1. Communication between postal posts and beacon towers in ancient China

The earliest record of communication in China came from Oracle Bone Inscriptions unearthed in Yin Ruins. Yin is the Shang Dynasty, also known as Yin Shang. Yin's old capital is now Xiaotun Village, Anyang, Henan Province. During the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, tortoise shells and animal bones were dug here and inscribed, which was later called Oracle Bone Inscriptions. In Oracle Bone Inscriptions, it is recorded that in the Pan Geng era of Yin Shang Dynasty (around 14 BC), Bian Xu reported the military situation to the son of heaven, and there was a story of "Laigu". After textual research, "Laigu" is similar to today's reconnaissance signal soldiers. In the ancient book Waiting for Classics, there is also a record of "simplified books", which are official emergency documents engraved with animal bones and delivered by signal soldiers. "Jian Shu" originated from the late Yin Dynasty and the early Zhou Dynasty (12th century-11th century BC), which is the predecessor of the post office.

The correspondence between the post and the beacon tower originated from the political and military needs of the slave countries. According to historical records, in the era of Zhou Youwang 2,7 years ago, there was a method of using beacon towers to communicate. There is a story about Fiberhome Communication called "daughter laugh". The main idea of the story is: Zhou Youwang has a loving princess who praises her. Although she is beautiful, she refuses to smile easily. To this end, Zhou Youwang made a reward: "Whoever can make the empress smile will be rewarded with one thousand kilograms of gold" (copper was called gold at that time). So someone came up with a way to light a bonfire, hoping to get a smile from the empress. One evening, Zhou Youwang boarded the tower with a loving princess and ordered the bonfire to be lit everywhere. When the neighboring governors saw the bonfire, they thought that Xirong (a tribe in the west at that time) was attacking, so they led the troops to the gate to rescue them, but they saw the bright lights and the loud drums. When I asked, I found out that it was Zhou Youwang's ridiculous thing to make fun of the empress. Each Nuo Hou dared to be angry and didn't dare to speak, so he had to retreat angrily and return to camp. When the elder sister saw it, she really smiled indifferently. But soon after, Xirong really attacked. Although a bonfire was lit, no reinforcements arrived. It turns out that the governors thought that Zhou Youwang was doing the same thing again. As a result, Xirong captured the castle, killed Zhou Youwang, and destroyed the surrounding area from then on. This historical story not only vividly depicts the situation of using beacon communication at that time, but also warns future generations that no matter who and when the enterprise is, communication should not be taken seriously.

using beacon towers to transmit information is fast, but it can only serve as an alarm, which is difficult to meet the needs of grasping the enemy's situation and directing operations. Therefore, with the development of society and the needs of politics and military affairs, from the "Laigu" in the Shang Dynasty to the Zhou Dynasty, a more rigorous postal system for transmitting government documents has been gradually formed, and it complements and cooperates with beacon towers.

After Qin Shihuang unified China (in 221 BC), he built a nationwide road, "cars are on the same track, books are in the same language", established a network of postal stations centered on Xianyang, the capital of China, and formulated postal laws, such as how to tie bamboo slips, seal them with mud and stamp them to keep them confidential; How to supply food and grass for postal personnel; How to receive past officials, servants, etc. by postal service has formed the earliest postal service law in China.

The postal post in the Han Dynasty inherited the system of the Qin Dynasty, and its unified name was "Post". It is stipulated that five miles are one, ten miles are one pavilion, and thirty miles are set up. With the formation of the "Silk Road", the postal service also reached India, Myanmar, Persia and other countries. By the Tang Dynasty, postal service had developed greatly. There were more than 1,6 land-post, water-post and land-and-water-post offices all over the country. The itinerary was also specified, and there was a performance appraisal and inspection system. When carrying out the task, the postal service carried identity documents such as "post roll" or "letter card" with it.

In the Song Dynasty, due to frequent wars and many military emergency documents, it was required to be fast and safe. Therefore, the post-men who were civilian workers were replaced by soldiers, and an "emergency delivery shop" was added, with three kinds of gold medals, silver medals and bronze medals. The gold medal was 5 Li a day, the silver medal was 4 Li, and the bronze spleen was 3 Li. Carry out the relay relay of changing people and horses at each stop. In the Yuan Dynasty, due to the expansion of military scope and territory, there were 1,496 post stations in China alone, and the post station was renamed as a post station.

On the basis of following the old system, in the Ming Dynasty, due to the increasingly developed maritime traffic, with the seven voyages to the West, the maritime postal service was also opened. In the early Qing Dynasty, there were more than 1,6 official post stations, with more than 7, post-couriers and more than 4, post horses, which were under the charge of the Ministry of War. After the mid-19th century, the funds of post offices were mostly embezzled by officials, and the post administration was abandoned. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, modern postal services were gradually emerging, and the role of post stations was gradually disappearing. Therefore, in January 1913, the Beiyang government announced that all post stations were cancelled.

The postal system originated in the slave countries, prevailed in the feudal society, and ended with the decline of the feudal system. Although the communication between postal post and beacon tower was the imperial tool of feudal dynasties, it was also the beginning of organized communication in China. It not only occupies a certain position in the history of postal communication in China, but also makes important contributions to promoting social progress and human civilization.

