What would people do a thousand years ago when a fire breaks out? The fire brigade in the Song Dynasty was so amazing!

Today is National Fire Prevention Day. Nowadays, we all know some basic fire prevention knowledge and we also know that when a fire breaks out, we should call 119 to ask for help from the fire police. So, have you ever thought about what people would do when a fire broke out in the Song Dynasty a thousand years ago? In fact, my country had a very "wow" fire brigade as early as the Song Dynasty. Let's take a look!

1. Initial stage: fire prevention as the main focus

The firefighting brigade in the early days of the Song Dynasty was called "Junxunpu". Its main task was fire prevention, and its fire-fighting tools were quite primitive. The main tools were buckets, hemp racks, axes, ladders, fire forks, fire hooks and other fire-fighting tools. These tools were all recorded in China's first official military book "Wujing Zongyao" (see Figure 1), which was compiled by Song Renzong in 1044.

Figure 1: Firefighting tools in the early days (Source: Wujing Zongyao)

According to Meng Yuanlao's "Dongjing Menghualu Fire Prevention", at that time each alley was about 450 meters apart and had a military patrol house with five soldiers stationed in it, who were responsible for patrolling the area at night.

In the famous painting Along the River During the Qingming Festival by Zhang Zeduan of the Northern Song Dynasty (see Figure 2), we found a typical scene of the existence of a military patrol station, which is highly consistent with the description in Dongjing Menghualu Fire Prevention, such as the location in the middle between the two key fire-fighting units, the city gate and the dock , various fire-fighting tools against the wall, and horses used for reporting.

Figure 2: The military patrol shop in "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" is located between the city gate and Hongqiao Wharf, which meets the basic requirements of the strategic distribution of firefighting resources. (Image source: "Along the River During the Qingming Festival")

The military patrol station consists of public barracks, a fire lookout tower, barracks soldiers and corresponding fire-fighting equipment.

Since the tools were relatively simple, how could we control the fire? In fact, the most important means of fire prevention was observation, that is, "preventing fire before it starts." This required the important facility of the military patrol station - the fire watchtower.

The "Yingzaofashi" published in 1103 standardized the design and manufacture of the fire watchtower and proposed the design parameters of the fire watchtower: the fire watchtower has four pillars, each about 9.5 meters high, with a base height of about 3.3 meters, an upper height of about 1.5 meters, and a lower height of about 3.5 meters. We can find a fire watchtower that complies with the "Yingzaofashi" in "Xihu Qingqu Tu" (see Figure 3).

The fire watchtower was built of bricks, with people on the top watching the fire. Below it were several public barracks, where more than 100 soldiers were stationed, storing their firefighting tools, such as large and small barrels, sprinklers, hemp racks, axes and saws, ladders, fire forks, ropes, and iron cats .

How effective is the fire watchtower? Yuan Geng, who was a contemporary of Meng Yuanlao, also mentioned in Fengchuang Xiaodu that there were always people on the fire watchtower in Kaifeng, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, to check on the fire situation. There were 100 soldiers stationed in the military patrol station below the fire watchtower and placed fire-fighting tools. Whenever a fire broke out, the fire watchtower and the soldiers on standby in the military patrol station would cooperate to put out the fire quickly. This shows that "fire watch" can greatly increase the speed of discovering fires and reduce the reliance on fire-fighting methods.

Figure 3: The fire watchtower in Hangzhou City during the Southern Song Dynasty embodies the concept that fire prevention is more important than fire extinguishing. (Image source: "A Picture of the West Lake")

2. From fire prevention to fire fighting: the formation of a large fire brigade

With the continuous development of the economy, especially the large amount of fuel accumulated after the overseas trade revolution in the Song Dynasty, the existing firefighting team was unable to cope with major urban fires. In 1201, a fire broke out in Hangzhou. Some ministers with far-sighted vision realized the difficulties of firefighting and proposed to strengthen the firefighting team.

At that time, the fire brigade was mainly divided into two types: fire watching and fire fighting. The fire watching team was mainly responsible for fire prevention, while the fire fighting team was responsible for fire fighting.

In 1206, four fire-fighting teams were formed in Lin'an Prefecture: four teams in front of the tent, each with 350 people.

In 1211, Lin'an Prefecture established seven fire corners to focus on fire prevention; in the same year, another corner was added, with 102 people in each corner.

This shows that under the climate and economic conditions at the time, fires developed rapidly, and both fire prevention and fire extinguishing were very important, so fire prevention troops had to be stationed nearby to facilitate timely detection of fires .

Subsequently, Lin'an Prefecture established special forces or special service teams, such as the navy, the building team and the personal guard team, as well as three new fire prevention teams. The fire prevention team reached 12 teams with 1,224 people, and the firefighting team reached 7 teams with 3,126 people.

In addition, the protection range of the fire brigade outside the city continued to expand, and another 1,800 people were added to the team, so that the total number of people was 6,150 (49% of whom were engaged in fire watching and 51% of the team served in fire fighting), which was closer to the size of the 7,000-person fire brigade during the heyday of the Roman era.

"Chunyou Lin'an Zhi" records the establishment time, stationing location, organizer and service function of each fire brigade at that time. Its professional division of labor is no less than that of today's fire brigades.

3. Fires due to fire bans: the decline of firefighting in the Song Dynasty

Later, under the administration of the Mongols during the Yuan Dynasty, the fire prevention system of the Song Dynasty still existed for a period of time. In the Travels of Marco Polo, the work of the fire brigade in Hangzhou was mentioned, including the patrol system, curfew system and firefighting management .

The fire prevention team in Lin'an probably relaxed when the fire ban was abolished in 1292. As the climate cooled and the environment deteriorated, the emphasis on fire ban would encourage people to light lamps secretly, increasing the probability of fire. This dilemma of "fires caused by fire ban" was the reason for relaxing the fire ban. The incidental effect was the abandonment of the very efficient fire prevention system of the Song Dynasty. In 1341 and 1342, Hangzhou was hit by fires. Yang Weizhen mentioned in his famous "Jiangzhe Lianfang Sima Zai Ji" that Hangzhou was already a city without fire protection at that time.

As a unique fire protection system in Chinese history, the Junxunpu of the Northern Song Dynasty existed for about 180 years (1018-1206), and the Fangyujun of the Southern Song Dynasty existed for about 90 years (1206-1292). Why were the fire protection systems and culture of the Song Dynasty so developed?

First, the population in the south is large, and the government provides collective rental houses for the people to rent, and the government collects rent. These buildings are high-rise buildings made of bamboo and wood, so Marco Polo was surprised that the local collective buildings were very high, which meant that the population density was also high;

Second, the southern climate is warm and humid, which is conducive to densely populated areas. This densely populated state is prone to being "caught in the pond" when the climate changes and the environment becomes cold and dry;

Third, the Song Dynasty had a developed commodity economy, and the storage and transportation of commodities meant a large fuel load and considerable fire risk, which was very similar to the ancient Roman Empire, which had a developed commercial economy.

Fourth, there has always been a large number of garrisons in the capital of the Song Dynasty, which can continuously provide human resources that meet firefighting needs.

All these factors led to the exceptionally developed firefighting system and culture in the Song Dynasty. Later, as the political and economic center moved northward, this firefighting team became a thing of the past in Chinese history, and it was not until 600 years later that it was given due attention again.

Author: Ma Tingguang, Associate Professor, School of Urban Construction and Safety Engineering, Shanghai University of Technology

Produced by: Science Popularization China

Produced by: China Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd., China Science and Technology Publishing House (Beijing) Digital Media Co., Ltd.