Section 3 Organization and Management of Post in the Yuan Dynasty

Post in the Yuan Dynasty carried on old system. Post was managed by the Military Department. Due to the large scale and numerous routine works, to enforce the management, Tongzheng Yuan was setup to manage the post together with the Military Department, each had its own responsibilities. The latter was mainly responsible for drawing up regulations and decrees which would be carried out after approved. The former was responsible for managing the routine of post all over the country, such as management of post numbers, provision of money, faggot, carriage, horse and ship, inspection of post routine. In local post administration, Yuan Dynasty set up 3-level system with administrators named as "Da Lu Hua Chi" meaning officials. Post system was set up with "Lu" as the center which was the administration center as well as transportation and communication hub. Post was under the direct command of "Da Lu Hua Chi" and couldn't be interfered by the officials of state or county, which decreased the links in-between and prevented local officials of states and countries from interfering in the post. Post administrators were set up which were called "Yiiing" in northern areas and "Tiling" in southern areas. There was strict administration of post. Officials should inspect post routine in person. Special inspection officials were set up in important places for checking if the officials passing through the post took tally with them, if there were any counterfeits or excessive horses on delivery, if there were any violations. Inspectors were often sent to the Urgent Delivery to cheek if there were delays of documents, or shortages of facilities. If the post inspector disturbed post and delivery or extorted wealth, he would be punished. Sometimes officials would be sent to the post to make a sudden inspection. To enforce the management, one supervisor was set up for each post, which was held by the officials of states or countries, with shift once a year. This ensured the accurate delivery of documents to some extents.

There were definite regulations on document receiving, seal and delivery. There were strict limitations on receiving documents. Only documents issued from the province and reported to the Province by officials and military officers could be delivered by Urgent Delivery. Later on, there were great amounts of documents received randomly, causing documents overstock. To control on receiving documents, some measures were taken: making clear the departments whose documents could be delivered, no materials could be delivered, no documents without stamps could be delivered. It was also regulated that official documents were handled by special department, and were delivered in order. To ensure the safety of communication, there were regulations on document seal ac' cording to its functions and classified levels. Documents sent to central government should be sealed by two folds. Urgent document sent from the province should be sealed in wooden box which should be locked, stamped, and sealed with paper, then unlocked and unsealed on arriving. Another method was "collective sealed delivery" i.e, all ordinals documents sent to one province were collected together to be delivered, which simplified the Procedures and improved the communication efficiency. "List" system was also used, which was similar to that of contemporary. The delivered documents were stuck with "long-distance table" noting the number of Pieces, sending and arriving time for checking.

Post in the Yuan was flourishing, but by the last years of the Yuan, it became declining, due to the political corruption, economic withering, deepened national contradictions, which led to the corruption in Post system and management.

Besides very little Provisions from the government, Post in the Yuan were mainly provided by the "post member" with food and horses. They also bore the burden of the food for traveling officials, the number of which was getting larger and larger that the burden of the "post member" was very heavy. If famine happened, they would become more poverty stricken, which made the post difficult to maintain. The decline of Posts and block of communication accelerated the perish of the Yuan Dynasty.