Section 2 Full Development of Post in the Qing Dynasty

At the beginning of Qing Dynasty (1644- 191 1 A.D), there were many wars. To ensure the unblocking of government instructions, the Qing government ordered to reorganize the post. The major measures were issuing a series of decrees and regulations on carriages, horses, postman, post tally, post provision, etc, modifying post networks, enforcing inspection, Prohibiting Private currency, reforming payment method. Especially, the regulations of laying the burden of providing horses by civilians was abolished, replacing "civilian Providing" with "government providing" which to some extents cut down the load on civilians. During the reign of Kangxi, post situation was getting better and was more popular than that in the Ming. Post system all over the country was wide and broad in scale, scatted all over, with network criss-cross.

There were over 2,000 posts, 14,000 deliveries, 70,000 post members and 40,000 post soldiers. Its scale surpassed that of any Preceding dynasties. 

A. Stricter organization and administration

Outdoor scene of Yucheng
post in Gaoyou

The organization and administration of post in Qing Dynasty carried on that of the Ming Dynasty, i.e, a special section was set up under the Military Department to administrate the post of the whole country, under which there were some specific organizations to undertake the routines respectively. Furthermore, there were "Huitong Guan" and "Jiebao Chu". The distribution of post network all over the country radiated with the capital as the center. "Huitong Guan" administrated "Huanghua Yi" at the capital, "Jiebao Chu" administrated the receiving and delivering of documents of the capital, at which each province set up one official who was responsible for sending province documents to the central government and receiving governments documents to send tO the province. In each province, post was managed by "Ancha Shi". In post administration system, two major reforms were made at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, one was to replace post officials with state or county officials, responsible for the administration of post routine. In detail, post inside the city or near the city was managed by the state or county. Post far away from the city or located at transportation hub with busy routine which couldn't be managed by state or county was still administrated by post official. Thus, by Guangxu period, there were only 10 provinces where post officials were set up, the total number was 65. The other was that the system that post horses were provided by civilians was abolished, which lightened the burden of the civilians.

Post system of the Qing Dynasty was composed of Yi, Zhan, Tang, Tat, Suo and Pu. "Yi" was mainly set up in the provinces; "Zhan" was set up for military information delivery; "Tang" was set up in border areas such as Xinjiang, Gansu; "Tat" was mainly set up in Northwest areas, each with several soldiers for document delivery; "Suo" was Delivery, used for official material delivery, and later merged into post. And "Pu" was Urgent Delivery, which was communication organization by walking delivery, almost the same as that in Ming Dynasty.

The six basic organization forms complemented each other, forming delivery by horse which was mainly composed of "Yi" and delivery by walking which was mainly composed of "Pn", with "Zhan", "Tang", "Tai", "Suo" as the complementation, which played the role of connecting to the borders and areas of minority nationalities.

B. Post were more popular

In Qing Dynasty, post network was developed with the capital as center, there were five main lines of postal routes connecting to all areas in the country. Before Qing dynasty, by the limitations of politics, economy and transposition, posts were only set up in political and economical centers and places with advanced transportation. To ensure the unity of the nation and enforce the links with all areas of minority nationalities, besides the large amount of posts set up in inland and developed areas, all kinds of post organizations were also set up in borders and areas of minority nationalities. During the reigns of Emperors Kangxi and Qianlong, in the battle at "Zhun Ge Er", to link the government with the border, many posts were set up in Mongolian and Xinjiang areas. In the sib year o f Yongzheng, Qing government set up officials in Tibet. On the basis of the

original 43 "Tang" (i.e, military communication organization), 24 new Tangs were added. Meanwhile, "County delivery" was widely set up in the states and counties without posts connecting to local areas, which remedied the defect of shortage of main lines. Taking Shandong as an example, there were 139 posts in Guangxu period, 89 more than that in Qianlong period, which were mostly "county deliveries". County delivery needed less horses and soldiers with lower expenses, suiting measures to local conditions, flexible and convenient. Such a large-scale post system with criss-cross networks and post and delivery scattered over all directions had rarely been seen in the history.

C. Standardized document delivery

Firstly, there were clear regulations about the responsibilities of the post, which were divided into "4 kinds of Major, Urgent, Minor and Temporary". "Major" was the reception of important officials and envoys. "Urgent" was the urgent delivery of received urgent documents. "Minor" was the delivery of ordinary documents. "Temporary" was the temporary work of greetings and condolences. Whatever was to be delivered, it would be delivered by "post tally" which was composed of 3 kinds: one for the officials, one for the soldiers, the other for the envoys passing through with soldiers as guards.

Secondly, there were strict regulations for document delivery. Documents were required to be delivered at 150 kin per day, if urgent, at 200-250 kin per day, sometimes at 300-400 kin per day. In the 7th year of Yongzheng (1729), Qing government sent troops toward west and north. To keep the military secrets, the Military Office was set up. The imperial edicts issued by the emperor were handled directly by the Military Office, which were sealed and sent to the Military Department to be forwarded to the post for delivery. The required delivery speed was noted on the front cover of the document. For "delivered by horse", it should be at 150 km per day, for urgent delivery, 200 km, 250 km, 300 km per day or 300 km urgent would be noted.