In ancient times, watchmen were regarded as a "high-risk occupation", so a qualified watchman must not only have a strong body, but also have good eyes, in addition, they must also have a good sense of time.
Although the husband will use various tools to keep time, if he has slept in one night, it is not easy to say anything. After sleeping in the circle, if the time is wrong, it will affect the production and life of the residents in your area, and if you don't get it right, you will be held accountable.
In our current view, the night is the time to sleep, and the husband who patrols outside, knocking every two hours, has no practical meaning except to disturb the rest of others. If there is such a view, it can only represent unprofessionalism.
Although the difficulty coefficient of the post is low, the threshold for entering the industry is relatively high, and not everyone can do this job.
How important it was to the production and life of the ancients, please read on.
The origin and development of the beating
In ancient times, science and technology were not developed, and people always had a sense of fear of late nights. I have analyzed this feeling, most likely in ancient times, animals always like to lie in the day and come out at night, so the ancients had a fear of night from their genes.
In addition to this reason, in the concept of the ancients, ghosts and zombies often haunt the night, and the fear of the night has always existed in their minds.
Therefore, when the ancients first set up the profession of beating the watch, they were professional wizards in order to drive away ghosts and suppress evil spirits, in order to ensure the safety of one party.
Even if a wizard patrols the night, he can't keep walking all the time, it's not humane. So, at that time, it was stipulated that every two hours walk around, beating bamboo poles or gongs to drive away ghosts and evil spirits.
Later, with the progress of the times, it became a way for the ancients to judge time, because at that time, people had realized that there were no ghosts in the world.
Why did the ancients know the time?
Since ancient times, people have always had a special affection for time. To put it simply, time is a tool that guides people's production and life.
During the day, people can judge the time by looking at the sun, determine when to plow, what time to eat, and what time to sleep.
It's good to have a group event and a starting time to prepare for it. In the evening, when the time is not certain, then those who go out to party cannot set a time to return home with their families.
In cases that occur at night, witnesses are unable to provide accurate clues, and the night becomes a protective umbrella for violations of law and discipline, which is obviously not conducive to the stable development of society.
Then, when the ancients slept at night, they were always worried that they had slept and woke up, and they didn't know what time it was, which was not conducive to the stability of production and life.
What do you need to do?
To put it simply, everything that is abnormal at night belongs to the supervision of the watchman. For a long time in history, such as the Tang and Song dynasties, many cities imposed curfews.
When night comes, the whole city is closed. After the closure, the watchman must issue a warning in time in the process of patrolling and reporting the time, whether it is a fire, a flood, a thief, or a suspicious person.
Therefore, in film and television works, the mortality rate of the husband has always been high. Just imagine, whether it is a thief or an intruder, once discovered by the husband, his whereabouts will be exposed, so for the sake of insurance, he will often kill the husband.
Therefore, in the choice, the husband must not only be sensitive to the perception of time, but also have good physical fitness, at least run fast, in addition, the eyes must be good, and the voice must be loud. Finding problems all depends on looking, early warning and alarm all rely on yelling, and husband: I'm too difficult.
In addition to the above problems, the most important job of the husband is to fight the watch, and if he doesn't understand the fight, the rest is in vain. How can a qualified watchman know the time accurately at night?
How to determine the time of the watchman
To ensure that the time is accurate, it is usually measured with the help of incense, dripping, quicksand and other methods. As the ancients often said, the time of a stick of incense refers to the timing of burning incense.
The watchman needs to watch five times a night, and every two hours, the watchman will go out with a gong and a bang, and walk the streets and alleys to inform people.
The first striking is a watchday, starting at seven o'clock in the evening, and the rhythm is one fast and one slow, so that people can easily distinguish. The second watch day started at nine o'clock in the evening, shouting "close the doors and windows, prevent theft and theft", and the rhythm was to hit once first, and then again.
At about 11 o'clock in the evening, with a rhythm of one fast and two slow, the third watch was played, and the slogan was "safe and sound". At one o'clock in the morning, the fourth watch was played, with the slogan "The sky is cold and the ground is freezing", and the rhythm is one fast and four slow.
At three o'clock in the morning, the fifth time I beat it, the slogan is "go to bed early and get up early", and the rhythm is one fast and four slow, but the slogan is different, and it is easy to distinguish.
By the time of the fifth watch, the people who generally get up early will be ready to pack up and get up, and there will be people on the road who are active. The ancients had no electricity at night, and usually did not stay up late, and pursued the habit of going to bed early and getting up early.
postscript
Existence is reasonable, and the reason why the ancients set up such a post must have the rationality of its existence. Based on the above, it can be seen that in addition to reporting the time, the watchman also has to assume the role of vigilance, anti-theft, fire prevention, etc., which is quite presence.
Even now, in some small villages in Guangdong, there are still watchmen, perhaps, the sound of the night watch, can make people sleep more securely.