China is a vast place, with different styles and customs. It has different local characteristics in terms of language and living habits. In terms of diet, there are different tastes, sweet and sour, spicy and spicy, but in diet, especially in banquets, they all have the same "exquisite" in terms of host and guest seating position, toast order and serving order. This "exquisite" is China.
China is a country of food and etiquette. When food meets etiquette, it forms a unique food etiquette culture. Where does this banquet etiquette, which is thousands of miles away but the same customs in the north and the south, come from? Looking back on the Millennium, we can see from many historical materials that it was the ancestors in the pre-Qin period who formulated this complete and orderly diet etiquette, which has been passed down to today in the long history.
Like other colorful traditional cultures, the ancient Chinese food etiquette culture has experienced a long and early origin. For the ancient ancestors who just came out of primitive ignorance, diet was just an act of simply satisfying physiological needs. Mozi in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period mentioned in his book "Mozi's frugality" that the requirements of wise kings in ancient times were as long as they met their physical needs, and they did not require exquisite and fragrant cooking and exotic food, and they did not pay attention to the etiquette of pitching and spinning in catering.
Although Mozi's statement was motivated by the eating habits of ancient people to express his thought of loving the people and being frugal, it was in line with the reality that people had just left ignorance, the productivity was low, the cooking technology had not been developed, and the social framework had not yet fully formed a system. At that time, tribal leaders were not very particular about food, which was in line with Mozi's description.
As to when the catering etiquette originated, many people think that it began in the Western Zhou Dynasty, because the Confucian classics such as Yili, Liji and Zhouli, which recorded the etiquette system in the Zhou Dynasty, clearly recorded the specific situation of the catering etiquette in the Zhou Dynasty. However, many cultural traditions were not formed in a short time, but were constantly summarized and developed on the basis of predecessors' experience. Confucius thought that the etiquette system of the Zhou Dynasty was based on the Xia and Shang Dynasties: "Zhou was in charge of the second generation, which was gloomy and elegant", and the catering etiquette of the Western Zhou Dynasty was also developed from the customs of the previous generation. In Mozi Fei Le, it is recorded that Xia Qi called many people to dance in a wild diet, and the scene was so huge that the sound spread to the sky-"It is turbid in wine, and Chongqing eats in the wild, dancing in the wings, and the chapter smells in the sky"-song and dance are often an important part of ancient banquet etiquette. From here, it can be seen that Xia Qi accompanied by song and dance in his diet, which was obviously at that time. From this, it can be inferred that at least in Xia Qi or even earlier times, food etiquette has already appeared in its embryonic form.
by the Zhou dynasty, the social productive forces had a great development compared with the previous generation, the material production was richer, the social system was further improved, and the food etiquette was gradually fixed. Taking the records in "Rites of Rites" as an example, * * * records 17 rituals. It can be seen that there are many kinds of rituals in the Zhou Dynasty, which involve almost all aspects of social life. Among them, there are 14 kinds of rituals about catering banquets, such as drinking ceremony in the countryside, feeding ceremony for special animals, feeding ceremony for young prisoners, etc. The procedures of various rituals are very specific and clear, and they have basically formed an organizational system, which has become an important part of the upper-class system of society, and was the royal family of Zhou Dynasty and the kings of various vassal States at that time.
Food etiquette is an important part of the superstructure in pre-Qin society, and the economic foundation determines the superstructure. The rapid rise of food etiquette in the Zhou Dynasty is based on social stability and great material richness.
interestingly, Mozi, who opposed Confucianism, and Mencius, the sage of Confucianism, shared the same view on "knowing etiquette from facts". Mozi said in Mo Zi Fei Ru that when Confucius was trapped between Cai and Guo in Chen Guohe, he didn't pay attention to etiquette when he ate, but later when he was in Lu, he "sat improperly, but he couldn't cut properly." Although Mozi's statement may be a satire on Confucius under the guise of a story, it also shows that Mozi thinks that under the condition that basic food and clothing can't be met, it is impossible to talk about eating etiquette. In Mencius Liang Huiwang, Mencius believes that under the condition of improper industrial policy, people can't support their parents, raise their wives and children, and even their lives can't be guaranteed, so they can't learn to cultivate etiquette.
In the Western Zhou Dynasty, when the catering etiquette was initially shaped, although there were occasional wars and political struggles at the upper level, the world was generally stable, which provided a stable social environment for various etiquette systems including catering etiquette.
The Western Zhou Dynasty founded the country, and it implemented a feudal state governance framework based on the clan system. Under the clan system, most of the royal families with the surname of Ji either assisted Zhou Tianzi in governing the world in the king's capital, or were enfeoffed to become princes in various places. Under such circumstances, it is one of the functions of the clan system to maintain the relationship between the Zhou Emperor and the royal family with the surname of Ji, as well as with other nobles without the surname of Ji, and to clarify the relationship between the big and small clans within the clan and between the princes and ministers outside the clan, and food etiquette plays an important role in it.
