Since the Western Zhou Dynasty, everyone has followed the "Zhou Li" inside a variety of etiquette norms, codes of conduct. The party, of course, there is a set of procedures, not that you go outside the hula to bring a group of people home, with his wife or servant to say hello to prepare a table of food, meal time to eat and drink together on the can, if you really do, that is a very rude thing, your friends if you are good at face estimation and you "cut robes and break righteousness".
What should we do? Simple point to summarize: first of all, as the host of you to prepare invitations to the guests of the House, said the time and place of the party and other matters, such as the day of the party, to welcome the guests at the door, the guests arrived, greet each other, and then led to the hall small sitting, toast to refreshments. When the guests are all together, they will be guided to the table.
Regarding the seating, there is also a set of rules, "Rituals - Township Drinking Ceremony", the hall seating arrangements for: the master in the east and west, the guest of honor in the south, accompanied by the guest of honor in the east. Here, the guest of honor is the chief, the host is second, the guests are even more second. Well, the seating arrangements are good, the food, food and how to arrange? Li Ji - Qu Li" has a paragraph on how to arrange the content of the dishes: for example, the dishes with bones on the left, cut pure meat on the right. Dry food dishes are placed against the left hand side of the person, and soup is placed against the right hand side. Finely chopped and grilled meats are placed farther away, vinegars and sauces closer. Steamed onions and other accompaniments are placed next to each other, and beverages such as wine syrup are placed in the same direction as the soup. If you want to share dried meat, beef, etc., the curved ones are on the left, the straight ones are on the right, etc., etc., etc.
That's not all, there are also instructions on serving dishes, serving dishes, to use the right hand to hold, and Tuo cupped in the left hand; on the fish dishes, if it is a burnt fish, to the tail of the fish to the guests; winter fish belly to the right side of the guests, the summer fish spine to the right side of the guests. Waiting for the dishes on all, you think you can finally feel free to eat? Too naive! As a qualified host, you must also eat when you also want to watch six roads and listen to all sides! If there are guests in the mixing of vegetables and soup, you have to apologize, saying that the cooking is not good; if the guests drink to the sauce of food, you also have to apologize, saying that the preparation of food is not enough; meal is over, the guests need to get up and forward to clean up the table to contain pickles on the plate to the side of the waiter, you also have to follow the rise, ask the guests do not labor, and then the guests to sit down again.
Oops, you say, invite friends to eat a meal are so complicated and difficult to get, or go back home to planting it, this Chang'an city is not good mix ah. The first one is that the first one is the one that is not a good one, and the second one is the one that is not a good one, and the third one is the one that is not a good one. First, as we all know, before the Tang Dynasty, Chinese people used to sit on the ground and eat separately, and then with the introduction and popularity of high-footed sitting equipment, from the Tang Dynasty onwards, gradually appeared to eat together. So, you see, your knees and legs do not escape.
There is another point, before the Tang, most of the family meal is practiced in two meals, day to day, on the morning to eat a meal, eat a meal in the afternoon, the other time hungry, can only eat a little snack to fill up the hunger. And to the Tang Dynasty, began to popularize the three-meal system, morning, noon and night can be eaten, but also invented the "snacks" of this category of food, what is the princess red, purple dragon cake, full of stars ah, the standard of living is really greatly improved ah.
Of course, as a civilian population, if your family population is simple or you are a single dog, the family dinner casual point of no harm, but also invited to dinner to pay attention to the good, even if there is really something rude happen, at most be ridiculed a bit, but if you want to go to the future of this one, can be attentive to learn under the court officials of the table etiquette, after all, to do the wrong jokes shame is small, and accidentally will be impeached, the court officials will not be able to take this one, but will also be able to take this one. A careless will be impeached and even lost his hat. I'll give you a brief overview first, if you really do have a preparation for the future.
The government of the Tang Dynasty implemented the "Yamen will eat system", to put it simply, is the meal system. In the state and county government offices at all levels, there are public canteens, so the relevant departments of the civil servants can enjoy the public provided by the work of the meal. However, public meals are not that tasty, and there are many rules of etiquette; everyone's seat is fixed, and they can't just walk around or make a lot of noise. However, there were exceptions, if the discussion was about public affairs, for example, if there were any doubtful or controversial cases, or if there was no control over the culture, or if there were no remedies for the ills, etc., it was still possible to discuss them with each other. The first thing you need to do is to get your hands dirty and get out of the way of the police.
However, there are things that if you are not careful not to handle well, you may also offend people. For example, in the "New Book of Tang" there is a story that took place in the highest level of the Tang Dynasty canteen - the prime ministers will eat. Once, all the prime ministers were having a meal together in the Central Book Province, and Wang Shuwen came to Wei Daiyi to talk about something, so Wei Daiyi got up and went out, so the rest of the prime ministers stopped eating, intending to wait for him to come back and then eat together. After a while, a minor official came over to report: "Prime Minister Wei and Wang Shuwen have already eaten together".
This instantly stabbed the hornet's nest, everyone immediately felt that they were neglected, especially one of them called Zheng Xunyu more glassy, especially difficult, said: "I can resume living here!" Said he got up and went home, seven days did not come out to do business, so also just phase. Of course, the reason for his dismissal was not as simple as a meal, but it was definitely a trigger. So, you see, in order to mix well in the officialdom, dinner also have to be more mindful, or accidentally stepped on a mine.