Chapter 37 The third section "guests feel at home" in the Song Dynasty

As mentioned earlier, the posthouses in the Song Dynasty were completely separated from the correspondence and postal services, and only performed the duties of a government guest house. The posthouses in the Song Dynasty were divided into several different levels and levels.At the national level, there is a high-level guest house to entertain national envoys from neighboring countries.At that time, Bianliang, the capital city of the Northern Song Dynasty, had four important large-scale hotels. Among them, "Banjingguan" and "Dutingyi" were specially used to receive envoys from Khitan in the north, and "Laiyuanyi" was used to receive envoys from Xixia and other ethnic minorities in the Northwest. ", and it is called "Huaiyuan Station" to receive guests from the farther Xinjiang region and Central Asia.These high-end hotels are luxuriously equipped, and state banquets are sometimes held here for envoys and ministers from various countries.

Government guest houses at the local level are also gorgeous.From the outside, it looks like a magnificent temple, but also like a dignified official residence, or like a rich man's mansion.The internal equipment has everything that one expects to find, which makes the passengers happy and forget to return.Su Dongpo, a great writer in the Song Dynasty, wrote a prose called "Fengming Post", which is described in this way: "The place where guests live and what they use is like a government office, like a temple, like the house of the rich for generations, and it is the best place in the world. Those who return to their home are happy and forget to leave.”In the Southern Song Dynasty, Mao Kai, another writer, described another post house in a delicate style: "It is a house with twenty-four couplets, a vast area of ​​fifty-seven steps, the hall is divided into huts, the wings are divided into two verandahs, and the walls are surrounded by heavy walls. "("Hefeng Post").It means: the house is very spacious, there are 24 houses on the left, right, front, back, and front, the accommodation area is 57 steps, there are halls, bedrooms, and corridors, and there are high courtyard walls around.The service staff here is very complete: "there are guards at the door, and waiting people inside", it is simply "home away from home" ("Hefeng Yiji", the living is extremely comfortable.

The governments of the Song and Song Dynasties spent a lot of manpower and material resources in order to build these luxurious post houses.In Fufeng, located in present-day Shaanxi, when the prefect built the above-mentioned "Fengming Posthouse" where Su Dongpo lived, 36,000 peasants were used, and more than 200,000 taels of silver were used for wood and stone alone. At that time, there were also posthouses for ordinary people to live in, especially in small posthouses with less strict management. Ordinary people temporarily used the posthouses as residences to escape the cold. "Dongdu Shilue" records a short story of Zhang Yongde, a general in the early Song Dynasty.It is said that when he was down and down, he once lived in Geyi in Songzhou (where the government is located in Shangqiu, Henan Province), and "served for food".There is a woman in distress who also temporarily lives in Geyi.The local elders took pity on them, gave them food and clothing from time to time, and introduced them as a couple.One day, Guo Wei, Taizu of the Later Zhou Dynasty, came to this place and lived in Ge Yili.The woman suddenly shouted loudly among the crowd: This is my father!Guo Wei ordered her to come forward to recognize her, and it turned out to be her long-lost daughter.So Guo Wei took his daughter and son-in-law away.Then they finally became nobles.This story reflects the situation of ordinary post stations in the Five Dynasties and early Song Dynasty.

The posthouses in the Song Dynasty were generally strictly managed.Visitors must be registered in the register, abide by the rules of the station together, and must not damage public property.The most interesting thing is that it is stipulated that accommodation passengers are not allowed to occupy post houses for a long time, and the period is not allowed to exceed 30 days at most.This regulation seems to be a bit too harsh for respectable officials who are on business trips.It is estimated that this regulation may not be fully implemented at that time.