China was called "the state of etiquette" in ancient times. It has been a tradition of China people for thousands of years to stress etiquette, observe etiquette and respect etiquette. If you don't learn manners, you can't stand it. The core of etiquette is people's social behavior norms, which are the social behavior norms, moral standards and various etiquette that China people have become accustomed to. The so-called "courtesy wins the hearts of the people, so it is indisputable"; "There is more than enough food and clothing, and courtesy is reciprocal." Courtesy is the control of personal interests and the dispatch of people's interests. Politeness means humility and concession, and "courtesy" and "concession" are often linked together, which is the origin and explanation of the word "comity".

The earliest ceremony in China is also the most common and important ceremony, which can be said to be a food ceremony. "The ceremony begins with all kinds of food", and food is used to offer sacrifices to the gods. It can be seen that "ceremony" is a very grand thing, and its origin is very early. Rites are based on personal cultural knowledge and spiritual accomplishment. The best occasion to test a person's accomplishment is a group banquet. Therefore, the first lesson of family enlightenment ethics is food etiquette. The basic etiquette and central link of the elaborate catering ceremony at China banquet is the seating ceremony at the banquet-"Seating". In history, Liu Bang, the emperor gaozu of Han Dynasty, made his fortune because he "sat" at the "heavy guest" banquet ordered by Pei County. At that time, it was still "sitting on the floor" and "sitting at the table", which was the "upper seat" of the banquet, that is, the "seat end". The "sitting on the table" at this banquet varies from time to time because of the historical evolution of basic tableware, several cases and the shape of dining tables and chairs. Before the Han dynasty, "Nanxi faces north, and the west is the top", that is, sitting facing east is the top. The seating of the Hongmen Banquet in Historical Records of Xiang Yu is a norm: "Wang Xiang and Xiang Bo sit in the east, their father sits in the south, and their father is Fan Zeng. Pei Gong sits in the north and Sean sits in the west. This is what Gu said: "The ancients sat in the East. It refers to the seating ceremony of the banquet held in the "room". On the "main hall" located in the center of the front of the main building of the palace, facing south, the most respected is the south, followed by the west and the east again. After the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the lifestyle began to change from sitting in bed to hanging on high feet. There are all kinds of square and rectangular dining tables, and people's interest in seats has also changed. The square table is represented by the "Square Table", with a side length of 92.5 cm and a height of 87.5 cm. This table is specially designed for distinguished guests. It can serve two, three, four, six or eight people. In addition to the special table, there are more than two people, generally 1: 1. The round table was born under the requirements of a large number of people and many seats. At first, people who used to use the square table were quite uncomfortable, as Yuan Mei said in the poem "Garden": "I don't know who is the chief, but I just feel that sitting can add guests. "

Round table has become a popular dining table style in hotels and restaurants since the middle of Qing Dynasty, and it is also widely used in today's families, especially in catering industry and government canteens. Its seat position generally depends on the orientation and decoration design style of the restaurant or room, or the orientation and sunrise of the door, or the center of gravity and prominent position reflected by the decoration style of the hall or room. Usually when the waiter sets the table, the mouth cloth is folded into the shape of flowers and birds, and the first shape will be very eye-catching, so that people can know it at a glance. For grand banquets, seat tags (seat labels) are often placed in front of each table, and the table number of the banquet is indicated on the invitation. In this way, it is not easy to make mistakes, whether it is the master of ceremonies or sitting in the right place according to the picture.

As far as the specific seats of the dining table are concerned, the current norms of Chinese food are: the host sits in the middle of the top, the guest of honor is on the right, the deputy guest of honor is on the left, and the others are arranged from right to left and from top to bottom, as shown in figure 1:

Figure 1 1

2 3 1. The first host 3. A lady or deputy guest of honor.

7 8 2. Guest 4. The second host

9 10 5, 6. Deputy guest of honor 7- 10. Accompany reading, etc.

6 5

four

door

The epidemic patterns in Taiwan Province Province and other provinces and regions are shown in Figures 2 and 3:

Figure 2 (Single Owner)

1

2 3 1. Guest of honor

4 5 2- 1 1. The guests are arranged in turn.

host

6 7

8 9

10 1 1

12

door

Figure 3 (hostess and hostess)

1

3 2 1. Guest of honor

5 4 2- 10. The guests are arranged in turn.

7 6 1 1. hostess

9 8 12. hostess

1 1 10

12

door

The setting of banquet ranking is a convention, so its time and space are quite different. However, according to the current concept in our country, the position should be respected first, then the age should be mentioned, and then the sex (women first, men later) should be mentioned to show the concept of valuing women. Of course, this is the general start-up mode after the chief seat is determined.