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[Chuhe-Hanjie Series 02] is presented, there are videos and graphic collections on my homepage~
1. Keywords for carriages on the same track
Before Qin Shihuang , the sizes of carriages in various countries were different. Some cars are wide, some are narrow, some are SUVs, and some are coupes. There are so many types of
that it’s dazzling.
Qin Shihuang waved his hand: after , all cars must be standardized, and the distance between the two wheels must be changed to six feet wide.
This is the famous " train on the same track "!
seems. . . . It's nothing~
Isn't this just setting an industry standard? It is very important, but when it comes to a figure like Qin Shihuang, it doesn't seem worthy of such a special book, right?
Indeed, if we only discuss cars, "cars on the same track" is an internal matter within the car manufacturing industry and cannot rise to the level of historical achievements.
But behind "trains on the same track", there are two very important key extension words:
one is " rut ";
the other is " Chidao ".
These two words together with "cars on the same track" are a major event that is enough to establish Qin Shihuang's historical status.
1, ruts---directly affect transportation efficiency
In ancient times, the fastest way of transportation was of course galloping on horseback, but this was only a few cases, such as cavalry combat, or six hundred miles expedited and so on.
Under normal circumstances, the most commonly used method for travel, business, and freight transportation is to ride a horse-drawn carriage.
The carriages in TV dramas usually look like this:
Ancient carriages
There are strict regulations on how many horses can be used to pull the carriage in front:
The emperor uses six horses, the princes use five horses, and so on, in descending order, ordinary people's carriages can only use one horse.
But no matter how many horses are in front, the car behind only has two wheels.
Ancient roads were not as smooth and hard as today's cement roads. Better roads were paved with stone slabs, and more often they were rammed earth roads.
rammed earth road
Sometimes it is due to the weight of the carriage, sometimes it is the rain that softens the soil. In short, after a long time, the two wheels of the carriage will make obvious ruts on the road.
If this happens now, then road maintenance will have to be started.
But this was not the case in ancient times. The emergence of ruts was actually a good thing.
Why?
Let’s take a look at the picture of the carriage above, look at the wheels and axles, and wonder what the difference is compared to today’s cars?
There are two most important differences:
First, the tires are made of wood and there are no rubber tires on the outside;
Second, there are no shock absorbing devices such as spring suspensions between the tires, axles, and bodies.
In other words, the shock absorption effect of ancient horse carriages is almost zero.
Xiaobu: Isn’t this good? No need to worry about a flat tire.
Reader: Go away!
When we ride in cars now, if the road surface is uneven, we will feel obvious bumps. It is conceivable that it must be very uncomfortable to sit on an ancient carriage without shock absorption.
This is how the term " is exhausted " comes into being.
People's discomfort is one thing, and the vehicle's wear and tear is another.
The outside of the carriage wheels in better condition can also be covered with a layer of iron sheet to reduce wear and tear. If not, then you can only resist.
So at this time the benefits of the "rut" become apparent.
Ancient Ruts
The first benefit is to reduce vehicle wear and tear.
After repeated compaction of the ruts, the friction between the soil inside and the wheels will be far less than the ordinary road surface outside. Helps reduce physical wear on wheels and axles.
There is less wear and tear, the service life of the carriage is extended, and the cost of long-distance transportation is reduced. The second benefit of
is the navigation function.
Does the long-distance rut look like ancient rail transit?
For example, if Xiaobu wants to drive a carriage from Xianyang to Hedong , as long as the car follows the track, it is basically equivalent to turning on the GPS navigation.
Because where there are ruts, there must be a road. If there are ruts, it means that the road is passable, so there is no need to worry about getting lost.
As a result, it is easier for the driver to drive the cart, and it is easier for the horse to pull the cart.
If there are no ruts as you walk, it means there is no way to go.
is just like when we encounter difficulties and can't think of a solution, we throw up our hands and say, "Nothing can be done."
In addition to ruts, the second extension of "cars on the same track" is "speed".
2, Chidao --- The aorta of the Qin Empire
We are now building highways and bridges, and the factors of passing vehicles must be fully considered during the design process.
needs to be designed with several lanes in both directions, how many vehicles are allowed to pass, what is the maximum load-bearing capacity of the road, etc.
was the same in ancient times.
