Section 3 Characteristics of Post in the Wei-Jin Period

From the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Sui Dynasty (220-589 A.D), when China was unified, there were "San Gu. (Three kingdoms)", "Western Jin", "Eastern Jin", "16 Regimes' and "South-North Dynasties". Except the short-term unification in the Western Jin, there had been separation, fighting and wars during the period of almost 400 years. By then although post communication had no unified network as the Qin-Han period, each separatist regime established its own Post organization to meet its requirements of political and military communication, which had some new features.

During the Wei Period (220-265 A.D), post was very flourishing, which was managed by "Fa Cao", under the command of prime minister. Its scale was large. By then military communication developed rapidly. For the requirements of defense toward the other two kingdoms Shu and Wu, many strategic posts were established and post communication network was setup with Chang An, Luo Yang as the center, extending in all directions. There were lots of military documents, most of which were delivered by post. The Wu was stable in society, advanced in economy. Its post system were perfect. Besides the central communication organization, there were county pavilions used for reception of officials and couriers as well as post pavilions along the main lines. Its vehicles were horses, ships and carriages.

After the unification in the Western Jin Period, post carried on the system of the Wei Period. The Emperor of the Jin had considered to realize "Information Repor't" and "Instruction Delivery" to consolidate the government. Communication organization had been established, although it couldn't be maintained due to the warfare.

Brick curved with courier portrait,  which
was dicovered in the tomb of Wei-Jin Period

Post system of the Eastern Jin carried on that of the Western Jin, could only be carried out in some areas. The post management organization was changed from ''Fa Cao" to "Bing Cao" management. Local post was managed by state or county with special personnel as post supervisors. In the Eastern Jin period, there were total 16 Regimes of minority nationalities in northern areas. In the fusion of all nationalities, the minority nationalities absorbed advanced culture. The post communication was restored and developed. Most regimes established their post organizations imitating the traditional method of the Han Nationality. Specific laws on post appeared in this Period. It was recorded that the Wei Dynasty issued imperial edict to modify criminal law,   abolish old regulations, adopt Han Laws as Wei Laws . There were houses, carriages, horses and kitchen in post while at the beginning of the Han Dynasty all these were carried on. Later, due to the large expenditure, there were only horses with no carriages in post in the Han Dynasty, while the laws were as the same with before which was void. So the old regulations were abrogated and a new one was adopted as post laws. This was the first specific regulation named as "post laws" in China history.

Post of the Wei-Jin Dynasty was mainly by water transportation or by the combination of water and land transportation besides by walking, carriage or horse. In the "Three Kingdoms" period, there were many waterways in the Wu, so ship was used as the post vehicle as well as horse. To meet the requirements of water transportation in southern areas, there appeared the post system of combination of water or water-land post. Delivery of many documents and travel of the officials were mainly by waterways.

In the Eastern Han Dynasty, communication range was broadened. There was the trend of delivery and post to be merged. But in the Wei-Jin period, delivery and post were still managed by two sets of organizations. So were the same in local areas. Due to the frequent wars, delivery on foot couldn't meet the requirements. Functions of delivery decreased while that of post increased. Therefore, the number of pavilions decreased with increased intervals of pavilions and was getting equivalent to Post. Meanwhile, since the Jin Dynasty, large amount of private delivery appeared, which was one of the reasons for the decreasing of pavilions. Thus, functions of pavilions, delivery and post were unified into post. For example, there were no pavilions along the road in the Northern Zhou period, only post left for providing officials and couriers with accommodations, food and forage for horses.

In this period, the carrier of documents and letters had changed greatly, from bamboo and wooden slips to paper and wood. The term "Letter" originated from this period. According to the decree of the Wei Dynasty, for each month paper and wood were provided to the officials to write comments and suggestions to sent to Cao Cao. The imperial edict changed from bamboo slips to paper document. Such changes brought convenience for transportation. The weight was greatly decreased and the delivery was faster, which was also the important condition for abolishing carriage and adopting horse for delivery. The horse delivery speed in 3 Regimes period could reach about 300 km per day.

Furthermore, in this period, border communications and international links were broadened. In the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Northwest "Silk Road" was once interrupted and was resumed in the Wei period, and roads were increased, post pavilions which had been declined in the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty were resumed.

On one unearthed brick from the tomb of Wei-Jin at Jiayu Guan in 1972, there was a painting on which horse was galloping with the courier holding reins in one hand and documents in the other hand, which depicted the vivid scene of post communication by then.