China is a vast country, with different winds and customs, and different local characteristics in terms of language and living habits. In terms of food, the tastes in the north and south of the Yangtze River are different, with different tastes of sour, sweet and spicy, but in terms of food , especially in banquets, they all have roughly the same "paying attention" to the seating positions of host and guest, the order of toasting, and the order of serving dishes. This "paying attention" is the unique food etiquette in traditional Chinese culture.
China is a country of delicious food, but also a country of etiquette. When food meets etiquette, a unique food etiquette culture is formed. Where did this kind of banquet etiquette come from, even though the north and the south are thousands of miles apart? Looking back thousands of years, we can see from many historical materials that it was the ancestors of the Pre-Qin Dynasty who formulated this complete and orderly set of dietary etiquette, which has been passed down to this day in the long history.
Like other rich and colorful traditional cultures, ancient my country’s food etiquette culture also experienced a very early origin and a long development. For the ancient ancestors who had just emerged from primitive ignorance, eating was simply an act of satisfying physiological needs. Mozi, who lived in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, mentioned in his book "Mozi·Jieyong" that the wise kings in ancient times only required food to meet the needs of the body, and did not require exquisite and fragrant cooking or exotic food. , and they don’t pay attention to the etiquette of pitching and turning in dining.
Although Mozi’s statement was motivated by the eating habits of ancient people to express his thoughts of loving the people and being thrifty, in the ancient times, people had just emerged from ignorance, productivity was low, and cooking technology had not yet been developed. Development and social framework have not yet fully formed an institutional reality. The tribal leaders at that time were not very particular about their diet, which is in line with the situation described by Mozi.
As for the specific period when dietary etiquette originated, many opinions believe that it began in the Western Zhou Dynasty, because "Rites", "Book of Rites", "Zhou Li" and other Confucian classics that record the ritual system of the Zhou Dynasty clearly record it The specific situation of dietary etiquette in Zhou Dynasty. However, many cultural traditions were not formed in a short period of time, but were continuously summarized and developed based on the experience of predecessors. Confucius believed that the etiquette system of the Zhou Dynasty was based on the Xia and Shang dynasties: "Zhou Jian In the second generation, the food etiquette of the Western Zhou Dynasty was also developed from the customs of the previous generation. In "Mozi Feile", it is recorded that Xia Qi summoned many people to dance during an outdoor meal. The scene was so grand that the sound was heard in the sky - "Zhan is turbid in wine, and Chongqing eats in the wild." , Thousands of dancing wings, and chapters heard in the sky" - singing and dancing are often an important part of ancient banquet etiquette. From here, it can be seen that Xia Qi accompanied his meals with singing and dancing, which obviously means that certain dietary etiquette had already been produced at that time. From this, it can be inferred that at least in the Xia Qi era or even earlier, dietary etiquette had already taken shape.
By the Zhou Dynasty, social productivity had developed greatly compared with previous generations, material production had become richer, social systems had been further improved, and dietary etiquette had gradually become fixed. Taking the records in "Etiquette" as an example, there are 17 etiquette records recorded in the Zhou Dynasty. It can be seen that the etiquette system of the Zhou Dynasty had many names, involving almost all aspects of social life. Among them, the etiquette for food and banquets includes the local drinking ceremony, There are 14 types of food gifts for special animals and food gifts for Shaolao. The procedures of various etiquettes are very specific and clear, and they have basically taken shape and become an important part of the upper social system. It was practiced by the human class and was vigorously advocated by Confucian scholars in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. It was inherited and used to varying degrees in later dynasties from the royal family to the people.
Dietary etiquette is an important part of the superstructure of pre-Qin society. The economic base determines the superstructure. The rapid rise of dietary etiquette in the Zhou Dynasty is based on social stability and great material abundance.
Interestingly, the two sages Mozi, who opposed Confucianism, and Mencius, the "sub-sage" of Confucianism, had the same view on the point of "knowing etiquette through practical experience." Mozi said in "Mozi · Fei Ru" that when Confucius was trapped between the states of Chen and Cai, he did not pay attention to etiquette when eating, but later when he was in the state of Lu, "he did not sit on the table upright, and he did not eat properly if he cut it". Although Mozi's statement may be a story to satirize Confucius, it also shows that Mozi believed that eating etiquette is out of the question when basic food and clothing cannot be met. In "Mencius: King Hui of Liang", Mencius believed that under the conditions of inappropriate industrial policies, the people were unable to support their parents, wives and children, and even their lives were not guaranteed, so they were unable to learn and cultivate etiquette.
During the Western Zhou Dynasty when dietary etiquette was initially finalized, although there were occasional wars and upper-level political struggles, the world was generally stable, which provided a basis for the stable development of various etiquette systems, including dietary etiquette. social environment.
The founding of the Western Zhou Dynasty implemented a feudal national governance structure based on the clan system. Under the clan system, most of the royal family surnamed Ji either assisted the Emperor of Zhou in governing the world in the royal capital, or were enfeoffed to various places and became Princes and kings. Under such circumstances, a complete set of rituals was used to maintain the relationship between the Emperor of Zhou and the royal family surnamed Ji, as well as with other nobles not surnamed Ji, and to clarify the superior and inferior relationships between the large and small clans within the clan and between the monarchs and ministers outside the clan. It is one of the functions of the clan system, and dietary etiquette plays an important role in it.
