China is a country of food and manners. When food meets etiquette, it forms a unique food etiquette culture. Where did this banquet etiquette, which is thousands of miles apart but has the same customs in the north and south, come from? Looking back at the Millennium, we can see from many historical materials that it was the ancestors in the pre-Qin period who formulated this set of complete and orderly food etiquette, which has been passed down in the long river of history to this day.
Like other colorful traditional cultures, China's ancient food etiquette culture originated early and developed for a long time. 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 Thrift" that the requirements of ancient wise kings were as long as they met their physical needs, and they did not require exquisite cooking, delicacies in diet, and no attention to spinning etiquette in catering.
Although Mozi's statement was based on the eating habits of the ancients to express his thoughts of loving the people and being frugal, combined with the reality that people had just got rid of ignorance, low productivity, underdeveloped cooking technology and incomplete social framework, the tribal leaders at that time 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, Li Ji and Zhou Li, 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 believed that the etiquette system of the Zhou Dynasty was based on the Xia and Shang Dynasties: "Zhou dominated the second generation, which was gloomy and elegant", and the catering etiquette of the Western Zhou Dynasty also developed from the customs of the previous generation. In Mozi Le Fei, it is recorded that Xia Qi called many people to dance in a picnic, and the scene was huge, and the sound reached the sky-"The wine is turbid, the Chongqing eats wild, the wings dance, and the chapter smells the sky"-song and dance is often an important part of ancient banquet etiquette. It can be seen from here that Xia Qi was accompanied by singing and dancing in his diet, which was obviously at that time. Therefore, it can be inferred that at least in Xia Qi or even earlier, the embryonic form of food etiquette has already appeared.
By the Zhou Dynasty, the social productive forces had developed greatly compared with the previous generation, the material production was richer, the social system was further improved, and the food etiquette was gradually fixed. Take the records in the Book of Rites as an example, there are 17 rituals. It can be seen that there are many kinds of etiquette in the Zhou Dynasty, involving almost all aspects of social life. There are 14 kinds of etiquette about catering banquets, such as drinking ceremony in rural areas, feeding ceremony for special animals, feeding ceremony for juvenile offenders, etc. The flow rules of various etiquette are very specific and clear, basically formed and established, and become an important part of the upper social system.
Food etiquette is an important part of the superstructure in pre-Qin society, and the economic base determines the superstructure. The rapid rise of dietary etiquette in the Zhou Dynasty was based on social stability and great material wealth.
Interestingly, Mozi, who opposes Confucianism, and Mencius, who is a "saint" of Confucianism, have the same view on "being honest and knowing etiquette". Mozi said in Mozi Fei Ru that when Confucius was trapped between Cai and Guo, he didn't pay attention to etiquette when eating. Later, when he was in Lu, he "sat improperly and cut improperly." Although Mozi's statement may be a satire on Confucius under the guise of stories, it also shows that Mozi believes that there is no eating etiquette at all when basic food and clothing are not satisfied. In Mencius Liang Wang Hui, Mencius believes that under the condition of improper industrial policies, 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 catering etiquette was initially formed, although there were occasional wars and political struggles in the upper class, the world was generally stable, providing a stable social environment for various etiquette systems including catering etiquette.
The Western Zhou Dynasty was founded under the framework of feudal state governance based on clan system. Under the clan system, most of the royal families named Ji either assisted the king to govern the world or became vassals everywhere. 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 large and small clans within the clan and the princes and ministers outside the clan, and the catering etiquette plays an important role in it.
According to the Book of Rites, when the Zhou royal family offered sacrifices to their ancestors, at the end of the ceremony, there was a food ceremony system called "Yi", that is, people who participated in the sacrifice had to eat sacrifices. According to the Book of Changes, sacrifices should be made according to the social status, and the order is the son of heaven-Qing-doctor-scholar-other bottom.
People in the pre-Qin period attached great importance to sacrificial activities, such as offering sacrifices to agricultural gods and ancestors. Without exception, these sacrificial activities are integrated with food etiquette, and the process of food etiquette is different in different sacrificial activities. People in the pre-Qin period hoped to get the blessings of God and ancestors by expressing their reverence for the natural gods and worship for their ancestors, so they expressed this reverence and worship through such a series of complicated food etiquette.
