Chapter 44 Section 10 Yuan Dynasty "Post Envoy" and "Pu Ma Zha Zi"

The people in charge of correspondence in the Yuan Dynasty had complicated identities and different sources.Some were directly sent by the imperial court, and some were sent by localities. They were collectively called "envoys" or "post envoys".In terms of status, there are princes and nobles, state and county officials, and even lowly craftsmen.These people were the main personnel who transmitted official documents in the Yuan Dynasty.According to the official regulations of the Yuan Dynasty, there were two transmission channels for government communications at that time: one was "sending envoys to Chiyi", that is, the transmission of the above-mentioned special envoys; the other was called "pubing transmission".The former sent documents related to state affairs, while the latter sent documents related to daily trivial matters.The former is generally a horse post, while the latter is a step post.

Because of the different identities and grades, the Yuan Dynasty stipulated that the standards for the "envoys" on the post road were also different.For example, for horses, it is stipulated that officials of the third rank will be given five horses, officials of the fourth and fifth ranks will be given four horses, officials of the sixth and seventh ranks will be given three horses, and officials of the eighth and lower ranks will be given two horses.The food and lodging standards on the road are also treated differently according to their grades. For example, some envoys give flour, rice, oil, wine, meat, etc.; One liter of rice.

The Yuan Dynasty, like the Song Dynasty, also passed Chiyi's badge certificates, the most common ones were round plates with gold and silver characters, and there was also a certificate called "Puma Imperial Decree".The gold and silver inscriptions are the documents for emergency dispatch, and they are specially used to deliver urgent military affairs.This kind of seal has three kinds of Chinese characters, Uighur characters and Basiba scripts, and it is engraved with the words "God-given Emperor Genghis Khan's Imperial Decree Illness". In 1965, a round plate with silver characters from the Yuan Dynasty was collected in Lanzhou, Gansu, and the plate was made of iron.The words on the face of the card are inlaid on the iron plate, and there are tiger head patterns on the front and back, and the five elements of Basiba Mongolian script protruding from the front.According to expert Cai Meibiao's textual research, the word is "Emperor's decree in Changsheng Tianli Li, and those who do not obey will be punished."This silver medal is the proof of historical records.In the Yuan Dynasty, there was also a special "Haiqing card", which was a kind of cyan talisman, and was also used to convey emergency military information. "Puma Imperial Decree", also known as "Puma Zhazi" or "Give Post Seal Book", is the transmission seal of general documents.This is a paper product stamped with the emperor's great seal, which is also printed and distributed by Zhongshu Sheng.This kind of certificate was originally printed in Mongolian characters, but later it was changed to a horse figure as a symbol because many post stations in various places did not recognize it.These certificates for paving horses were collectively referred to as "post coupons" in the early Ming Dynasty, which can often be seen in the "Yuan History" compiled by Ming people.