Second, the communication organization of the ancient people in China

The post station is the communication organization of the government, which only delivers official documents. Ordinary people can only convey information by asking people to convey it, but it is slow and easy to delay and lose. There are many stories about "Hongyan carrying books" in ancient books in China, which shows how difficult it is for ancient people to communicate. Today, people still regard Hongyan as a symbol of postal communication, which shows that the people have high hopes for postal communication.

the formation of non-governmental communication organizations began in the Tang dynasty. At that time, it was mainly due to the development of social economy, especially the needs of business and trade. First of all, between Chang 'an and Luoyang, there was a "post donkey" serving the folk merchants. At that time, there was another method called "flying money", that is, businessmen from all over the world deposited the money from selling goods in Chang 'an into the offices of local governments in Chang 'an, and then returned it to local governments with receipts, which is the bud of today's exchange business. It was not until the Ming Dynasty that the People's Information Bureau appeared. In the southwestern provinces, there have also been "Ma Xiang Covenant" to visit relatives and bring letters. According to legend, farmers who moved to Sichuan for reclamation in Xiaogan Township, Macheng County, Hubei Province, missed their hometown and made an appointment to send representatives to visit their hometown every year, bringing some local products and letters back and forth, and then gradually formed a people's letter bureau.

People's Information Bureau began to appear in coastal cities with convenient transportation and developed trade, and then gradually developed to the mainland. The People's Information Bureau is privately run for profit. On the one hand, they do it where it is beneficial, and no one cares about remote areas; On the other hand, in order to attract business, they compete with each other to provide convenience for customers, such as sending people to collect letters and remittances, and charging can also be charged, which has promoted the rapid development of the People's Information Bureau. During the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty (1821-1874), the people's information bureau reached its peak, and there were thousands of people's information bureaus in China. Some set up headquarters in Shanghai, a commercial center, and branches and agencies in various places, and the people's information bureaus are associated with each other, forming a non-governmental communication network.

since the song and yuan dynasties, some poor people in coastal areas such as Guangdong, Fujian and Zhejiang have been abducted abroad to work as hard laborers in order to make a living. These overseas Chinese who live abroad want to communicate with their relatives and friends in the motherland or send goods and remittances back to the motherland, and the "Overseas Chinese Approval Bureau" has emerged from time to time. In fact, the Overseas Chinese Letters Bureau is the Overseas Chinese Letters Bureau. Because Fujian dialect calls "letter" "approval", it is called the Overseas Chinese Letters Bureau, which serves overseas Chinese communication. Because of its thoughtful service and outstanding reputation to overseas Chinese, the Overseas Chinese Approval Bureau almost monopolized the business of sending letters and remittances by overseas Chinese.

since the invasion of China by foreign capitalism, the feudal ruling class allowed the invaders to invade China's postal rights, and took advantage of the special rights of being an official and a foreigner, forcing the people's information bureau to register, accepting the leadership of the customs postal service, restricting the people's information bureau from sending mail to ships, and adopting capitalist competition means, putting most people's information bureaus in an inoperable position. By 1935, the People's Information Bureau had been forced to close by the Kuomintang, while there were more than 1 overseas Chinese approval bureaus until the eve of liberation.

Third, semi-feudal and semi-colonial postal services

From the Opium War in 184 to the eve of national liberation in 1949, during the semi-feudal and semi-colonial years of more than 1 years, China's postal rights were lost, resulting in a chaotic situation in which postal services, people's information bureaus, overseas Chinese approval bureaus, passenger postal services, customs postal services, and Qing postal services coexisted one after another. First, Britain set up a British post office in China, followed by France, the United States, Germany, Russia, Japan and other countries also set up their own post offices in China, and the Qing government called these foreign post offices that robbed China of postal rights "guest post". These so-called "guest mails" are almost all over the country, from coastal areas to inland areas, and even to remote areas such as Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia. The purpose of setting up "guest post" in China by imperialist powers is not to facilitate the use of postal services by our people, but to serve the purpose of political, military, economic and cultural aggression against our country. Some countries also use "guest mail" to traffic in opium, morphine and other drugs in large quantities, smuggling and tax evasion. "Postal accommodation" is actually a place to plunder our wealth and poison our people. It was not until the nine-nation Pacific Conference and the arms limitation conference held in the United States in 1921 that the case of "guest mail in China" was revoked. However, the Japanese "guest mail" in Northeast China and the British "guest mail" in Tibet depended on it. After India's independence, it inherited the British "mail accommodation" in Tibet and was not handed over to China until April 1, 1954.

