Chapter 3 Post in the Flourishing Period of the Sui and Tang

In the short period of over 30 years after southern and northern part were united in the Sui Dynasty (581 ~618 A.D), regulations of post were perfect. The post system in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D) reached unprecedented level on the basis of that in the Sui. Its examination system, supervisory system, defense system along river banks, indicated that post communication by then was quite developed.

Section 1 Organization and its Scale

In the past, local Post was managed by "village officials"' In Sui-Tang period, post was managed by rich families and later by officials. In the Tang, post ..S under the supervision of the officer in Military Department, whose responsibility was "to manage the carriages, horses and post all over the country", i.e., the management of post was unified. The post in capital was call "Du Ting Yi". There were total 10 routes, each having 6 posts, with managers and couriers, the manager was called ''Marshel", which was a military rank convenient for dispatch in urgent period. There were state and county under each route, with 8-60 horses, 2-20 couriers, which were managed by different , separate1V' Beside land post, waterway post was also quite developed in the Tang, which were divided into 3 kinds. Furthermore, the post with combination of land and waterway managed ships as well as horses.

Couriers in the Dunhuang Frescoes which
depicted the busy scene of Tang Post

In the Sui and Tang, post was set up all over the wide territory. In the flourishing period, there were total 1639 Posts, including 1297 land posts, 260 water way posts, and 86 combination posts of land and waterway. The number of employees was over 20,000. There was strict regulations for the scale of posts: 25 persons and 75 horses for the capital post, 20 persons, 60 horses for the first class post, 2-3 persons and & horses for the 6th class post. The number of ships and persons of waterway post was determined by the season.

In Sui-Tang period, communication could extend in all directions. The government instructions could be delivered to the whole nation within 2 months. It was regulated to set up one post by 15 km interval, with one manager who was responsible for the delivery of documents and urgent military information, reception of officials, management of couriers, repair of houses, replenish of ships and horses. Furthermore, he should hand in many tables such as the number of the casualties of horses, donkeys, expense and balance, consumption of forage. He was also responsible for the payment for the death of horses and donkeys. If he lent horses to others he would be punished. In the Tang, civilians were used as couriers. It was regulated that each civilian should serve 20 days, with 15 day plus in urgent situation. 50 days should not be exceeded. There were related regulations about courier selection: the first selection was those of good health and from rich and large families, then those in poor health and from poor and small families. On busy seasons, those from rich and large families should be in service while on leisure seasons, those from poor and small families should be in service. Besides the fixed amount of couriers, sometimes large amount of civilians might be used.

In Sui-Tang period there are two kinds of delivery documents' one was delivered from central government to local area, the other was reported from local area to central government. There were many kinds of delivery methods: documents sent from central government to local area was delivered by couriers, posts, or returning envoys. The delivery of local document was along fixed route by walking, horse, donkey, camel or ship.