The Book of Rites of Sacrifice records that when the Zhou royal family offered sacrifices to their ancestors, at the end of the ceremony, there was a food ritual system called "Yi", that is, the people who participated in the sacrifice had to eat the sacrifices. According to the regulations of Yi, the sacrifices could not be swarmed by everyone, but should be carried out in order of social status, and the order was Son of Heaven-Qing-Doctor.
"Worship and Rong are the major events of the country". People in the pre-Qin period attached great importance to sacrificial activities, such as offering sacrifices to the agricultural gods and offering sacrifices to ancestors. All these sacrifices were integrated with food etiquette without exception, and the process of food etiquette was different in different sacrificial activities. People in the pre-Qin period hoped to get the blessing of gods and ancestors by expressing their fear of natural gods and worship of ancestors, so they expressed this fear and worship through such a series of complicated food etiquette.
For the aristocrats in the pre-Qin dynasty, eating was not just eating. The food etiquette system was established under the stable society and rich material conditions, as a part of the clan system and the superstructure of social governance, and it was endowed with the connotation of offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors, which made the food rise from a simple behavior of meeting physiological needs to a political means of maintaining rule. In the view of sages such as Mozi and Mencius, the implementation of the food etiquette system also indicates that the whole society is in a safe and orderly normal operation state.
one of the purposes of formulating the food etiquette system in the pre-Qin period was to clarify the social framework and the patriarchal clan system, so it vividly reflected the division of social classes, and showed a phenomenon that officials and people ate differently in the food etiquette system, which was specifically manifested in the class differentiation between nobles and ordinary people in ingredients and utensils.
Class differentiation of ingredients
In the Zhou Dynasty, meat was not a common thing on the dining table of all social classes. Compared with the "luxury" of the heroes in the Song Dynasty who drank in a big bowl and ate meat in large chunks described in Water Margin, the meat food of cattle, sheep, pigs and dogs was rarely seen in the food menu of the bottom people in the pre-Qin period. Judging from the famous phrase "Carnivore is contemptuous" in Zuo Zhuan's Ten Years of Emperor Zhuang Gong, meat was obviously the food enjoyed by nobles at that time, so that people used "Carnivore" to refer to nobles and officials. One of Mencius' political ideals is that "seventy people can eat meat". This shows that meat was an extremely rare food in the recipes of ordinary people at that time.
under the pre-Qin diet etiquette system, there were strict rules on the consumption of meat from aristocrats to common people. According to the records of pre-Qin classics such as The Book of Rites, Warring States Policy and Mencius, the common people's ingredients at that time were mainly coarse plants such as rice, sorghum, millet and beans. It is also stipulated in the food etiquette system that "Shu Ren doesn't eat delicacies for no reason", that is, ordinary people are not allowed to eat seasonal food without special reasons.
compared with the food that people lacked, the dishes of the nobles in the pre-Qin dynasty were much richer and more exquisite. In Zhou Li Shan Fu, it is mentioned that the diet of the Emperor of Zhou includes six kinds of cereals, six kinds of livestock, six kinds of drinks, and a large number of delicacies and condiments.
It is recorded in Guoyu Chuyu that when offering sacrifices, the son of heaven usually eats meat that is too strong (pigs, cattle and sheep are all too strong), and when offering sacrifices, he should use three copies of too strong to worship his ancestors; Governors usually eat beef, and they use a prison when they sacrifice; Qing usually eats a sheep and a pig, and uses a cow when offering sacrifices; Doctors usually eat the meat of a pig, and they have to use a small prison when offering sacrifices; Scholars usually eat fish, and a pig is used for sacrifice; Shu Ren usually eats vegetables and can use grilled fish for sacrifice. It can be seen that the pre-Qin diet etiquette system stipulated the edible meat of all walks of life according to the level of social status.
Of course, the restriction of the pre-Qin diet etiquette on meat ingredients was also due to the fact that the aquaculture industry was not as developed as the later generations, so there was also a regulation that "the governors didn't kill cows, the doctors didn't kill sheep and the scholars didn't kill dogs without reason", which played a certain role in protecting the aquaculture industry. However, these protective measures are not to promote the fairness of the distribution of material resources, so that scarce foods such as meat are monopolized by the social ruling class.
The table of the common people in the pre-Qin period was not completely devoid of meat, but under the dual constraints of early productivity and etiquette, the meat of large livestock such as cattle, sheep, pigs and dogs was basically out of reach of the common people, and the meat they could eat was limited to extremely rare meat such as fish, and it was often eaten on important occasions such as sacrifices. With the further development of society, the growth of social productive forces, and the late Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, pigs, dogs and other meats began to slowly appear on the table of ordinary people. For example, as recorded in Guoyu Yueyu, Gou Jian, the king of Yue, put forward the policy of rewarding a dog for giving birth to a boy and a pig for giving birth to a girl.
