The dining system has a long history, which can be traced back to ancient times. In the primitive clan society, the lack of material resources determines that people must abide by the principle of * * *, that is, the acquired property is shared and evenly distributed. From the perspective of diet alone, the food obtained by all people can only be eaten after being evenly distributed. This is our original meal sharing system. In recent years, archaeologists have discovered from a large number of Tao Ge fragments unearthed in Yin Ruins that the capacity of Wei is only enough for one person to eat, and it is a vessel for cooking porridge. Therefore, it can be inferred that people ate at that time in a separate system of one person and one meal. This can also be seen from the text modeling. Such as "that is," Oracle Bone Inscriptions writes ",like a person eating in front of a food container; And the word "bi" is written by Oracle Bone Inscriptions, just like a person eating in front of a food container and leaving on the back. All these vividly show that the meal-sharing system was in an embryonic stage in China's primitive ancient times, and it provided a strong foundation for the development of the later meal-sharing system. In the Zhou and Qin Dynasties, people were used to sitting on the floor and paying attention to the spread of banquets. Zheng Xuan noted: "Spread the banquet, and learn from it." The Book of Songs says: "Banquet and banquet", from which we can see that banquet and banquet are synonyms. The difference between them is "the banquet is long and the banquet is short, the banquet is big and the banquet is small, and the banquet is laid underground and the mat is placed on it". After a long time, the word "banquet" is synthesized into one word. Generally, the emperor has five seats and the doctor has two seats. Nobles also pay attention to the "ding" and eat. The number of ding indicates the identity of the host and guest, the specifications of the banquet and the richness of the food. According to the provisions of the "ceremony", "the son of heaven is Jiuding, waiting for seven ding, the doctor is five, and the scholar is three ("The Legend of the Spring and Autumn Ram, the Second Year of Huan Gong ")." Eating is also divided into seats, with a small table with a little knee high, one for each person, one for each person, and one for each person. Of course, what is recorded in "Zhou Li" and "Biography of Rams" is generally the diet system of nobles, and the diet system of civilians is not mentioned. What is really involved in the civilian diet system is in the custom of "drinking ceremony in the countryside" "Rural drinking ceremony" belongs to the catering etiquette of lower-level gentry. Among them, there are many scenes that describe eating separately in the articles such as Yili Township Drinking Ceremony and the Book of Rites Township Drinking Ceremony. Confucius once said in "The Analects of Confucius": "If the seat is not right, don't sit down. If you give food, you must taste it first. " It can be seen that people at that time still attached great importance to the diet system. During the Han dynasty, this way of sharing meals became more clear. The emperor sat on the front steps, the queen sat on one side, and the ministers sat on both sides, all with one person and one table. The murals of the Han Dynasty excavated by archaeology and the brick paintings of the Han Tomb also provide clear evidence: at that time, people sat on the floor, each with a case. It is also recorded in the literature that people were sitting on their knees when eating, even if there were only two people, they ate separately. Isn't the "Hongmen Banquet" that we are familiar with exactly this kind of scene? Although the "Hongmen Banquet" described in Records of the Historian Xiang Yu is full of swords and swords, it also reveals that it was indeed a kind of meal sharing system. At the banquet, Xiang Wang and Xiang Bo sat in the east, Fan Zeng in the south, Pei Gong in the north, and Zhang Liang in the west, each of which was a case. "Biography of Tian Shu in Historical Records" Mr. Chu added: "(Pingyang) the master ordered two people to ride slaves and eat at the same table, and this second son drew his sword and sat down at the table." Records of the Historian Meng Taste Group Biography records that "Meng Changjun once waited on guests to eat at night, and one person covered the fire. Guest anger, ranging from rice, quit eating, Meng Changjun, self sustaining its rice than. The guest is embarrassed and self-satisfied. " From here, we can clearly realize that if the dining system was not popular at that time, but everyone was dining together at the same table, there would be no suicide tragedy caused by the guests thinking that "meals are not equal". From the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the tables and chairs of ethnic minorities in northwest China successively entered the Central Plains, which was called "Hu Chuang" and "Hu Zuo" at that time. The legs of the table and chair have become taller and bigger, which provides a material basis for sitting around and eating. The floor is set to set up a case and set oneself up, and the diners are also on the table. When feasting, each person has a table and a stool as a seat, and the honorable person comes first, which is called the chief. However, if the case at that time completed the mission of changing from separate meal system to joint meal system, there is still room for discussion here. For example, Han Xizai and several other noble disciples, painted in Gu Hongzhong's masterpiece Han Xizai Banquet handed down from ancient times in the Southern Tang Dynasty, sat on the bed and listened to the pipa playing in a big chair on the back of a chair. There is a small high table in front of the listener, and there is a set of tableware and a delicious food in front of everyone, which are not mixed with each other and have clear boundaries. From this, we can see that the tradition of separate meals has not been completely lost. In fact, the tradition of eating together at that time could not be easily established. On some occasions, even if it was a scene of eating together around the table, there were often meals in essence. People were sitting around a table, but everyone had a set of tableware and a snack. Some public products must be put into their own plates with public tableware before they can be enjoyed. In the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Qianlong visited Jiangnan several times and had numerous banquets along the way. According to historical records, at that time, except for the emperor, who ate alone at one table because of his special status, other attendants all ate around the table. Objectively, this also promoted the integration of the north and south food cultures, and the Manchu-Han banquet also appeared in this period, which marked the development of food culture, and a new tradition of eating together was gradually formed. Now, nutritionists actively advocate the reform of the current food style from the perspective of hygiene. More than ten years ago, when "Hepatitis A" was prevalent in Shanghai, relevant experts put forward the reform of co-eating, arguing that co-eating was harmful to people's health. Because people's saliva flows into the dish through chopsticks, and then it is ingested into the human body by chopsticks, so the interactive circulation provides an opportunity for the prevalence of some diseases! The impact of the SARS epidemic has also provided an excellent opportunity for us to deepen the reform of diet and further promote good eating habits such as separate meals. Recently, the China Cuisine Association organized experts to formulate and publish the operating service standard of the catering industry, and put forward the definition, formation and specification requirements of the catering industry for the first time. The proposal of this standard will promote the practice of separate meals in China, promote the change of customs and the scientific and civilized way of eating, especially prevent the spread of epidemic diseases and ensure the health of consumers and the safety of eating.