Chapter 43 Section 9 The "Zhanchi" System in the Yuan Dynasty

During the Yuan Dynasty in my country, the post office had a great development.The Yuan Dynasty established the largest empire in history.In order to adapt to the rule of a wide range of areas, the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty carried out active reforms in the post post, greatly expanding the scope of post roads.As early as the Genghis Khan era, many post stations were added in the Western Regions.Qiu Chuji, a famous real person from Changchun, passed through these post stations when he met Genghis Khan in the Hindu Kush Mountains. After Genghis Khan's army occupied western Liaoning, they immediately established effective postal facilities there. "History of the Yuan Dynasty" records that in 1215, when the Yuan army occupied western Liaoning, someone reported to the government that Yizhou (where the government is located in Yixian County, Liaoning Province) was about to rebel, and the town general prepared to use force to suppress the city. The observation made Wang Rongzu "chiyi" report to Genghis Khan Only then did this bloodbath be stopped.It can be seen that the stagecoach Mercedes-Benz was very fast at that time.After Genghis Khan's son Wo Kuotai ascended the throne, he ordered the rectification of post shops in the area. The order said: "Every hundred households at the Zhuniuma station will install a Han cart, and each station will install a rice warehouse, and the station households will have one stone per year." It can be seen that that At that time, there was a careful station system.

Wokuotai and Batu, the grandson of Genghis Khan, even crossed the Mongolian post road to Europe, forming a long post road connecting Eurasia. After Yuan Shizu Kublai Khan unified the Central Plains, he established a strict "station red" system on the vast land, which made the post post communication very effective.The so-called "Zhanchi" is the transliteration of the Mongolian "Yichuan".Experts have verified that this "zhanchi" originally referred to people, officials in charge of the post, and later it was commonly known as post and post.Strictly speaking, the term "post station" only started in the Yuan Dynasty.According to the records of the Persian historian Rasht in "Historical Collection", there are three types of post roads in the Yuan Dynasty: one is called Tili main road, which means lane in Mongolian; the other is called wood pity road, which means horse road in Mongolian; Dao means trail in Mongolian.In terms of region, Tiligan and Mulian roads are mostly used for post posts between Lingbei, Shangdu and Dadu; Nalian road is only used for military affairs in the northwest, and most of the posthouses are located in Gansu Province today, so it is also called "Gansu Nalian post".

The station red system is a systematic and strict post-transmission system.Broadly speaking, it should include the management regulations of post stations, the duties of post officials, post station equipment, and the tax collection system for station households, etc.When Kublai Khan, Emperor Shizu of the Yuan Dynasty, once formulated a "Zhanchi Regulations", which was the basic management regulations on the post at that time.There are more than 10 basic contents, such as post station organization leadership, horse management, post station food supply, acceptance of horses and restraining station officials, inspection of amulets, management of grazing land, supervision of envoys and timely promotion, etc.In the Yuan Dynasty, each post station had a post order and a leading post officer. Their responsibilities were: supplying good horses, checking post envoy certificates, and counting post station equipment.These specific regulations on the management of post stations and the assessment of post officials played a role in guaranteeing the development of post posts in Yuan Dynasty.

In the Yuan Dynasty, post roads extended in all directions.Historians believe that the prosperity of the post station system in the Yuan Dynasty is rare in the history of our country. It is "the nerve and blood network of the Yuan Dynasty government" and plays a major role in maintaining the government's rule in vast areas of the country.Especially for the development of traffic in my country's frontier areas, it plays an important role in promoting.Today, the three provinces in Northeast China belong to the Liaoyang Zhongshuxing Province of the Yuan Dynasty. There are two major post roads in the north and south. There are 135 post stations, 6,515 stage horses, 2,621 post cars, 5,259 post oxen and 3,000 post dogs under management.Today’s Gansu area is the only way for the Yuan Dynasty to reach the Western Regions and Central Asia. There are 47 post stations, some of which have about 300 post horses, and the least number is 30 ("Jing Shi Da Ceremony·Tianxia Station Name").

The Yuan Dynasty had frequent exchanges with the West through post roads.At that time, there were three international post roads between China and the West: one was from Mongolia to Central Asia; The traditional Silk Road in Asia and Europe.Historians praised the smoothness of the Zhongxi Post Road at that time.Wan Sitong, a historian in the early Qing Dynasty, said: "In the Yuan Dynasty, there was a world, both at home and abroad, and wherever there were people, post stations were set up, so that post stations could be exchanged, just like traveling in the country." It means: the Yuan Dynasty set up post stations in every place where people lived. , Traveling around the world, just like being in your own country.In today's Hohhot and Wuchuan counties, Persian silver coins and gold coins have been discovered successively, which can be said to be the physical evidence of frequent economic and cultural exchanges between China and the West and smooth post roads in the Yuan Dynasty.

All post stations in the Yuan Dynasty had post houses.This is the same as the Guanyi in the Song Dynasty. It is a house for entertaining envoys, and its gorgeous furnishings are similar to the Song Guanyi.At that time, the Italian traveler Marco Polo once described: "There are magnificent buildings and luxuriously furnished rooms" ("Marco Polo's Travels"), and the accommodation conditions of officials coming and going are comfortable.The post station is responsible for providing the means of transportation for the envoys. There are horses, donkeys, and cattle for land travel, boats for water travel, and sedan chairs for mountain travel. In the remote areas of the northeast, there are post dogs specially used for ice.According to statistics, there were about 45,000 post horses in 1,119 post stations across the country during the Yuan Dynasty.In the Harbin (now Harbin) area in the northeast, there are 15 dog stations, supplying 3,000 post dogs.In some areas with developed water transport in the south, water post transportation is mainly used. There are more than 420 water posts and more than 5,920 backup post ships.These transportation facilities constituted a large post road transportation network throughout the country during the Yuan Dynasty.