Our modern mode of transportation is very convenient, so how did the ancients transport?

Entering the year, the major courier companies have been closed, for has been accustomed to "Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai free shipping", "instant order, the day of delivery," the chopping family, the courier suddenly shut down, life seems to have become extremely inconvenient to think of buying something online Have to wait until after the year to send. This inconvenience often makes people think, perhaps before the rise of this form of express delivery, our parents experienced what kind of logistics system? Even further back, in ancient China, how did the ancients realize efficient logistics?

The Luhe Supervision of Transportation (partial), painted by Jiang Xuan, an artist of the Qing Dynasty, shows the flourishing of transportation in Tongzhou.

Water transportation is more important than land transportation

Ancient China has a long history of "logistics" thinking. Although the term "logistics" in this context is very different from today's concepts, literally speaking, the governments of different generations devised a series of systems for the efficient movement of "things". Because of the great unification of the empire, different regions have very different customs, such as the Western Han Sang Hongyang said: "Wu and Yue of bamboo, Sui and Tang materials, can not be used ...... and Zou, Lu, Zhou, Han, quinoa, patchouli, vegetables and food ...... more than the only diffusion, less than the only Not only famine." In order to balance the domestic production of different regions, rich means of logistics came into being. Ancient people's mode of transportation is only two kinds of water transportation and land transportation. In this, land transportation is certainly there, otherwise it would not have been written "a ride on the red dust, no one knows it is lychee to" the golden sentence

A ride on the red dust, no one knows it is lychee to laugh. With this kind of small and fine delivery is different, more often than not the scale of transportation are extremely large, thus, it is necessary to shuttle in the mountains, desert horse camel caravan to carry the task. So, from this point of view, in fact, water transportation in ancient times play a more important role. Particularly in the agricultural era, food as a very important resource, often the beginning and end of the river and canal are located in the capital and grain-producing areas.

The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was divided into seven sections, along which rose some of the most important economic cities of ancient China. In order to efficiently transport grain, the ancients also designed a set of transportation organization, in which the important strategy is to set up warehouses along the river and section transportation .

Setting up warehouses along the river

During the reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty, the transportation of grain from various places to Chang'an was carried from the Huaihe River through the Bianshui River to the Yellow River, and finally arrived at Chang'an. But the Yellow River is dangerous, difficult to travel, especially in the Sanmenxia area, often overturned grain sinking "Old Tang Book - Food and Wine" in order to solve this problem, the late Kaiyuan, Chancellor Pei Yaoqing change the direct transportation for transportation , in each section of the river to set up the river warehouse, "the water passes close to the operation, does not pass that is, and Na in the warehouse, do not stagnate in the distant boat, do not worry about the long depletion, than in the long years of transportation to facilitate the transportation, and the river is not a good place. Than in the long years of transportation more than twice as convenient."

Segmental TransportationSegmental Transportation happened after the Anshi Rebellion, Chancellor Liu Yan, according to the Canal, Huaihe River, Bianhe River, the Yellow River, the Weihe River, the water situation is different, the use of different sizes of boats waterway segmental transportation. New Tang Dynasty Book - Food and Goods Zhi" recorded this situation as: "river boats do not enter the Bian, Bian boats do not enter the river, river boats do not enter the Wei; Jiangnan's transportation accumulation Yangzhou, Bian River's transportation accumulation Heyin, river boat's transportation accumulation Wekou, Wei boat's transportation into the Taicang, the yearly transfer of a million 100,000 stone, no liters of bucket of the drowning." At that time, in order to facilitate the transfer of loading and unloading and fall into the water to salvage, but also the goods are changed to bags.

Mobilizing civil power to join the transport In addition to the effective organization of transport behavior on the transport journey, the ancient government is also very good at mobilizing civil power to join the transport, the establishment of the corresponding institutional measures to drive the transport. The system changed frequently from one dynasty to the next, often building on the experience of the previous ones.

In the "salt and iron theory" recorded in the Western Han Sang Hongyang's "equalization" system, that is, each place should be sent to the capital, the central government sent "equalization officer" to go to each place, after checking the tributes that must be transported, will be the other tributes to all the discounted market price of the local sale. Sold on the spot. This not only eliminated the need for freight transportation, but also enabled the government to earn profits from it, resulting in the formation of an effective government-run commercial network throughout the country.

Part of Qingming Shanghe Tu. In ancient times, pack transport was an important mode of transportation. When Zhou Chen, a famous minister of the Yongle Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty, became governor of Jiangnan, there was both military and civilian transportation of grain from Jiangnan to Beijing. The government set in the levy "positive rice" outside, there are certain "consume rice" (to make up for transportation losses and costs and levy of grain and rice), due to the transportation process of rats and sparrows eat rice, floating in the water, decay resulting in losses often more than given to the "consume rice". The amount of "rice consumption" often exceeded the amount of "rice consumption" given, which made the people's transportation, the burden of the people's transportation is heavy. To this end, Zhou Chen reformed the transportation system, the original township positive and vice food chief three people to the capital food transportation to set positive and vice food chiefs each take turns to go to the capital food transportation. The original separation of military and civilian transportation was further changed to military and civilian transportation. Jiangnan rice was transported to Huai'an or Guazhou by civilians and then transported to Tongzhou by the military, thus reducing the consumption of rice in the canal. With the increase of population in the capital, the demand increased and the development of water transport, the Ming and Qing Dynasties also saw the emergence of transport professionals and specialized transport intermediaries, known as the "toothman".

According to scholarly research, the owner of goods in order to find a reliable ship to transport goods, need to be introduced through the toothman, otherwise it is very easy to steal goods, or even steal the goods chiseled ship to escape. The dental man acted as an intermediary between the water transportation professionals and the cargo owners. Storage in the vicinity, advocating multiple warehouses Efficient logistics on the one hand to rely on the convenience of the transportation process to save time, on the other hand, can not be separated from the goods warehousing in the vicinity. "Nearby storage" became another important part of the ancient Chinese logistics thought. It is worth noting that the so-called "warehouse" and "library" have a special distinction between the warehouse for grain storage, the library is the custody of other materials. Mozi, there was a strong emphasis on year-round accumulation in the city for the sake of war.

"Mozi-Banner" has "Where the method of defending the city, there are accumulations of stones, woodcutting firewood, pipes and grasses, reeds, wood, charcoal, sand, pines and cypresses, fluffy ai, hemp fat, gold and iron, corn, wells, stoves, and places." This is for the preparation of the city for war, the initial storage due to the status of the royal family and "just need", are concentrated in the capital, the Western Han Dynasty, Geng Shouchang is clearly opposed to this arrangement, he suggested that "so that the border counties are building warehouse," opposed to the over-concentration of food storage! In the capital city, the dominant place to set up warehouses.

Built in the twenty-third year of Qianlong (1758) in Xinjiang Jichang Qing dynasty granary. "Ziji Tongjian" in the Sui Yang Emperor's "would rather accumulate in the people, not hidden coffers" advocate. In the Yuan Dynasty, Liu Bingzhong, the statesman who laid the foundation for the Yuan system and the shape of today's capital city of Beijing, responded to the phenomenon of "grain storage in distant warehouses, there is an abolition of the ten" by putting forward the idea of "it is better to lose from the nearby warehouses". .