Chapter 6 Beacon Communication

Beacon communication originated early. About after fire was widely used by human beings, the method "using fire as a signal" was adopted to deliver messages. Beacon developed from hunting and defending natural disaster to communication system in wars, defending against enemy's attack and alarming.

Section 1 Establishment of Beacon Tower

The place where beacon was lighted was called beacon tower, which was an independent building, generally set up on Great Wall at border and military stations, at a fixed interval and was stationen by soldiers. Once the enemy was discovered, beacon was lighted to give the alarm according to the regulations which was relayed by adjacent beacon tower one by one to where the military and administration officials were, so as to take corresponding measures to defense.

There were many names for the beacon and beacon tower in ancient Chinese books. Besides fire wood, excrement of wolf and other animals was also used to be the fuel for beacon, so beacon tower was also called "wolf smoke tower". The idiom "smoke signals rising on all sides" means endless wars. It was recorded in Mo Zi that 5 km away from the observation post "Hou", there was Biao which was stationed by 3 persons. There were 3 "Biao"s from the city, which corresponded to the beacon within the city. Smoke was used in daytime and fire at night to send signals. Here "Hou" means observation, which was divided into "Chihou" and "Fenghou", the former was the mobile observation, the later was the fixed observation which would give alarm by smoke or fire, so it was called "Fenghou". "Shu Biao" was also the place for Beacon. "Biao" was the beacon shaft, with firewood container on top of it, filled with fire wood. which would be lit when enemy was invading. At the beginning, there was no building except the shaft on the beacon tower. Gradually simple buildings or buildings without roof (called "Lu") were built. Furthermore, especially to meet the requirements of the guards, formal buildings were built. There were houses for observation and facilities for lighting beacon on the beacon tower, and houses for soldiers, ware houses and pens for live stacks under the tower. Major beacon towers were surrounded by walls and ditches, some were combined with post to become important stations together with military stations.