Chapter 24 The first section "One post passes by one post, and the post rides like a stream of stars" - the grand occasion of the post post in the Sui and Tang Dynasties

The Sui and Tang Dynasties were the prosperous times of my country's feudal society, and the "Government of Zhenguan" and "Government of Kaiyuan" have always been praised by historians in the history of our country.The post office in this period also reached an unprecedented stage of prosperity. One of the symbols of the development of the post post industry in the Sui and Tang Dynasties was the increase in the number of post posts.The Sui and Tang dynasties continued to develop the system of combining post and biography in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and "post" replaced all the previous "post", "ting" and "pass".The tasks of the post are all-encompassing. It is not only responsible for the delivery of official documents and letters of the state, but also conveys emergency military information. It also takes care of various affairs such as picking up officials, Huairou ethnic minorities, quelling civil strife, chasing criminals, comforting and escorting prisoners in disaster areas, and sometimes managing tributes. Transportation and transportation of other small items.During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, post stations spread all over the country, densely covering the country's traffic roads like a big net.According to the "Six Classics of the Tang Dynasty", there were 260 water stations and 1,297 land stations in the country at its peak.At that time, there were more than 20,000 employees specialized in post services, including 17,000 postmen.This is a very large postal team.The postman is also called the postman.Depending on the level of the post station, the number of equipment for the post station is different. According to the "Six Classics of the Tang Dynasty", the largest post station in the Tang Dynasty was called Duting post station, which was the post station where the capital of the country was located, and each post had 25 postmen.Each road post is divided into six grades: the first-class post has 20 postmen, the second-class post has 15 postmen, the number of postmen below the third-class decreases, and the last and sixth-class post has two to three postmen.The water stations are also divided into three classes according to the busyness of the post work: the busy water station is equipped with 12 postmen, the leisure station is equipped with nine postmen, and the leisurely water station is equipped with six postmen.According to statistics by some scholars, there were more than 17,000 postmen in the country during the Tang Dynasty. There were many new postmen in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, which have not been counted yet. The total number of them should be more than 25,000.This is almost the same as the total number of postal personnel in the country during the Kuomintang rule before 1949.This shows that the post office business in the Tang Dynasty was indeed developed.

At that time, traffic lines were unimpeded all over the country.Liu Zongyuan, a famous essayist, recorded in "The Wall of the Post Office" that in the Tang Dynasty, with the capital Chang'an as the center, there were seven important radial post roads leading to all parts of the country.The first is the Northwest Post Road from Chang'an to the Western Regions, from Chang'an via Jingzhou (where the government is now north of Jingchuan, Gansu), Huizhou (where the government is now Jingyuan North, Gansu), Lanzhou, and Shanzhou (where the government is now Ledu, Qinghai) ), Liangzhou (where the government is now Wuwei, Gansu), Guazhou (where the government is in the southeast of Anxi, Gansu), and Shazhou (where the government is now Dunhuang, Gansu) directly to Anxi (now Kuqa) Duhufu.The second is the post road from Chang'an to the southwest, from Chang'an through Xingyuan, Lizhou (the seat of the government is now Guangyuan, Sichuan), Jianzhou (the seat of the government is now Jiange, Sichuan), Chengdu, Pengzhou (the seat of the government is now Peng County, Sichuan), Qiongzhou (where the government is located today in Qionglai, Sichuan) goes directly to the present Sichuan-Tibet area.The third is the post road from Chang'an to Lingnan, from Chang'an via Xiangzhou (where the government is now Xiangfan, Hubei), Ezhou (where the government is now Wuchang, Wuhan), Hongzhou, Jizhou, and Qianzhou (where the government is now Ganzhou, Jiangxi). Guangzhou.The fourth is the post road from Chang'an to Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian, from Chang'an via Luoyang, Bianzhou, Sizhou, Yangzhou, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Yuezhou (the seat of the government today is Shaoxing, Zhejiang), and Quzhou (the seat of the government is now Quxian County, Zhejiang Province) Quanzhou, Fujian.The fifth is the post road from Chang'an to the northern grassland area, from Chang'an to Tongzhou (the seat of the government is now Dali, Shaanxi), and then through Hezhong Prefecture (the seat of the government is now Yongji, Shanxi), Jinzhou (the seat of the government is now Linfen, Shanxi) .The other two are from Chang'an to Shandong, Northeast China and Jingzhou, Kuizhou (where the government is located in today's Fengjie County, Sichuan), Zhongzhou and other Sichuan-Yungui areas.These post roads and the post stations they pass through are all described in detail in "Tang Shu Geography Chronicles" and Liu Zongyuan's "Gallery Wall Records".It can be seen that this is the actual situation of the post roads in the Tang Dynasty, and there is no exaggeration at all.On the spacious post road, it is: "Ten miles a horse, five miles a whip", "One post passes one post, and the post rides like a stream of stars".At that time, the efficiency of postal delivery was very high. According to calculations, once the central decree is issued, it can be implemented nationwide within two months.

In addition to the seven main domestic postal routes, the Tang Dynasty also had several international postal routes.Jia Dan, a geographer in the mid-Tang Dynasty, wrote an article "Records of the Siyi Tribute Road", and said that there were seven international communication lines in the Tang Dynasty: one was from Yingzhou to Andong Road, and the other was from Dengzhou Sea. The third is the route from Xiazhou and Yunzhong to the Mongolian grassland, the fourth is the Uighur route, the fifth is the Anxi Western Regions route, the sixth is the Annan Tianzhu route, and the seventh is the Guangzhou-Haiyi route.Through these water and land passages, it can lead to North Korea, Japan, Central Asia, India and Southeast Asian countries.

Because of the unprecedented unification of the whole country, during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, a large number of official documents were sent from the central government to various regions and from various regions to the central government.The statistical materials sent to the central government by the states alone amount to 500,000 pieces every year. "New Book of Tang" records that Yuan Jie, a famous poet in the mid-Tang Dynasty, served as governor of Daozhou (now Dao County, Hunan Province) for less than 50 days, and received as many as 200 letters from various places. The development of postal stations in the Sui and Tang Dynasties promoted the development of the national economy and ensured the implementation of various central systems throughout the country.