Chapter 16 Section 8: The Story of "Swan Goose Passing Books"

During the Han Dynasty, there were many vivid stories about communication.One of the most famous is the allusion of "Swan Goose Biography". According to "Historical Records", during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Su Wu, an envoy, was detained by the Huns and held in the bitter cold area of ​​​​the North Sea for many years.Later, the Han Dynasty sent envoys to ask the Xiongnu to release Su Wu, but the Xiongnu Shanyu lied that Su Wu was dead.At this time, someone secretly told the Han envoy the truth of the matter, and gave him an idea to let him tell the Huns: The Emperor of Han shot a wild goose in Shanglin Garden, and the silk script of Su Wu was tied to the goose's feet, proving that he was indeed not dead. , trapped in Daze.In this way, the Xiongnu Shanyu could no longer falsely claim that Su Wu was dead, so he had to release him to the Han Dynasty.Since then, the story of "Swan Goose Passing Books" has spread and become a good story through the ages.And swan goose has become a good name for postal messenger.

Similar to this is the myth of "The Blue Bird Biography".It is said that the Queen Mother of the West, the goddess of the West, once wrote a letter to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and the messenger who passed the letter was a blue bird.It sent the letter all the way to the Chenghua Hall of the Han Palace.Since then, Blue Bird has also become another generation of communication messengers.There is also a story of "Carp Passing Books", which also happened in the Han Dynasty.It is about Cai Yong, a famous literati in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, who once wrote a poem, in which there are a few lines: "The guest came from afar and left me a pair of carp. Hu'er cooks carp, and there is a ruler plain book in it. Kneel to read the plain book What is it like in the book? The first part is to add food, and the second part is to remember each other." It means that a visitor from afar gave Cai Yong a pair of carp, and ordered his children to cut open the carp and cook, but found that there was a foot in the belly of the fish. long silk book.The letter talked about persuading him to eat more, and at the same time expressed the pain of long-term missing.This is the allusion of "carp biography".In fact, the origin of this story is even longer.According to ancient Chinese mythology, as early as the end of the Shang Dynasty, when Jiang Taigong was fishing by the Wei River, he caught a carp, and there was a letter in the belly of the fish, foretelling that he would be sealed in Qidi in the future.Later, he assisted King Wu of Zhou to conquer the world, and he was really sealed there.

Some of the myths and stories mentioned above are of course not all facts, but they reflect the difficulties of folk communication at that time from one side.Ordinary people have almost no special communication equipment, so they can only fantasize about letting animals in the sky and water deliver letters from home to express their homesickness and homesickness. In the Han Dynasty, there are also two letters that have endured through the ages.These two letters are deeply touching, and they can still be used as spiritual food to inspire people to make progress.One is "Li Ling's Answer to Su Wushu", which is a reply letter from Li Ling, a general who was forced to surrender to the Huns during Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, to the unyielding Su Wu.When Su Wu was detained by the Huns, Li Ling, a general of the Han Dynasty, lost a battle and was captured by the Huns.Li Ling kept exchanging letters with Su Wu in the Xiongnu, and Su Wu comforted and encouraged Li Ling.When Su Wu was released and returned to Han, Li Ling wrote him an emotional letter, which is the famous "Li Ling Answers Su Wushu".The letter said: "The past will not be left behind, and the distant humiliation will be answered. The comfort and diligence are beyond the flesh and blood. Although the mausoleum is not sensitive, can you not be sympathetic?" Words of comfort and encouragement really feel like flesh and blood.For Li Ling, who is not a good man, how could he not be deeply moved!The letter also expressed such a thought: "Knowing each other is the most important thing in life."This letter was collected in the book and became a model essay for students of all ages.Another is Sima Qian's "Report to Ren Anshu".Sima Qian was castrated by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty for defending Li Ling, and his friend Ren An was also about to be sentenced to death for a crime.After hearing the news, Sima Qian wrote a letter to Ren An, expressing his unyielding fighting spirit and determination to write "Historical Records".In the letter, "people are inherently mortal, and death is either heavier than Mount Tai or lighter than a feather", which has become a famous maxim.

These two letters have become model essays through the ages, which shows that the writing style of letters was quite mature in the Han Dynasty, and it also shows that letters were frequently exchanged between literati at that time, and they were already used as a tool for expressing emotions. One thing worth mentioning is that due to the invention of Shishi paper in the Han Dynasty, by the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty, folk paper in my country had gradually become a popular material for letter writing.There are many such records in historical materials.For example, "Yiwenleiju" left a letter from Ma Rong, a famous literati in the Eastern Han Dynasty, to Dou Boxiang. The letter mentioned: "Mengling slaves come, give books, and see the handwriting. The joy is immeasurable, second to the face. Although the book is on two sheets of paper, there are eight lines on the paper, seven characters on the line, seven to eighty-five-six characters, and one hundred and twelve words." Another example is Zhang Huan's "Yu Yin's Book", which also says "the reading is dense, the writing is brilliant, The name matches the reality, read Zhou Xuan, the paper is bad and the ink is good, never leave the hand".In addition, "Beitang Shuchao" quoted Yandu as a book to Zhang Huan, and also said that "the four papers of Huishu, I read it repeatedly, and I am so happy."These passages of historical materials not only illustrate the inconvenience of letters due to traffic barriers at that time, so they are more valuable, but also indicate that paper has gradually become popular as a letter material.Both Ma Rong and Zhang Huan were cultural celebrities at that time, and the popularization of paper played a huge role in cultural exchanges.