Did ancient combination locks also use numbers as passwords?

The history of using locks in our country has been more than 5,000 years. At first, the lock was not equipped with a mechanism, but was made in the shape of a leopard, a lion and other fierce animals to achieve the purpose of deterrence. Later, the structure of the lock became more and more complex, and various security techniques began to be used.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, there was a complex structure of password locks, and the complexity was no worse than the current combination locks.

During the Qing Dynasty, there was a kind of lock that was particularly popular, often made of copper, without a lock hole, without a key, how to open it? It turns out that this kind of lock is similar to the modern combination lock, with the hidden verses as the password, called the text password copper lock, also called the Tibetan poetry lock. Half of this lock code looks like a horizontal cylinder, but in fact it is several copper wheels that can be moved side by side, generally 3 to 5, 7 are rare.

Each bronze wheel is engraved with different Chinese characters, and the code to unlock the lock is composed of these Chinese characters.

Qing Dynasty Hubei Tianmen Yuekou Town made Chinese character password bronze lock, white copper texture, weight 303 grams, long centimeters, high centimeters, engraved with the lock of the origin of the "Yuekou" words, the lock has 4 brass wheels, each wheel is engraved with 4 Chinese characters in turn, respectively: Tian refers to Shoufu, official day such as, give southeast high, Fuhai Shansheng.

If the words engraved on each wheel are arranged and combined, they can form 24 sentences, such as "Heavenly Official Blessing", "Pointing to the Sun and Ascension", "Shoubi Nanshan", "Blessing is like the East Sea". Among them, only "Tianguan Gaosheng" is the password, and the word "Tianguan Gaosheng" and the word "Yuekou" on the lock body must be aligned to open this lock.

In ancient times, the combination lock was mostly composed of 5 characters, and the lock body had 5 wheels, each wheel had 4 groups of Chinese characters, and there were 120 combinations. For example, there is a brass combination lock, the two ends of the lock are a pair of symmetrical tiger heads with open mouths, and there are 4 groups of Chinese characters on each wheel, namely: "Ruilu Xianghe", "Bamboo Newspaper Peace", "Xiangyun Caifeng", "Rich and Rich" and "Years of Peace".

After turning the wheel, the lock can only be opened when the Chinese characters on the wheel are formed into a group of characters "and Zhufeng Gui'an" and aligned with the midpoint of the tiger's mouth at both ends of the lock.

Another example is another combination lock, 5 wheels are engraved with "auspicious celebrations", "children and grandchildren", "five sons Dengke", "Chunhua Qiushi" and "Sanyang Kaitai" 5 sentences, when people spell the words on the 5 wheels as "Qingman Denghuatai", and these 5 words keep a straight line, the lock will be opened, a slight deviation, the copper lock still does not move.

Summary:These Chinese character combination locks are beautifully shaped, like a work of art, they are both beautiful and practical, reflecting the wisdom of the ancients in our country.

In fact, they used Chinese characters as passwords, which were more complex than the current digital passwords and were not easy to crack.

It is not a number, the yin symbol is the earliest military password, which is engraved with ** on 3 to 7 wheels, constituting a password, and the small wheel must be turned to the set combination when it is opened.

No, because numbers weren't so popular at the time, and secondly, they usually used some patterns or other tricks to set up combination locks.

Of course not, because numbers had not been invented at that time in ancient times, so they were not used as passwords.

No, ancient combination locks generally used Chinese characters as passwords. The level of complexity is also high, and it is not easy to crack.

Yes. The Qing Dynasty poetry combination lock is small and exquisite, only five centimeters long, but it has the function of both lock and password, which is quite exquisite. Although it belongs to the poetry combination lock, in simple terms, it is an "idiom lock", the lock has four rings engraved with Chinese characters, just like the current password disk, set on the lock, rotate the ring in turn, only a specific combination can let the lock nose pass, and then rotate again, people who do not know the password even if they get the key, can not open this copper lock, it can be described as very magical.

The text on the lock swivel is not obscure, the author tried to turn it, and after many debugging, I finally knew that the unlock code of this lock was "Shou Nianfeng".

The types of locks in ancient China are roughly divided into two categories: reed structure locks and text combination locks. Among them, reed structure locks can be divided into four types: wide locks, citi locks, torture locks and jewelry locks, which are mostly horizontal locks and are used for doors, cabinets and boxes. In terms of text combination locks, there are not only poetry combination locks, but also idiom combination locks, sexagenary branch combination locks, name and trade name combination locks, and so on.

What they all have in common is that several rings engraved with Chinese characters are set on the lock body, and only by turning the ring to spell out a secret multi-character proverb or verse can the lock nose pass through and be opened. If there are implicit couplets, they are "and plum bamboo Guiding", "double holding suixi", "**ten thousand taels" and so on.

The craftsmanship and shape of this lock are also manifested in the text with Kai, grass, line, subordinate, seal, calligraphy full of charm; The small plane at both ends of it is decorated with lion heads, tiger faces, Buddha statues, blessing longevity, gourds, etc., so that ordinary locks are integrated into the artistic cells, so they are full of beauty.

This mainly depends on the age, craftsmanship, and material.

It is difficult to judge if there is no real thing.

However, because ancient China has not solved the problem of gear involute.

Therefore, the precision application of gears appeared later than the type of eggplant, such as the gears you said were applied to combination locks.

Generally speaking, it should be after the middle and late Qing Dynasty, with the entry of foreign technology that opened up business.

There is a more mature gear combination lock.

In addition, if it was really late Qing Dynasty, the locks were generally made of copper at that time.

If what you say is silver, then there are only two possibilities.

One is silver-clad or silver-inlayed, but if it is really late Qing Dynasty, it should not be silver by now.

The other is tin cladding, but this is rarely used on locks.

To sum up, the cautious tendency is that Bucha is an antique craft lock, and the market price should be only a few dozen yuan.

Even if it is true, it is more inclined to be something of the late Qing Dynasty, and the market price will not be very high.

This depends on the age, whether there is significant historical significance, the production process, the texture of the raw materials, the combination lock is not later, if it is the late reputation of the Qing Western goods are better preserved, but the Xishi can be worth some money.

But you should be blind and learn more about the current market**.