For the pre-Qin nobles, eating is not just eating. The catering etiquette system was established in a stable society and rich material conditions. As a part of the clan system and the superstructure of social governance, it was endowed with the connotation of offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors, which made catering rise from simply 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 catering etiquette system in the pre-Qin period was to clarify the social framework and patriarchal clan system, so it vividly reflected the division of social classes. In the system of food etiquette, there is a phenomenon that officials and people share food, which is embodied in the class differentiation between nobles and civilians in ingredients and utensils.
Classification of components
In the Zhou dynasty, meat was not a common thing on the table of all social classes. Compared with the "luxury" of the heroes of the Song Dynasty who drank in a big bowl and ate meat in large chunks described in Water Margin, the meat of cattle, sheep, pigs and dogs was rarely seen in the food menu of the people at the bottom in the pre-Qin period. Judging from the famous sentence "Carnivores despise" in Zuo Zhuan's Ten Years of Zhuang Gong, meat was obviously the food enjoyed by nobles at that time, so that people used "Carnivores" to refer to nobles and officials. One of Mencius' political ideals is that "seventy people can eat meat". It can be seen that meat was an extremely rare food in the recipes of ordinary people at that time.
Under the pre-Qin food etiquette system, there were strict regulations on meat consumption from aristocrats to ordinary people. According to the pre-Qin classics such as The Book of Rites, The Warring States Policy and Mencius, the main ingredients of ordinary people at that time were coarse-grained plants such as rice, sorghum, millet and beans. In the food etiquette system, it is also stipulated that "Shu Ren does not eat delicacies for no reason", that is, ordinary people are not allowed to eat seasonal food without special reasons.
Compared with the lack of food among the people, the dishes of the aristocrats in the pre-Qin dynasty were much richer and more exquisite. According to Zhou Li Fu Shan, the diet of Zhou Tianzi includes six kinds of cereals, six kinds of livestock, six kinds of drinks and a lot of delicacies and condiments.
"Guoyu Chu Yu" records that when the emperor sacrifices, he usually eats Taizhai meat (pigs, cattle and sheep are all Taizhai), and three copies of Taizhai are used to worship the ancestors when sacrificing; Governors usually eat beef and use a prison when offering sacrifices; Eat a sheep and a pig in qingping, and use a cow in sacrifice; Doctors usually eat the meat of a pig and use a small prison when offering sacrifices; Scholars generally eat fish, and a pig is used for sacrifice; Shu Ren usually eats vegetables and can use grilled fish as a sacrifice. It can be seen that the pre-Qin food etiquette system stipulated the edible meat of all walks of life according to the social status.
Of course, the restriction of pre-Qin food etiquette on meat ingredients was also due to the fact that the aquaculture industry was not as developed as later generations, so there was also a regulation that "the princes did not kill cattle without reason, the doctors did not kill sheep without reason, and the scholars did not kill dogs without reason", which played a certain protective role in the aquaculture industry. However, these protective measures are not to promote the fairness of material resources distribution, so that scarce foods such as meat are monopolized by the social ruling class.
In the pre-Qin period, the common people's dining table 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 beyond the common people's reach, and the meat that could be eaten was limited to extremely rare meat such as fish, and was often eaten on important occasions such as sacrifices. With the further development of society and the growth of social productive forces, by the end of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, pigs, dogs and other meats began to appear slowly on the table of ordinary people. For example, in Mandarin, Gou Jian, the King of Yue, put forward the policy of giving birth to boys to reward dogs and girls to reward pigs.
Class differentiation of tableware
Tableware, pre-Qin food etiquette system also has relevant provisions. Ding, Gui, Zun, Jue and other exquisite and expensive bronze utensils are obviously not available to the people. Bronze tableware is mainly found in aristocratic restaurants, and its provisions are: "The emperor is supreme, the princes are seven, the doctors are five, and the scholars are three." Shu Ren people are not qualified to use Ding, and folk utensils are mainly pottery and utensils made of plants such as baskets and spoons. In the aristocratic class, pottery tableware also exists widely, and it is used in conjunction with bronze tableware. Many bronze tableware also have corresponding pottery products, such as Ding Tao, Tao Gui and Tao Zun.
