page_title: Dibao (ancient Chinese gazette)
section_title: Tang Dynasty Origin theory and Origin controversy
hierarchical_section_title: Dibao (ancient Chinese gazette) / Historical Origin and the Controversy / Tang Dynasty Origin theory and Origin controversy
context_page_description: Dibao, literally "reports from the [official] residences", were a type of publications issued by central and local governments in imperial China, which was the only official government newspaper published by the ancient Chinese central government in different dynasties. ‘Dibao’ is a general term to describe the ancient Chinese gazette. Historically, there were different types of names used to describe Dibao in different dynasties among the imperial Chinese history. While closest in form and function to gazettes in the Western world, they have also been called "palace reports" or "imperial bulletins". Different sources place Dibao's first publication as early as the Han Dynasty, which would make Dibao amongst the earliest newspapers in the world, or as late as the Tang Dynasty according to the earliest verified and proved Dibao with historical relics. Dibao was continuously published among different imperial dynasties until the last imperial emperor in the Qing Dynasty, Puyi, abdicated in 1912.
context_section_description: Historians who support the Han Dynasty origin theory argue that the historical information about Dibao in the Han Dynasty had been recorded in several imperial historical texts among many dynasties. Xihan Huiya (西漢會要), literally ‘Institutional history of the Western Han Dynasty', written by Xu Tianlin in the Song Dynasty, records the Dibao delivery situation in the Han Dynasty based on the detailed information about the Jun-Xian system, which is used as reliable evidence to prove the existence of Dibao in the Han Dynasty.
  Historians who disagree with the Han Dynasty Origin theory argue that Xihan Huiya, which is the only historical text that records Dibao in the Han Dynasty, is used as indirect historical text evidence rather than direct historical relics evidence to prove the existence of Dibao in the Han Dynasty. The earliest verified Dibao with historical text and relics was a Dibao called Kaiyuan Za Bao (開元雜報), which was published in the Kaiyuan period in the Tang Dynasty during the 9th Century. In Chinese imperial historical, there were many recordings written in historical texts that were not completely correct and provable as they could be falsified by historians throughout different imperial dynasties with different political and historical purposes. Historians also doubt the societal and economic conditions in the Han Dynasty that if it was powerful enough to support the huge Dibao delivery system among 100 Juns and 1400 Xians because the continuous wars with the northern Xiongnu (匈奴) nomadic nation continuously weakened the national strength of the Han Dynasty.
caption: Xiongnu on the north of the Han Dynasty
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "150", "Image YResolution": "150", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Windows", "Image DateTime": "2005:04:10 12:23:56", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5092", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "965", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "650"}