Qin Shihuang unified the standards for carriages, which meant that the standards for roads were also set.
After
defeated the Six Kingdoms, Qin State built several roads in the Kanto region.
Qin Chidao
If you want to be rich, build roads first. "Chidao" is the highway of Qin Dynasty version.
Of course, Qin Shihuang built these infrastructures not out of economic development considerations, but to better maintain his rule.
He knew very well that the nobles and people of the six countries were not convinced by the Qin State, but as long as the Qin warriors who dominated the world were there, they could deal with all kinds of dissatisfaction.
So how can Qin’s military power be quickly deployed to any corner of Guandong?
The answer is to build roads.
The wide roads leading to various parts of the Six Kingdoms are like blood vessels, connecting the capital Xianyang and the vast Kanto. If there is any disturbance, the black armored Qin army can follow these highways and rush to the place where they need to appear.
Qin Shihuang quickly built a transportation network that could control the entire empire through the words "trains on the same track", integrating an unprecedented vast territory into a new whole.
Looking at it this way, can we still say that the words "cars on the same track" are just average?
2. Keywords of books and texts
If "trains on the same track" is integration at the tangible level, then the influence of "books on the same text" at the intangible level is even more profound.
During the Warring States Period, , the characters of each country were different. Directly above:
Comparison of the characters of various countries
Just imagine, if in a chat group, you use the characters of Qin, I use the characters of Chu, and he uses the characters of Qi, what kind of effect will it have?
I'm afraid you need to be proficient in the writing of and in order to survive in this group.
Otherwise, if someone sends a red envelope in the group, you won’t understand what it is, and you won’t dare to mess with it.
Fortunately, there was Qin Shihuang, who waved his hand again:
From now on, no other characters are allowed to be used, and all characters of Qin will be used. The command
is really important!
Because from now on, even if the dialects in different places are not accessible, information exchange and cultural dissemination throughout China will be able to proceed unimpeded.
Some friends may ask, why does it have to be text? Why can't
choose a language that everyone can understand, just like now promotes Mandarin ?
Wouldn’t it be more efficient for everyone to communicate directly by voice?
the answer is cost .
China's territory is really too big. According to statistics, there are ten broad-concept dialects such as Jin dialect , Wu dialect, Fujian dialect , etc. Each dialect can be further subdivided downwards, and it is almost impossible to accurately count the detailed dialect types.
Especially in the south, it even has "different pronunciation for ten miles". Just take a few steps and the dialect will change in the next village.
For so many people to learn the same language, it requires a very high cost and a very long time.
Even after decades of popularization and promotion, there are still many elderly people who cannot speak Mandarin.
Such a huge and arduous task was almost impossible to complete in ancient times.
Therefore, in ancient times, only "Mandarin" or "Yayan" similar to Mandarin appeared, which could only be used among a small range of officials and scholars, and ordinary people had no chance to use it.
There were elegant words in ancient times
and the cost of "writing with the same text" was much smaller. Based on the Qin Dynasty's population of 20 million, those who had the conditions to read and write were basically nobles and scholars. The literacy rate of 1% was already high.
In other words, as long as the characters written by more than 200,000 scholars are unified, then the next generation of young people will naturally have only one language when they learn again. Is the cost of
much smaller? In fact, the same is true for
. From now on, it doesn’t matter whether the sky is north or south, or whether the sun and the moon rotate.
Whether it is Qin, Han, Sui, Tang, Song,
or Xiaozhuan, official script, running script, regular script,
we all use the same script throughout China.
On a smaller scale, this is to facilitate the exchange and accumulation of knowledge; on a larger scale,
is a cultural identity.
got off the train today and are on the same track. How can
be separated from each other?
Singing and dancing have been common in ancient times, and
a book written in a cold window has the same text. Since
is already "on the same track" and "book on the same text", then the others will also be standardized together, right?
Please watch the next episode
I am Xiaobu, also known as "Historical Pedestrian Street".
[Chuhe-Hanjie Series 02]
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