Long knowledge 丨 In ancient times, I wanted to watch the news, what to do

According to the practice of modern society, if a major accident occurs, the government or relevant responsible units need to hold a press conference to inform the public in a timely manner and update the information regularly.

We can't help but wonder, was there a way to publish news in ancient times? What may surprise people today is that as early as the Song Dynasty, there was already a relatively complete official press release mechanism.

Let's start with a short story: for the Northern Song dynasty, the most serious accident was undoubtedly the "Jingkang Change" that occurred at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty. At that time, the Jin Kingdom invaded, the country was in trouble, and the iron horse that swept in from the north was about to surround the capital of the Great Song Dynasty, The City of Bieliang.

It is conceivable that every citizen living in Beijing would be eager to learn about the progress of the war. But at that time, I couldn't watch TV, and there was no WeChat Weibo, what to do? Can only wait for the government to "come out of the list".

From January of jingkang's first year to April of the following year, the Song government would publish lists in the city of Bieliang almost every day to inform the citizens of the latest news in order to calm people's minds and clarify rumors.

For example, the Jin Legion surrounded Fenjing. The Song court was powerless to resist the enemy and could only humiliatingly talk with the Jin people. On November 28 of the first year of Jing Kang's reign, the Song government posted a yellow list informing Emperor Qinzong of the news that he would negotiate with Jinying.

Another example is the tenth day of the first lunar month of the second year of Jing Kang, and the Jin people asked Song Qinzong to come to the Jin camp to discuss things. The imperial court also issued a list of notices to Shi Shu: "Leaving the city to discuss the emblem of the matter, for the countries have not been gathered, the coming day is set to return, and the residents are happy." "But as soon as Emperor Qinzong entered the Jin camp, he was detained, and the Jin people took the Song Emperor as a hostage and extorted gold and silver from the Song Dynasty.

The Song Dynasty attached great importance to the news release mechanism of "listing", and the poor and remote areas at that time required the setting of powder walls. Powder wall, is specifically used to post list articles.

From the capital to the prefectures and counties to the townships, countless flour walls constituted the information dissemination network developed by the Song government. According to historical statistics, during the Jing Kang period (1126-1127 AD), during the two southern sieges of Kaifeng by the Jin soldiers, during the year and a half, the various departments of the Song Dynasty made more than 130 appearances in Kaifeng City.

Although during the Jing Kang period, in the face of the Jin people under the siege of the city, the performance of Song Qinzong and the Song Dynasty inevitably made future generations "mourn their misfortunes and anger them indisputably". However, from the perspective of government news briefings, the Song government has indeed established a set of press release mechanisms to inform the latest news to the public in a timely manner in times of crisis.

In addition to the list text, the side newspaper was also the official news release channel of the Song Dynasty. According to the "Outline of the Dynasty and the Wild", the Bian Bao," "is a county along the border state, and the officials of Liege are concerned with the investigation of peace matters, and the Privy Council of Shen Shangshu Province is actually sealed." It records the military activities of the border areas, mainly about the dynamics of the enemy army. In order to prevent leakage, the side report is usually sealed and delivered, using wax pills or letters if necessary. Wax pills and letters are not necessarily used to transmit military information, but also to transmit edicts and decrees, and are only used in special circumstances.

However, the most important form of official press release in the Song Dynasty was the Di (dǐ) newspaper, which had a strict system of interviewing, collecting, editing, sending for review, approval, and distribution. The Song Dynasty Di Bao was issued by the Dujin Academy. The chief of the Jinquan Academy is appointed by the Central Committee, and the direct supervisor of the Jinquan Academy is the one who gives the matter. It was a matter of resignation and censorship orders, and belonged to the province of Menxia, but the Song Dynasty customarily belonged to the Privy Council. After the southern crossing, it once belonged to Menxiahou Province.

Before the Southern Crossing and the early period after the Southern Crossing, most of the newspapers were approved by the Privy Council before they could be issued. At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, menxiahou province was responsible. Their task is mainly to decide on the trade-offs of publishing manuscripts.

The circulation activities of the official newspapers of the Song Dynasty were also continuous and had a certain cycle. The cycles are closely related to the compilation, reporting, recording and dissemination of "every five days", "monthly", "quarterly" and "daily".

After the di bao was compiled, it was handed over by the post to "pass it on to the four sides". In the Northern Song Dynasty, there were four kinds of post delivery: step delivery, horse delivery, urgent foot delivery, and water transport step delivery; the Southern Song Dynasty implemented a laying system, with gold character plates, rapid text plates, emergency text plates, and so on.

Di Bao was one of the tools used in the Song Dynasty to convey government decrees, but its readers were officials and institutions of a specific class. It can be said that the Song Dynasty Di Bao (Jin xiang yuan report) is the earliest central feudal official newspaper with greater authority in the history of Chinese journalism.

In addition to the Di Bao, there was also a kind of privately printed "tabloid" in Kaifeng City at that time, of course, the "tabloid" was illegal at that time, because it often spread some false news.

Why are there tabloids? In the Song Dynasty, some may have been unconfirmed, while others may have been deliberately concealed, especially some military information, involving state secrets, was not allowed to be reported. Because the tabloids do not go through the layers of review by the Privy Council, the news is often earlier than the Di Bao, and the official Di Bao mailing time is fixed, generally every five days to send out, and even encounter bad weather, etc., need to be sent in two issues, so by the time the reader gets it, the news is outdated.

In order to buy time, the tabloids would use wax plates to print, which is a plate made of beeswax and rosin, which is soft and engraved very quickly. In the Song Dynasty, tabloids were very popular, and the specific circulation we can't find out now, but many merchants relied on this illegal business to get rich.

Like today's new media, tabloids have their shortcomings, because of the lack of necessary review mechanisms, which leads to gossip flying all over the place. For example, in the last year of the Northern Song Dynasty, the prime minister Cai Jing was deposed, and the tabloid actually published a holy will of Song Huizong to scold Cai Jing, which embarrassed Song Huizong, and also deliberately made a special holy will to clarify. At that time, a reward of 500 yuan was also offered to find out who had forged the Holy Will, but in the end it was not done, which shows that the control of the monarchy at that time was very weak.

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