Since the Zhou Dynasty, China has formed a relatively complete system of table etiquette. Later, the great thinker Confucius continued to carry forward and inherit the content of table etiquette, which has been developed and expanded and continued for future generations. Not only that, this is also an important part of China's demonstration of being a country of etiquette and a civilized country. As the saying goes, "Food is the first necessity of the people." From ancient times to the present, food culture has been respected by the common people, but now, how many people remember the rules of eating? What does our ancestors often say, "Don't put three dishes on the table" mean?

In fact, there are a lot of "three" in the folk sayings that have been passed down to this day. There are only three things, three pillars, and three people walking together must have my teacher. Everything that symbolizes completeness and perfection seems to have "three". The emergence of "three", it can be said that the cultural status of "three" in Chinese history is very important. "Laozi" once mentioned: Tao gives birth to one, gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, and three gives birth to all things. "Three" is a pole and a limit. No matter what, the number cannot exceed "three", and the same is true for food.

In ancient times, there was little food, and people were often hungry. In order to fill their stomachs, they often offered sacrifices to gods. So, they put several plates of food on the sacrificial table and lit three sticks of incense as offerings to the gods. However, the folk saying "don't put three dishes on the table" does not specifically refer to three kinds of dishes. The "three" here refers generally, which means to pay attention to the way of hospitality and not to put the dishes on the table in such a way that An odd number, two sets, four sets, six sets... it's all fine, as long as it's not an odd number.

In addition, there is a Chinese saying that "good things come in pairs", which also includes table manners, which means that everything on the table should be in even numbers. As mentioned above, when folk sacrifices offer incense, they usually insert three sticks of incense and arrange them in the shape of Chinese characters. Because of this, putting three plates of food on the table also coincides with the way of offering incense. Therefore, in order to avoid this kind of sacrificial behavior, the old man always warned future generations "Don't put three plates of food on the table." Although this is a bit of feudal superstition, in the In ancient times, it was also a beautiful prayer.

Over time, a folk tradition has naturally formed. Whenever guests come to the house for dinner, three plates of dishes are not allowed, otherwise the guests will become the objects of "sacrifice". When we were young, our parents told us a lot of table manners. For example, we should not finish knocking while eating, because in the past, this behavior was only done when beggars went door to door begging for food. Furthermore, we should not stick chopsticks in the rice because it is used to burn incense. Action... There are many etiquettes about eating in history. A little carelessness can lead to bloody disasters.

There is an allusion in "Zuo Zhuan: The Fourth Year of Xuangong" called "The index finger moves greatly", which means that there is a sign of delicious food, and it also describes the appearance of being greedy when seeing delicious food. During the Spring and Autumn Period, there were two princes in the State of Zheng, one named Mr. Song and the other named Zi Jia. Mr. Song had a "special power", that is, whenever delicious food appeared, his index finger would move. Later, the Zi family accidentally saw the chef making turtle soup, and thought that Master Song's index finger was really effective. However, this matter reached the ears of Zheng Linggong.

Later, Zheng Linggong hosted a banquet for all the officials to drink turtle soup, but when the turtle soup was distributed to the son of Song Dynasty, it happened to have reached the bottom. Zheng Linggong laughed and said: Is your index finger not working now? Young Master Song was so angry that he walked up to Zheng Linggong, put his index finger into his cauldron, took a sip of soup and said: "Who said my index finger is not working? Didn't I taste delicious food?" (The origin of Ranzhi) Since the tripod symbolizes royal power, the behavior of the young master Song did not take Zheng Linggong seriously at all. In the end, a rift developed between the two. The prince Song killed Duke Linggong of Zheng, and he himself died in Zheng's civil strife.

So, it’s better to pay attention to the rules when eating. It would be bad if you offend your boss, don’t you think so?