Class differentiation of tableware
In terms of tableware, there are also relevant regulations on the food etiquette system in the pre-Qin period. Exquisite and expensive bronze utensils such as ding, GUI, Zun and Jue are obviously not available to the people. Bronze tableware is mainly found in aristocratic restaurants, and its regulations are: "The son of heaven reigns supreme, the vassal seven, the doctor five and the scholar three". Shu Ren people are not qualified to use Ding, and the folk eating utensils are mainly pottery and utensils made of plants such as baskets and spoons. In the aristocratic class, pottery tableware also exists widely, which is used in conjunction with bronze tableware. Many bronze tableware also has corresponding pottery products, such as Tao Ding, Tao Gui and Tao Zun.
From the cultural relics unearthed in various places in the pre-Qin period, there are obvious differences between the pottery tableware used by nobles and common people in the production process. In modern archaeology, most pottery tableware unearthed from the ancient tombs of pre-Qin nobles have the characteristics of exquisite modeling and craftsmanship, while most pottery tableware used by the people are simple in modeling and simple in production. For example, in 2119, the archaeological community rescued and excavated the Baimakou site in Wuding, Chuxiong, Yunnan Province. Many graves had no funerary objects, and there were few bronzes among the unearthed cultural relics. It was the site where the people at the bottom of society lived and were buried in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, and many of the pottery was loose in texture and few in patterns, which was far from being compared with the exquisite and high-quality pottery unearthed in many aristocratic tombs of the same period.
in order to achieve the goal of "order from top to bottom, the people will not be slow", some systems in pre-Qin society, including the food etiquette system, restricted the life behavior of all social strata, and some unreasonable regulations in the food etiquette system aggravated the polarization between the rich and the poor in society at the food level. On the one hand, the nobles occupied the scarce meat diet resources of cattle, sheep, pigs, dogs and other livestock, as well as exquisite and durable bronze utensils, which were wantonly extravagant and wasted; On the one hand, the common people at the bottom can only use simple utensils to process coarse grains, beans and vegetables, just to make ends meet. Some people of insight saw the social crisis caused by this situation. For example, Mozi pointed out that the king of a big country needs hundreds of dishes to eat, and the king of a small country needs ten dishes. If you can't eat them, you will waste them. The rich people are extravagant, and the poor and lonely people are frozen and hungry. In this case, even if you don't want national unrest, it is impossible.
In terms of the process of pre-Qin catering etiquette, the process of catering etiquette is also different on different occasions. For example, the process of catering etiquette in Ji Li is simpler than that in Yan Li and Xiang Jiu Li, which is because the emphasis of different purpose rituals is different. The focus of sacrificial rituals is to highlight the worship of gods and ancestors, and to share sacrifices at the end of the etiquette process is to gain the blessing of gods and ancestors. Yan Li and Xiang Jiu Li, on the other hand, highlight the interpersonal relationship, and express the respect and respect for talented people through a series of various processes.
Banquet catering etiquette processes, such as Yan Li, rural drinking ceremony, which focus on promoting interpersonal relationships, are complicated, and there are clear process regulations on the seating position of the host and guests, the order and action of toasting, the placement of dishes, the songs and dances performed, etc. In The Book of Songs Xiaoya Xuan Ye, from the perspective of toasting etiquette between the host and the guest, the process of catering etiquette in this kind of banquet is simplified:
This poem shows such a picture of drinking and toasting between nobles:
The owner of the broad robe and the guests gather together, vegetables such as Xuan Ye are cooked in the tableware, and rabbit meat is roasted, and the hall is hot.
the host first tastes the wine in the wine container, which is called "tasting it with discretion";
after tasting the strong and mellow taste of the wine, the host holds it out with a wine cup and presents it to the guests with his hands in front of the guest table, which is called "offering it with discretion";
It is called "speaking with discretion" when a guest accepts the wine cup offered by his host with both hands.
The host took the wine offered by the guest in return, and poured the wine into the drinking utensil-the ladle. He filled it himself first, and then invited the guest to drink it, which is called "paying him according to his words".
offering, offering and reward are for "offering". After the host and the guest of honor make a presentation, they will also make a presentation with other guests, so they will take turns, supplemented by music and dance during the dinner, until the host and guest have a good time and stagger away.
As an important part of catering etiquette, this kind of toasting etiquette has been passed down to later generations. Nowadays, the shadow of this ancient etiquette can be seen in banquets in many places in China. For example, the toasting etiquette in modern banquets in Shandong province is similar to the custom of "offering" and "rewarding" between the host and the guest. This kind of banquet custom is simplified from the pre-Qin banquet etiquette.
Today, many dross in the pre-Qin food etiquette system has been washed away by the great waves of the times, which has abandoned the function of class division, stripped off the connotation of offering sacrifices to gods, simplified many red tape, and integrated with western food etiquette, which has become an important part of China's traditional culture. It is carrying forward China's fine traditions such as courtesy, respect for the elderly and love for the young, and promoting harmony between people.