4hw.com.cn: returning home for the Spring Festival is the eternal theme of Chinese every year. No matter how far away from home, home is always the destination. Now there are many ways to go home with developed transportation. How did the ancient transportation go home with underdeveloped transportation? Let's take a look at how the ancients came home for the new year.
The ancients also had "Spring Festival"
According to the explanation of "year name" in Erya, the earliest paraphrase dictionary in China, year was called "Zai" in Tang Yao, year was called "year" in Xia Dynasty, year was called "Si" in Shang Dynasty, and year was called "year" until Zhou Dynasty. According to this, it can be concluded that the rudiment of the Spring Festival appeared in the Zhou Dynasty - the Spring Festival, the ancient spring festival festival should also appear at this time.
In ancient times, restricted by the factors of nature and etiquette, such as "parents are not far away" and so on, the number of population flow was not large, and the distance was not too far. The main body of the ancient spring festival was not "migrant workers", but officials and businessmen.
Although the distance is not far from now, but in terms of the traffic conditions at that time, it is also very inconvenient to go home.
In order to solve the problem of returning home for the Spring Festival, the ancient government also tried not to arrange public servants to go out during the Spring Festival. The migrant workers and businessmen will set out early to avoid the delay of returning home.
In ancient times, there were also 'expressways'
Behind the "difficulty of going home" is the "difficulty of travelling". To solve the contradiction of Spring Festival transportation, it is essential to solve the traffic problem.
According to the biography of Jiashan in the Han Dynasty, "Qin is the leader of the road in the world", "the road is fifty steps wide, three Zhangs wide and the trees are thick, hidden in the golden vertebra, and the trees are green pines". Chidao is the national highway of Qin state. According to the recorded data, the width of chidao is up to 69 meters. Pine trees are planted on the side of the road to reduce noise. The chidao is similar to the 'ancient Expressway'.
Qin Dynasty 'high speed railway': Hardwood track
In addition to chidao, there were Zhidao and rail road in Qin Dynasty. The track here is the high-speed railway at that time. Of course, the track at that time was not a railway track, but made of hardwood and underlaid with sleepers. Apart from different engineering materials, it was basically no different from the modern railway. The carriage was moving very fast.
Animal drawn chariot can be called the ancient "bus"
Besides road conditions, there are also means of transport that affect the efficiency of Spring Festival transportation. In ancient times, driving power was mainly human and animal power. The earliest rickshaw in China was the chariot, which was the predecessor of the sedan chair. Later, there were silly chariots, unicycles, rooster buses, rickshaws and tricycles.
The long-distance transportation, especially the logistics, mainly relies on animal powered vehicles, which are ancient Chinese 'buses'. There are horse drawn carriages, donkey drawn carriages, mule drawn carriages, ox drawn carriages, etc. among them, horse drawn carriages are the most important tools of the ancient spring festival transportation. They are as important as the modern long-distance buses. Up to now, they can still be seen in some places in the north.
Ships are the most comfortable means of transportation
In ancient China, wooden boats were the most important means of transportation, whether carrying people or goods. The Beijing Hangzhou Grand Canal is an important waterway and economic lifeline in ancient China, because the ships on the canal carry millions of stone grain, a large number of silver and various commodities, as well as the officials and merchants.
The unified price of Spring Festival in Tang Dynasty
Yes, the ancient "Spring Festival" also needs to buy tickets. Although you don't have to worry about the difficulty of getting a ticket, it does exist.
The modern Spring Festival games use all the transportation capacity to ensure the festival transportation, as well as the ancient times. In the past, there were three kinds of transportation systems in China, namely, official, commercial and private. However, no matter what kind of transportation system, there were charges. When it comes to festivals, the cost of passenger transport and logistics will be more expensive than usual, but relatively stable. For example, in the Tang Dynasty, there was a national unified price for commercial transportation, with the highest and lowest price limits, and detailed regulations on mileage and speed.
Take the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty as an example. The salary of the most basic level 'National Cadres' like Jiupin sesame official is no more than half a liang of silver. If you want to go home by coach, I'm afraid you'll have to cut back for half a year. Every year, in order to go home for the new year, we have to tighten our belts and live the first half of the year. Naturally, it is not realistic. If we go by water, it will be much easier. Therefore, it is the first choice for the ancients to go home by boat.