Text: Lao Mu
Editor|Lao Mu
Science and technology change life, and modern people should be deeply aware of it. Lighting does not use candles and light bulbs, and you can order takeout if you don't want to go out for dinner.
A mobile phone with an internet connection can know what's happening recently, and you can contact friends and family with just one click of a "video call".
Even when you go out, there are bicycles, trams, and cars nearby, trains and high-speed trains in the distance, ferries by water, airplanes in the sky, and a variety of land options.
Even if you don't know the way or get lost, you have accurate navigation and guidance. But all of this is based on technology.
But in ancient times, there was no technology and no navigation, so how to ensure that you go far away?
The ancients had restrictions on travel
Nowadays, as long as people have visas and passports, it is trivial to travel abroad, and they want to go wherever they want to go in China, except for special periods, such as the epidemic, in order to prevent the spread of the epidemic, it is strictly forbidden to run around.
There is no limit to the destination, the means of transportation are as you choose, and the time is also, even if you are a part-time worker, you can still ask for leave to go out.
But in ancient times, it was not easy to go far away, first of all, to eliminate all kinds of emergencies that would be encountered on the road, and the destination alone was limited.
That is to say, when the ancients went out, they not only had to have a legitimate reason but also have to clarify their destinations, such as traveling, suppressing, studying, and so on. It's impossible to imagine a modern society on a walk-and-go journey.
In ancient times, the emperor went out and was called "You Yu", this word refers specifically to the emperor's travel, although the emperor has a lot of opportunities, but it is not from young to old has been staying in the palace, and when you want to go out, it will still come out, and it is clearly recorded in the history books.
For example, King Zhou Mu traveled and left a romantic legend with the Queen Mother of the West in history. By the time of the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shi Huang unified the script, weights and measures, etc., and the chidao in various places was also revised.
During the reign of Qin Shi Huang, he carried out 5 parades throughout the country through the gallop road, and during the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was also an emperor who liked to "go out to travel", and climbed Mount Tai 7 during his reign.
Zhenshu, looking at its literal meaning, also knows that it is related to the border, in addition, Zhenshu also contains the meaning of envoys to remote areas.
The most typical example is that Zhang Jiuling was sent to Liangzhou, a famous cold place in the border area, when Wang Anshi said goodbye to his friends, he wrote the poem "Sending Yuan Er Envoy Anxi".
Wandering eunuchs are to be released as officials, which is tolerance, but the imperial court has regulations that people who are officials in other places cannot be officials in their hometowns, which is to centralize power and avoid collusion with local forces.
Once an official is gone, it will take a few years, and after a certain rank, the official can bring his family to work, but the official rank is relatively low, and when he takes up a post in the field, he will be separated from his family for a few years.
All of the above are high-ranking officials and aristocrats going out of the country, so what justification should ordinary people use to go out of the house? That's right, it's a study tour.
Study tour is actually a general name, its purpose also includes study, seeking and traveling in the mountains and rivers, ancient scholars are not only reading dead books, the wealthy children of the family will travel far away from home to visit famous teachers.
Many celebrities in history have the experience of studying abroad, and in addition to studying, there are also those who simply travel to relax their minds.
Then again, when you have a legitimate reason to go far away, how can you be sure that you won't go the wrong way?
The wisdom of the ancients should not be underestimated
In prehistoric times, people have used various symbols to record the environment and the road walked, but because these marks are easy to wear, they are later derived from easy-to-carry clay tablets.
Later, the maps recorded on sheepskin, cowhide, and silk cloth replaced the previous maps, and in the Eastern Han Dynasty, paper maps replaced other styles of maps.
However, some people will wonder, even if you can bring a map, but the ancient map is not accurate, and it is very general, uniform and not fine, what should I do if I go wrong?
In fact, there is no need to worry about this, it is easy to take the wrong road in modern times because there are too many routes, and the infrastructure construction in ancient times is very general, and there are only a few roads that can be walked, and most of them are official roads.
Walking along the official road, not only has the direction guaranteed, but also can ensure personal safety, after all, there are many bandits in the mountains and forests, and the trail that comes out is not safe in addition to being easy to get lost.
But there are more and more trails, and the ancients have long found a way to deal with the problem that trails are easy to fork in the road.
It was a road sign made of mounds and stone monuments, just like the boundary monuments of today. Before the Eastern Han Dynasty, the ancients used trees as markers, that is, to look at the trees on both sides of the road.
After Qin Shi Huang unified the standards, a tree would be planted every three zhang on the road, so it is not a joke to use trees as the standard.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, road signs changed from trees to "mounds", which are actually mounds of earth, and they are also marked according to a certain distance. In ancient times, a stone monument would be placed at the fork to prevent pedestrians from getting lost.
In addition to road signs made of trees, stone monuments, and mounds of earth, there is another thing that can be used as road signs, that is, the "pavilion" next to the road, which is also divided into long pavilions and short pavilions.
With the change of the times, the function of the pavilion has also changed from for the rest of the imperial officials to for pedestrians to rest, and the pavilion is also built according to a certain distance, so it also has the use of road signs.
In other words, it is actually a post station, and if you don't know the way, you can also ask the people at the post station, so as to discern the direction.
In addition to road signs, the compass was also used to identify directions after the appearance of the compass, which was easy to carry, small and convenient. However, some people wonder how to distinguish the direction of the sea when they are not familiar with the sea.
The first is the nautical chart, which can also come in handy if you get lost. In addition to this, it depends on the "experience" of the crew.
Of course, the ancients also had a knowledge of stargazing, the mainland has a long history of research on the stars, and the stars have also been extended to a variety of functions, in addition to looking at the seasonal solar terms, you can also discern the direction.
The Big Dipper can be used to identify the direction, and later evolved into the "cross-ocean star pulling technique", which played a big role when Zheng He went to the West in the Ming Dynasty.
During the Ming Dynasty, many people published books and wrote many books on geography and transportation, such as Zhang Han's "Dream of the Pine Window" and Xu Xiake's "Xu Xiake's Travels".
In addition to the books written by the people themselves, the imperial court also organized personnel to compile a "Universal Thoroughfare", with these books, even if they are not well versed in various places, but there is a lot less trouble when they go out.
However, if there is really nothing, and they will not identify the direction by themselves, the ancients will also have the most primitive and most direct and useful method, which is to find people and ask for directions.
Under normal circumstances, it is not a robbery or no injustice, the other party will tell you how to go on the road.
The travel of the ancients not only had a valid reason, but also was very dangerous, not to mention troublesome, after all, it was too late to run in case of accidents.
But the ancients were equally wise and responded to all kinds of situations, and they were still grateful to be born in modern times, and the convenience of life was not a little bit.