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Preface
At night in costume dramas, it is always inseparable from such shouts: The weather is dry, be careful of the candles!
Normally, these shouts are accompanied by two crisp gongs.
If this kind of behavior is put into modern times, it is undoubtedly very unpleasant, after all, everyone sleeps well at night, and suddenly coming like this is really disturbing people's dreams!
But in ancient times, the existence of watchmen was necessary, so why is that?
The history of the watchman
The history of the watchmen in ancient China is extremely long, which can be roughly traced back to the period of the Three Emperors and the Five Emperors.
The first watchmen were all high-ranking wizards.
The duties of these watchmen are also quite important, they are not only responsible for telling the time for people and helping people arrange their daily lives, but also responsible for patrolling at night to ensure the safety of the city or tribe.
After all, in ancient times, wars between tribes and between humans and beasts could break out at any time, especially at night, when it was the most dangerous time!
After the establishment of the Western Zhou Dynasty, with the rise of the ritual system and the continuous suppression of wizards, the once unattainable watchman gradually became a middle- and low-level time-telling official.
Later, in the Qin and Han dynasties, with the unification of the country, the reduction of wars and the change of the natural environment, people no longer had to worry about the attacks of fierce beasts at night, and the status of the watchman was further reduced, becoming an ordinary low-level job.
So, what are the jobs of these watchmen?
The duty of the watchman
The first is fire prevention.
Students who have old houses at home should know that most of the houses in the past were framed with wood and thatched roofs.
For example, in Du Fu's "Song of the Thatched House Broken by the Autumn Wind", there is "openly hugging the thatch into the bamboo".
Even if the thatch has some fire prevention measures, such as putting some mud on the outside, those thatched houses are still very flammable under the wind and sun.
However, in ancient times, there were no modern fire prevention facilities such as high-pressure water guns.
Therefore, they can only work hard to patrol at night, and if they find a house on fire, they should call the police to put out the fire.
The second is anti-theft.
Before the Song Dynasty, Chinese cities had curfews, and people were not allowed to walk the streets after dark.
Therefore, at that night, unless there is a special existence such as the watchman, the people who appear on the streets and alleys are basically lawbreakers.
After all, going out after a curfew is already illegal in itself.
But there were no cameras at that time, who would find these lawbreakers?
The answer is to beat the watchman.
Therefore, before the Song Dynasty, the watchmen could be equipped with weapons, and they were also called "Wuhou".
After the Song Dynasty, with the abolition of the curfew system, the watchman no longer had the function of arresting thieves.
Third, report the time.
Accurately grasping time is easy for us with scientific and technological products, but how did the ancients know the time in the era when there were no clocks and watches in ancient times?
Wealthy families can use water leaks and hourglasses as a tool to keep time, while the common people want to know the accurate time, and the only way for ordinary people to know the accurate time is to beat the watchman.
Here, we need to briefly introduce the ancient division of time, we are more familiar with the ancient unit is the hour, an hour is two hours.
But this is the method of timekeeping during the day, which is divided according to the movement of the sun.
But at night, how do people divide the time period? The answer is to burn incense.
A stick of incense is a watch, under normal circumstances, the night time is from seven o'clock in the evening, divided into five watches.
What are the five watches?
A more "time", about seven to nine o'clock in the evening, that is, "fixed change", because the ancients mostly made at sunrise, sunset and rest, and the evening is the time to rest, so it is named after stability.
The second watch day is called "human ding" or "dusk", which is from 9 o'clock to 11 o'clock in the evening, which represents quiet.
The third watch day is from 11 o'clock to one o'clock in the evening, which is called the middle of the night, at this time, most of the people have fallen asleep, and it is also the time when accidents are most likely to occur, so the watchman also starts to work from this time period.
Therefore, in general TV dramas, we often hear the shouts of the third watch.
Four more "wild chickens", from one to three o'clock in the morning, even the chickens and dogs in the family have rested, and this time period is the most likely time to make trouble.
Therefore, the ancients would have such a smooth sentence: one is more human, two is more drumming, three is more ghost, four is more thief, and five is more chicken.
As for the fifth watch, it is from three to five o'clock in the morning, and it is time for the rooster to get up and work!
So, what kind of person will be a husband?
It's not easy to beat people
As mentioned above, at first the status of the watchman was very high, and ordinary people could not be it, but in the Western Zhou Dynasty, although the status was not as good as before, but it was also a government official, but in the Qin and Han dynasties, the status of the watchman was really difficult to explain.
You may ask, the job of a watchman also looks good.
After all, the job is nothing more than walking around the city at night with gongs and drums, and it is not too hard.
But that's just what it seems.
The salary of the job is not high, because before the Tang Dynasty, there was no official establishment of the watchman, and the people had to pay for it themselves.
This means that the salary of the watchman is not stable, and if you are lucky enough to meet a rich businessman with a conscience, you can naturally get more, but if you meet a group of poor people, or you are stingy, then it is difficult to say how many times you can have it.
The second is the high danger, which was also mentioned earlier, before the curfew was lifted, the watchman had to carry a weapon to patrol the streets at night, so as not to run into burglary or even robbery criminals, and if he didn't get it right, he would really lose his life.
The third is that it is easy to take responsibility, you may ask me that I am a watchman, but I am afraid of death, so I pretend not to see when I see thieves committing crimes, okay?
The answer is no, because in ancient times, there were watchmen in the area, if any of them lost something, the first thing to look for was the watchman!
If you encounter a good-tempered person, then you are nothing more than a perfunctory sentence, saying that you didn't see it, but if you encounter something difficult and don't get it right, people will deduct your hat and say that you are an accomplice to the thief, or even the criminal himself!
Of course, there are really many cases in the history books of beating guards and stealing from themselves.
All these made the watchman not only have a low social status in ancient times, but also easily provoke right and wrong.
epilogue
With the development of society, the watchman gradually withdrew from people's field of vision, and was replaced by a watch and monitoring full of science and technology.
However, the watchman who once served as a "guardian" to protect everyone's safety is also worthy of our respect.