over thousands of mountains and rivers to transmit messages, and deliver the good tidings of good fortune, happiness, and joy to the earth. It is said that the Queen Mother of the West once wrote a letter to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and the Queen Mother of the West sent the green bird to deliver the letter, and the green bird carried the letter from the Queen Mother of the West all the way to the Hall of Cheng Hua in front of the Han Palace. In later myths, the green bird gradually evolved into the king of all birds - the phoenix.

Li Jing, the lord of the Southern Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem, "The bluebird does not send letters out of the clouds, and the lilacs are tied up in the rain"; Li Bai of the Tang Dynasty wrote a poem, "I wish that the three bluebirds would report long-lasting love for each other"; and Li Shangyin wrote a poem, "There is no way to go to Pengshan, but the bluebird is very attentive to visit. The first is the "Birds of Prey", a poem by Cui Guofu, "Remote thinking of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, the birds of prey", borrowed from the "Birds of Prey" allusion.

The yellow ear of the book

The pigeon, everyone is more familiar with the book, because now there are pigeon associations, and often organize long-distance pigeon flight competitions. The pigeons do not get lost in long-distance flights because of a feature unique to them, that is, they can recognize the direction by feeling the magnetic force and latitude.

The exact time of the beginning of the pigeon's transmission, there is no clear statement, but as early as in the Tang Dynasty, pigeon transmission has been very common. Fifth Wang Renyu "Kaiyuan Tianbao Legacy" book has a "pigeon" records: "Zhang Jiuling when he was a teenager, the family raised a group of pigeons. Every letter with the pro-knowledge, only to tie the book on the feet of the pigeon, according to the teachings of the place, fly to cast. Jiuling eye for flying slaves, the people were all surprised." Zhang Jiuling was a politician and poet in the Tang Dynasty, he not only used carrier pigeons to deliver letters, but also gave them a beautiful name - "Flying Slave". Since then, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, pigeons have been playing an important role in people's communication life.

Kite communication

The kite, which we use for entertainment today, played an important role as an emergency communication tool in ancient times.

Legend has it that as early as the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, the Lu State craftsman Gongbopan (i.e., Lu Ban) was modeled after a bird, "chipping bamboo and wood as a magpie, into the fly, three days no longer," the bamboo and wood made of flying "wood magpies" is the predecessor of the kite. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cai Lun invented papermaking, and people used bamboo gabions to make a frame, and then used paper to paste it, which became the "paper kite". In the fifth generation, when people made paper kites, a bamboo whistle was attached to it, and the wind blew the bamboo whistle, sounding like a kite, and the word "kite" came from it.

Initially, kites were made for military needs, and their main purpose was to be used for military reconnaissance, or used to transmit information and military intelligence. It was only after the Tang Dynasty that kites gradually became a kind of recreational toy and were spread among the people.

Lighthouses

Lighthouses originated as signaling beacons in ancient Egypt. The world's earliest lighthouse was built in the 7th century BC, located in the Darnell Strait on Cape Baba, like a huge bell tower stands. At that time people burned firewood in the lighthouse and used its firelight to guide their course.

In 280 BC, the ancient Egyptians built a lighthouse on the island of Pharos opposite the city of Alexandria, Egypt, on the order of King Tolomei II Philadelph, 85 meters high, burning wood day and night, with flames and columns of smoke as a sign to help navigation. Faros lighthouse is known as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, destroyed by an earthquake in 1302. 9 century, France in the Gironde estuary surgical Doon reef on the establishment of the lighthouse, has been twice rebuilt, the existing built in 1611.

Among the old lighthouses, the Italian lighthouse of Leghorn is still in use today. This lighthouse was built in 1304, made of stone and is 50 meters high. The first lighthouse in the United States was the Boston Lighthouse built in 1716. After that, in 1823, built a lens lighthouse, 1858 built a power lighthouse, 1885, the first caisson method of building lighthouses on soft foundations, 1906 inaugurated the first gas flash tower. 1850, the world's only 1570 lighthouses, in 1900 increased to 9,400. By early 1984, including other lighted beacons, the total number of lighthouses has exceeded 55,000.

Communication towers

In the 18th century, the French engineer Claude Chapet succeeded in developing an accelerated communication tower. Chapey succeeded in developing a practical communication system to speed up the transmission of information. The system consists of a number of communication towers built between Paris and Lille 230 kilometers. At the top of these towers was erected a wooden post on which was mounted a horizontal cross-bar which could be turned and swung at various angles by the operation of a rope. At the ends of the horizontal bar are two vertical arms, which can also be turned. In this way, each tower could be formed into 192 different configurations by means of the wooden poles, and nearby towers with telescopes would be able to see the messages indicating the 192 meanings. Passed down in this order, a message could be completed in only 2 minutes over a distance of 230 kilometers. The system was instrumental in the French Revolutionary War in the 18th century.

Signal Flags

Signal flag communications have been used on ships for over 400 years now. The advantage of signaling flag communication is that it is very simple, so even though today's modern communication technology is quite advanced, this simple way of communication is still retained as an important way of proximity communication. When conducting flag communication, signal flags can be used individually or in combination to indicate different meanings. Usually a single flag is flown to indicate what is most urgent, important, or commonly used. For example, flying the A-letter flag means "there are divers below my ship, please slow down and stay away from my ship"; flying the O-letter flag means "someone fell into the water"; flying the W-letter flag means "my ship needs medical assistance", etc.

Flagging communication can be used individually or in combination to indicate different meanings.

Signals

For 200 years in the 15th and 16th centuries, fleet commanders commanded their ships by firing their cannons or hoisting their sails, and in 1777, Admiral Howe, Commander of the British fleet in the Americas, was the first to write a signaling book when he printed one. Later, Admiral Lord Popham used a number of flags as a "shorthand" alphabet to create a complete set of semaphore letters.

In 1805, Lord Nelson, commanding the Battle of Trafalgar, before he died in battle, the last signal was Popham semaphore 16: "Sail close to the enemy, and fight at close quarters."

In 1817, Captain Marriott of the British Navy compiled the first internationally recognized letter number. The Boat Sea Signal Flag*** has 40 faces, including 26 letter flags, 10 number flags, 3 substitute flags and 1 answer flag. The shapes of the flags are different: dovetail, rectangle, trapezoid, triangle and so on. The colors and patterns of the flags also vary.

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