The history of watchers can be traced back to the witchcraft of exorcism in ancient times, and it is not ordinary people who can become watchers, but wizards with high mana and high respect. Four classical novels, A Dream of Red Mansions, also mentioned the story of patrolling and exorcising Baoyu.
Later, exorcism was done by specialized monks and Taoists, and the watcher naturally withdrew from the witchcraft circle. But they did not disappear from the historical stage, but turned to the work of telling the time at night, that is, overtime.
Berman's salary is not high, which belongs to a relatively low occupation, and they work 365 days a year, regardless of wind and rain, wind and frost, rain and snow, and they have to get up on time at night. The degree of hard work can be imagined. Generally, the watchman is a group of two people, one with a gong, the other with a bangzi, and the two knock on the door one after the other.
In addition, two hours was a watch in ancient times. The night watchman's working hours are from 7: 00 pm to 3: 00 am the next day, one * * * eight hours, including the head and tail, and one * * * is even. After the fifth watch, the night watchman can go back to sleep even after a day's work. It doesn't sound very tiring, so in ancient times, it was usually the elderly little old man who was the night watchman.
However, on the other hand, these bellmen seem to have no other use than telling the time. And this function is quite trivial, basically better than nothing. Arguably, even if no one plays, it won't have much impact. And is this really the case?
No, in addition to playing overtime, ancient watchmen also had certain functions of maintaining public order. They are equivalent to guards patrolling the streets at night, keeping a close eye on the safety of every household and preventing criminals from committing crimes at night. This can be seen from their slogan of playing overtime.
The slogan of a watch day is "dry weather, beware of burning candles." This is to ask families to pay attention to the fire at night. If there is an accidental fire at night, it is difficult for sleeping people to detect it. This is unintentional and quite dangerous. The night watchman plays the role of warning fire. The slogan of Ergeng is "Close doors and windows, guard against theft and theft", and thieves like to commit crimes in the dark. Second, they are most active. If the watchman breaks the theft, they will beat gongs and drums to scare away the thief.
To sum up, the ancient watchman not only had the function of telling time, but also had two mysterious functions that few people knew, namely, fire prevention and theft prevention. If there is no night watchman, ordinary people will not only be unable to grasp the time and delay the next day's work, but also the public security and safety at night will be in a mess. The reason why the ancients dared to "keep the door open at night" was also inextricably linked with the watchman.
Therefore, the ancient watchman can be regarded as a grassroots unsung hero who really serves the lives of the people. It is worth mentioning that the father of Sun Yat-sen, the founding father of the Republic of China, was a bellman that year. Perhaps it was this spirit of working hard for the people that was passed on to Sun Yat-sen, who later devoted himself to the masses and the revolution.
After the founding of New China, with the popularity of clocks and watches and the improvement of people's living standards, the ancient profession of night watchman has completely disappeared in people's daily life. Now it can only be seen in costume TV series.
When gongs and drums sounded, everyone in China knew that this night would be a dream.