Section 3 Decline of the Posts

The Qing Dynasty made major reform on organization, management and expense of the posts, such as replacing post officials with state or county officials for the administration of post, because there would be lots of difficulties in post management if there were no support from state or county government, such as difficulties in collecting of horse and forage. The reform could decrease the member of personnel, and the expenses. However, due to the large-scale of the post system, its expense was enormous. At the beginning of Kangxi Period, revenue of post was about 3,100,000 Liang (1kg=32 Liang) silver, which was a big burden. In Yongzheng Period, the corruption of the post was described as: (l) good at flattering f if superior or higher-rank officials passed through the post, the post was decorated with lanterns and festoons, with music playing, banquet and bribing; (2) Seeking private gain at public expense that there were no abundant horses, most of which were too weak to use. (3) Taking advantage of the priority of document delivery to block the transportation, driving out merchants and civilians, forcibly occupying the piers, monopolizing material delivery and blackmailing. Morever, besides that large amount of private letters were delivered, there were false military documents which wasted manpower and materials, which affected the militia adversely.

In the 4th year of Xianfeng Period, to cut down on expenditure, the Qing government greatly reduced the expenditure on post. It reduced the delivery expense by 8/10 in the state or county where posts had been set up, 6ilo in the state or county where no post had been set up, thus making delivery system in half-paralysed state. Large amount of ordinary documents rushed to post, increasing its burden. The situation was: on one hand, there was large amount of urgent military information. On the other hand, postal route was blocked. Communication malfunctioned. Many military documents were overstocked and destroyed. Especially, with the Qing Dynasty getting rotten, post had changed from communication organization into the pool of fraudulent Practices for local officials.

In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, with the development of contemporary vehicles such as ships and trains, as well as the installation of cable lines, the importance of post as document delivery and official reception had been getting vanished. It was said by an official that "since Xianfeng and Tongzhi period, western cultures had moved toward east, ships, railways and cables (posts) arising one by one, which were convenient for officials and civilians, delivery became burdensome". After Tongzhi, many officials and civilians disclosed the corruption of delivery, suggested to replace delivery with posts, and set up post office. After the revolution in 191 l, the government of China declared to set up post in 1913. The post delivery which had gone through over 3,O00 years finished its historical mission, was replaced by modern post.

Ancient post delivery went through over 3,000 years. It not only played an important role in the unification of politics, development of society and economy of the past dynasties, but also accumulated spiritual treasures of enterprising, devotion and cooperation of China Post delivery. Firstly, ancient post were created and constructed by post members of the past dynasties with steadfastness and preserving. Postal routes connected to all directions, Opening up the links of central government with local areas, which Promoted the forming of the unification of Chinese nationalities, enforced the cohesion of Chinese nationalities. Secondly, post soldiers trudged over a long distance day and night no matter in hot summer or in cold winter, no matter on deserts or mountains. To accomplish the delivery within the time limit, no relay of person, only changing of horses to race against time. Such a spirit was the important condition for the continuing of post for several thousand years. Thirdly, the basic post organization was the network all over the country, linking to each other, delivering by relay, link by link. Only the coordination and cooperation between each link could make the whole network operate normally. These spirits of enterprising, devotion and cooperation were quintessence of Chinese post cultures as well as the composition of Chinese national cultures.