A Test of the Formation of the Chinese Politician's Tradition of Running a Newspaper

There were no newspapers in ancient China, only Di Di (邸报), which is considered to be the earliest newspaper in China, like the Reference News.

The Di Di newspaper appeared more than 2,000 years ago in the early Western Han Dynasty (around the second century BC). At that time, the county system was implemented, in each county in the capital city of Chang'an has a Beijing office, this residence is called "Di", sent a permanent representative, their task is to do liaison work between the emperor and the county chiefs, regularly put the emperor's edicts, imperial edicts, bureaucratic deliberations and other official documents, as well as the palace events and other relevant political information, written on bamboo slips or silk, and then written by the emperor and the court. The political information about the emperor's edicts, official documents such as imperial edicts and court events was written on bamboo slips or silk, and then transmitted to the county chiefs by messengers riding fast horses through the postal routes established by the Qin Dynasty. This is the background to the creation of the "Di Di" (邸报).

Around the Song Dynasty, there were profit-making merchants who specialized in transcribing and selling the diwans. Officials in order to save time, are happy to spend some money to buy. In the Ming Dynasty, the General Department of Justice was set up to manage the publication and distribution of the Di Di newspaper.

The earliest recorded use of the Di Di newspaper for political activities is the late Ming Donglin Party.

During his tenure as governor of Fengyang, Li Sancai seized hundreds of thousands of dollars of stolen money and a large number of exotic treasures from Cheng Shouxun, the henchman of the eunuch Chen Zeng, and had Cheng Shouxun punished according to the law, and when he was punished by the Cabinet ministers on the 30th and 31st years of the Wanli reign, Gu Xiancheng, who was a lecturer in the Donglin Academy, wrote a letter to Ye Xianggao and Sun Piyang, praising Li Sancai's political achievements. Wu Liang, the imperial historian, copied Gu Xiancheng's letter in the Di Gao (邸報), which infuriated the Clique. The Di Pao also became a front for politicians' activities.