As can be seen from the ancient murals, when eating, people sit behind their own cases, separated from each other by a considerable distance, each with a set of meals and each eating their own food. This is a typical dining system. This is what the famous Hongmen Banquet did.
The change from sharing meals to sharing meals began in the Tang Dynasty and was completed in the Northern Song Dynasty. This change is the result of social development and progress.
Evolution of distribution model
This is the most basic condition for the transition from separate meals to joint meals. In the case of relative lack of food, "per capita distribution" is a more appropriate distribution principle. To get the average, it is necessary to divide the food into equal parts before eating, which forms the original dining system. After all, people have different tastes, tastes and habits, and their needs are different. After the food is relatively abundant, people have the conditions to choose according to their different preferences, that is, "take what they need." This is the most suitable way to distribute meals.
Evolution of residential buildings
At first, the kitchen and dining room were integrated. People are used to building a fire pit in the house and putting cooking utensils on the fire. After the food is ready, it is distributed by fixed people and everyone eats around the fire. This is both a cooking center and a dining place. By the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the division of labor between kitchen and dining room had become popular. This division of labor promotes the refinement of meal preparation and reduces many dining processes that diners had to complete before. For example, diners can now do clumsy and laborious work such as cutting and deboning large pieces of cooked meat in the kitchen, and restaurants are full of finely processed meals. We can imagine that before this division of labor, if four or five people in an ordinary family (in fact, there were usually more than four or five people in ancient families) danced and cut the same plate of food in the same food container, it seemed to be asking for trouble, but with this division of labor, people only needed to get the food they wanted from the same food container.
Evolution of food diversification
Our catering is constantly improving, and the variety of dishes is becoming more and more abundant. The separate meal system obviously can't adapt to the development of food diversification. If eight people eat 12 dishes, each person needs nearly 100 kinds of tableware to share a meal, which not only wastes manpower and tableware, but also takes up a lot of space. It is almost impossible to put 12 utensils on everyone's small table (a low tool for holding food in ancient times).
Evolution of dining room furniture
We didn't have desks and chairs a long time ago. Previously, ancient people used to "sit on the floor and eat on the table", that is, spread a mat made of reeds on the floor as a seat, put a table or table in front of them to hold utensils and other things as a food table, and kneel on the table to eat when eating, which is called "squatting". After the nomadic people entered the Central Plains, they merged with the Central Plains culture and brought new furniture. As early as the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the nomadic Hu Chuang (a short chair) had been introduced to the Central Plains. The application of this chair has changed the original kneeling posture into a sitting posture, so that the short chair can no longer meet the requirements of sitting posture change and will be gradually eliminated. Moreover, the house at this time is higher than before, which just needs the cooperation of tall furniture. So the high-profile case began to appear and developed rapidly. Then, according to the original dining system, everyone should have a set of tall tables and chairs, and four or five people may be enough (in fact, it is already very crowded). Too many people will cause waste, and it is too heavy and takes up too much space. Why not combine them and eat at the same table?
Evolution of work and rest time
Our ancestors have always followed the natural law of "work at sunrise and rest at sunset". From the Shang Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the system of two meals a day was basically implemented, that is, "eating time (seven to nine o'clock) and market time (fifteen to seventeen o'clock)". Around the end of the Warring States period, the system of three meals a day gradually became popular, and "banquet assistance" was added (19 to 2 1 hour). If you want to eat at this time, you must be equipped with lighting equipment. At that time, the lighting tools were never as bright as our current electric lights, and the lighting range was very narrow. A separate banquet needs a lot of light sources, but it will still be dim and fuzzy. The use of combined meals can solve the lighting problem uniformly and conveniently.
The evolution of tableware
Our ancestors used knives and forks instead of chopsticks, just like westerners now. Knife and fork should be used with both hands, so people should keep a considerable distance from each other. At the same time, knives and forks are only suitable for short-distance transmission, probably confined to the plate on the chest to the mouth. If this distance is required by the dining system, it should at least extend from the mouth to the center of the table, that is, it should at least be longer than the radius of the table. Obviously, the knife and fork can't bear the transmission function of this distance. After chopsticks appeared, it was much more convenient to eat together. From this perspective, we can probably understand that westerners still eat with knives and forks, and it is mutually causal to maintain a separate dining system with them.