Judging from the cultural relics of the pre-Qin period unearthed in various places, there are obvious differences in production technology between nobles and civilians. Most of the pottery unearthed from the tombs of pre-Qin nobles discovered by modern archaeology has the characteristics of exquisite modeling and exquisite craftsmanship, while most of the pottery used by the people is simple in modeling and production. For example, in 20 19, the Baimakou site in Wuding, Chuxiong, Yunnan Province was rescued and excavated by the archaeological community. Many tombs had no funerary objects, and there were few bronzes among the unearthed cultural relics. As the site where people at the bottom of society lived and buried during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, many pottery wares were loose in texture and few in patterns, which were far from being compared with the exquisite and high-quality pottery unearthed from many noble tombs at the same time.
In order to achieve the goal of "order from top to bottom, people can't live in poverty", some systems in pre-Qin society, including the food etiquette system, restricted the life behavior of all social strata, and some unreasonable provisions in the food etiquette system aggravated the polarization between the rich and the poor in society at the food level. On the one hand, aristocrats occupy the scarce meat diet resources of cattle, sheep, pigs, dogs and other livestock, as well as exquisite and durable bronze utensils, which are extravagant and wasteful; On the one hand, the people at the bottom can only make ends meet by processing coarse grains, beans and vegetables with simple utensils. Some people of insight have seen the social crisis caused by this situation. For example, Mozi pointed out that the king of a big country has to eat hundreds of dishes, and the king of a small country has to eat ten dishes. If you can't finish it, it will be wasted. The rich are extravagant, while the poor and lonely are frozen and hungry. In this case, it is impossible even if we don't want the country to be in turmoil.
As far as the flow of pre-Qin catering etiquette is concerned, the flow of catering etiquette on different occasions is also different. For example, Ji Li's catering etiquette process is simpler than Yan Li's and Xiang Jiuli's, because different purposes have different etiquette emphases. The focus of the sacrificial ceremony is to highlight the worship of God and ancestors, and to share sacrifices at the end of the ritual process is to obtain the blessings of God and ancestors. However, Yan Li and Xiang Jiu Li highlighted interpersonal relationships and expressed their respect and respect for talents through a series of various processes.
The etiquette process of banquet catering, such as Yan Li and Xiangjiuli, which mainly promotes interpersonal relationships, is complex, and there are clear process regulations on the seating of the host and guest, the order and action of toasting, the placement of dishes, the singing and dancing of performances, etc. In The Book of Songs, Xiaoya Michelle Ye, from the perspective of the host-guest toast etiquette, the process of catering etiquette in this kind of banquet is simplified as follows:
This poem shows such a picture of drinking and toasting between nobles:
The owner of the robe and the guests gathered together and cooked vegetables such as leaves and roasted rabbit meat in the tableware. The heat in the hall rose and the atmosphere was harmonious.
The owner first tastes the wine in the wine set, which is called "tasting with words";
After the host tasted the rich and mellow wine, he held it out with the wine baron and presented it with his hands at the guest table, which was called "discretionary offering";
After the guests accept the wine title offered by the host with both hands, they still stay away from the host, which is called "caution";
The host took the glass that the guest paid back, and poured the wine into the drinking vessel-Yan. He filled it himself first, and then invited the guests to drink. The so-called "discretionary payment".
Offer, reward and reward are all for "an offer". After the host and the guest 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 the guest have a good time and stagger away.
As an important part of catering etiquette, this toast 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 toast etiquette in modern banquets in Shandong is similar to the custom of "offering" and "paying" between the host and the guest. This banquet custom is simplified from the banquet etiquette in the pre-Qin period.
Today, many dross in the pre-Qin catering 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, integrated with western catering etiquette, and become an important part of China traditional culture, playing an important role in carrying forward China's fine traditions of courtesy, respecting the elderly and loving the young, and promoting the harmonious relationship between people.