Reflections | How postal services in ancient China and modern America have been used and abused
- The earliest record of Chinese post dates back to the Shang dynasty and by the early imperial period it offered a highly organised system
- Emperor Xuanzong used ancient China’s top-level military communication channels to transport lychees 1,200km to feed his consort
I am an avid user of postal services. I get an inexplicable thrill whenever I drop something into the postbox or receive private correspondence by mail. In my youth, I was an amateur philatelist, albeit an indiscriminate one.
The Chinese created a postal system to relay information early in their history. Inscribed pictographs relating to the carrying and transporting of news can be found on oracle bones dating from the Shang dynasty (1600BC-1046BC). By the early imperial period of the Qin and Han dynasties (221BC-AD220), the postal system was highly organised.
Couriers of official documents on foot, horseback and boats could avail themselves of properly equipped postal stations all over the country, where they could rest or change horses. The speed and method of dispatch, as well as the class of horses or vessels used, were governed by precise regulations depending on the importance and urgency of the missives.
However, this extensive and well-run postal system was reserved only for the state and the imperial family. The swift and efficient movement of decrees, military orders and reports ensured the smooth running of the vast empire, though emperors sometimes used it as their personal courier service.
