12.1

//Source(s): Source: Ruins of Desert Cathay: Personal Narrative of Explorations in Central Asia and Westernmost China by M.// Aurel Stein Macmillan and Company, Limited St. Martin's Street, London 1912 915.84 St34r v.2 Main Library University of Texas at Austin Volume II, Chapter LXIII, page 152, "System of Fire Signalling" "There can be no doubt that the main duty of the detachments echeloned along the *Limes* was to provide guards for the watch-towers who would give timely alarm by signals to the rest of the line in case of the approach of raiders. The numerous wooden slips which accurately register the time and other details of fire signals received, or else refer to arrangements made for lighting them, would alone suffice to prove that this means of optical telegraphy was in regular use along the border. "But the abundant information from early Chinese texts collected by M. Chavannes shows that the system of fire signalling was known and practiced along the frontiers of the Empire long before the time of the Hans. The distinction which those texts indicate between signal fires visible at night and smoke signals intended for use by day is distinctly mentioned in one of the records on wood. In another, neglect to transmit such a signal received from one side of the line by immediately lighting a fire in turn is acknowledged as a grievous delinquency. "We are not informed by our records as to any devices by which such fire signals could be varied to convey more definite news along the guarded line. But since later texts quoted by M. Chavannes refer to a method marking the relative strength of the attacking force by corresponding repetition of the fire signals, it is likely that similar devices were practiced in Han times. "We read elsewhere that General Ma Cheng, when reorganizing the defences of the northern border in 38-43 A.D., placed the fire-signal stations ten Li or about two and a half miles apart; and this accords remarkably with the average distances observed from tower to tower on the earlier Tun-huang *Limes,* due allowance being made for the varying configuration of the ground. "No doubt such a system of optic telegraphy was insufficient to assure the rapid communication of warnings at all times or for the communication of important particulars. Hence the need for mounted messengers repeatedly mentioned in the records, who by relays of horses kept ready at the stations could cover distances at great speed. The presence of such mounts was in fact attested by the plentiful horse-dung we found at each tower, however confined the accommodation near it. "A piece of ancient Chinese poetry which M. Chavannes translates, though referring to a part of the border much farther east, gives so graphic a picture of such a scene that I cannot refrain from quoting it: "'Every ten Li a horse starts; every five Li a whip is raised high; a military order of the Protector-General of the Trans-Frontier regions has arrived with news that the Huns were besieging Chiu-ch'uan; but just then the snow-flakes were falling on the halls along which the barrier stretches, and the signal fires could raise no smoke."
 * Dead medium: Dead media: Fire Signals and Horse Post on the Great Wall of China**
 * From: bruces@well.com Bruce Sterling**