beacon tower. It is one of the most important components of the Wan Li Great Wall defense project. Its function is as a facility for transmitting military information. Beacon, a tool for transmitting information, has been around for a long time. When the Great Wall was first built, it was well used and gradually improved, which became the best way to transmit military intelligence in ancient times. The method of transmission is to burn smoke during the day and raise fire at night, because the sun is very strong during the day, the fire is not easy to see, and the fire can be seen far away at night. This is a very scientific and quick way to convey information. In order to report the number of enemy soldiers invading, the number of cigarettes and fires was used to distinguish them. In the Ming dynasty, the number of cigarettes and torches was also increased, so as to enhance the effect of alarm and make the military information transfer thousands of miles in an instant. In the absence of telephone and radio communication in ancient times, this method of transmitting military information can be said to be very rapid. The layout of the beacon tower is also very important. It is important to arrange it in a dangerous place in high mountains or in a place where the peaks and turns, and it must be that all three stations can see each other so as to be easy to see and transmit. The beacon tower used to be called pavilion, pavilion tunnel, beacon tower and other names in the Han Dynasty, and it was called Yandun in the Ming Dynasty. In addition to transmitting military information, it also protects the safety of diplomatic envoys, provides accommodation, supplies horses and other services. Some sections of the Great Wall only have beacon towers and pavilions without walls, which shows the importance of beacon towers in the Great Wall defense system.

information technology, in the last twenty or thirty years, is the fastest stage of scientific and technological development in history. Various high-tech technologies have sprung up one after another, the most prominent of which is information technology, and it has become the most active field of contemporary new technological revolution. Information technology is a comprehensive high-tech consisting of computer technology, communication technology, information processing technology and control technology. It is the foundation and core of all high-tech. Its development is based on the progress of electronic technology, especially microelectronics technology. Information technology plays a leading role in the development of other high-tech, and the development of other high-tech in turn promotes the faster development of information technology. Generally speaking, other technologies act on energy and matter, while information technology changes people's understanding of space, time and knowledge. The widespread application of information technology will fully tap the intellectual resources of human beings, and will play a catalytic and multiplier role in the performance of various production factors, including energy and material resources.

As there is no unified and accepted definition of information so far, it is impossible to have a unified and accepted definition of information technology. It is generally believed that the so-called information technology is the sum of all means by which human beings develop and utilize information resources.

information technology includes technologies related to information generation, collection, representation, detection, processing and storage, as well as technologies related to information transmission, transformation, display, identification, extraction, control and utilization. It can be seen that as a general sense of information technology, its history is almost as long as information, because as long as information is available, it will play a role, and information that cannot play a role is meaningless. And all kinds of technologies that make information work are not only available in modern times, but also in ancient times. As far as information transmission is concerned, it is an important part of information technology. In ancient times, it was done by gestures; In ancient times, it was carried out with beacon towers and post stations; In modern times, it is carried out by telephone, telegraph, television, fax, microwave and communication satellites. Although the functions and efficiency of the three eras can't be mentioned in the same breath, their purpose is the same, that is, to transmit information as accurately and quickly as possible. This is the case with information transmission technology, and so are other components of information technology. Although the embryonic form of information technology has existed for a long time, it is only in recent decades that people have really paid attention to it as a technology and systematically studied, developed and utilized it. The development of information technology is almost the same as that of information. Before the 196s, computer technology was mainly used in military affairs. Since the early 196s, computer technology has been gradually used in information processing. After 197s, especially in 199s, with the rapid development of computer technology, database technology, communication technology and network technology, information processing technology seems to have inserted powerful wings and entered a new stage of rapid development. Therefore, in a sense, a history of human civilization is a history of information technology development.

Ancient information management thoughts

The main purpose of the Great Wall in Wan Li is to defend against the enemy's invasion, so it is very important to transmit information in time and master the enemy's situation, and its information dissemination technology and methods are amazing. The beacon tower on the Great Wall plays the role of "information source", with smoke by day and fire by night as the medium to transmit information. According to the Ming dynasty, about 1 people came to the enemy, and one smoke and one gun showed it; 5 people, two cigarettes and two cannons; More than a thousand people, three cigarettes and three guns; More than 5, people, five cigarettes and five cannons. This kind of information transmission is fixed (the enemy will attack) and quantitative (the number of enemies coming). With the cooperation of smoke and guns, the light and sound are simultaneously checked, and the military information can be accurately transmitted to the command organs thousands of miles away within a few hours. Sun Wu, a famous strategist in ancient China, attached great importance to the role of information and intelligence. Sun Tzu's Art of War contains: "Know yourself and know yourself, and you will win every battle;" Knowing each other and knowing each other, one wins and one loses; I don't know if he doesn't know himself, and every battle will be defeated. " Not only in the military, but also in the economic management. In the Tang Dynasty, Liu Yan established a national information network to quickly grasp the economic information and price status of all parts of the country. He sent the official documents to the court by express mail, set up the officials of the court, and collected information on the quality of various crops, changes in market prices, and the surplus and shortage of materials from all directions to the recruited "driving feet", which were passed on from station to station. Within a few days, the information from all over the country can be quickly transmitted to Liu Yan, and then Liu Yan and others will synthesize the information from all over the country and make decisions. Due to flexible information and many channels, the market has remained stable for many years, and the state has mastered enough funds. Despite decades of war, it still ensured the prosperity of the country and the security of the people in the Tang Dynasty. It can be seen that information management plays an important role in the development of national politics and economy.