"Book of Rites·Sacrifice" records that when the Zhou royal family performed sacrifices to honor their ancestors, there was a dietary ritual called "禂" at the end of the ceremony, that is, those participating in the sacrifices had to eat the offerings. According to the stipulations of the rituals, the sacrifices should not be swarmed by everyone, but should be made in order according to the hierarchy of social status. The order is emperor - minister - doctor - scholar - other low-level officials. This approach is for "Don't wait for high or low".
"The major affairs of the country lie in the sacrifice of soldiers and soldiers." People in the pre-Qin period attached great importance to sacrificial activities. There were rituals for worshiping the god of agriculture, and feasting rituals for ancestors. Without exception, these sacrifices were integrated Food etiquette, and different sacrificial activities also have different processes in food etiquette. People in the pre-Qin period hoped to obtain the blessings of gods and ancestors by expressing their fear of natural gods and worship of ancestors, so they expressed this fear and worship through a series of complicated food etiquette.
For the pre-Qin aristocrats, eating was more than just eating. The dietary etiquette system was established under a stable society and abundant material conditions, and was established as a part of the clan system and social governance superstructure. , and endowed it with the connotation of offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors, which elevated diet from simply satisfying physiological needs to a political means of maintaining governance. In the view of sages such as Mozi and Mencius, the implementation of dietary etiquette also means that the entire society is in a safe, orderly and normal operating state.
One of the purposes of formulating the dietary etiquette system in the pre-Qin period was to clarify the social structure and the hierarchy of seniority and inferiority within the clan system. Therefore, it extremely clearly reflected the divisions of social classes and presented a distinctive pattern in the dietary etiquette system. A phenomenon in which officials and people eat different foods. The specific manifestation is the class differentiation between nobles and common people in terms of food ingredients and tableware.
Class differentiation of ingredients
In the Zhou Dynasty, meat was not a common thing on the dining tables of all social classes. It is similar to the Song Dynasty heroes who drank from large bowls as described in "Water Margin" Compared with the "luxury" of eating large pieces of meat, meat from cattle, sheep, pigs, dogs and other livestock was rarely seen on the food menus of the lower class people in the pre-Qin period. Judging from the famous sentence "Meat eaters are despicable" in "Zuo Zhuan: The Tenth Year of Duke Zhuang", meat was obviously a food enjoyed by the nobles at that time, so that people used "meat eaters" to refer to nobles and officials. One of Mencius' political ideals is that "people in their seventies can eat meat." It can be seen that meat was an extremely rare food in the diets of ordinary people at that time.
Under the pre-Qin dietary etiquette system, there were strict regulations on the consumption of meat from nobles to common people. According to records in pre-Qin classics such as "Book of Rites", "Warring States Policy", and "Mencius", ordinary people at that time The common people's food mainly consists of coarse plants such as rice, sorghum, millet, and beans. The dietary etiquette system also stipulates that "common people are not allowed to eat delicacies without any reason", that is, common people are not allowed to eat fresh food without special reasons.
Compared with the scarce food ingredients among the people, the food on the plates of the pre-Qin nobles was much richer and more exquisite. "The Rites of Zhou·Shan Fu" mentions that Emperor Zhou's diet consisted of six kinds of cereals, six kinds of livestock, six kinds of wine, as well as a large number of delicacies and condiments.
"Guoyu Chuyu" records that during sacrifices, the emperor usually eats Tailuo meat (all pigs, cattle and sheep are one Tailuo), and during sacrifices, three portions of Tailuo are used to worship the ancestors. The princes who usually eat beef will use a Tailao when offering sacrifices; the Qing, who usually eats a sheep and a pig, will use a cow when offering sacrifices; the doctor who usually eats a pig's meat will use one when offering sacrifices. One Shaolao; scholars usually eat fish, so a pig must be used as a sacrifice; while common people usually eat vegetables, grilled fish can be used in sacrifices. It can be seen that the pre-Qin dietary etiquette stipulated the edible meat for each class according to their social status.
Of course, the restrictions on meat ingredients in the pre-Qin dietary etiquette were also due to the fact that the breeding industry at that time was not as developed as in later generations. Therefore, there is also the saying that "nobles will not kill cattle without reason, officials will not kill sheep without reason, and scholars will not kill without reason." The regulations on “dogs and pigs” have played a certain protective role in the breeding industry. However, these protective measures are not intended to promote fairness in the distribution of material resources, which results in scarce food such as meat being monopolized by the ruling class of society.
Meat was not completely absent from the tables of the common people in the Pre-Qin Dynasty. However, due to 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. The meat they could eat The category is limited to extremely rare meats such as fish, and can often only be eaten on important occasions such as sacrifices. With the further development of society and the growth of social productivity, as well as the "collapse of rituals and music" in the late Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, meat such as pigs and dogs began to slowly appear on the tables of the common people. As recorded in "Guoyu·Yueyu", In order to encourage domestic fertility, King Gou Jian of Yue proposed the policy of rewarding a dog for a boy and a pig for a girl.
Class differentiation of tableware
In terms of tableware, the dietary etiquette system in the pre-Qin period also had relevant regulations. The exquisite and precious bronze tableware such as tripods, guis, zuns, and jue were obviously Not for the common people to use, bronze tableware is mainly seen in the dining of nobles. The regulations are: "Nine tripods for the emperor, seven for the princes, five for the officials, and three for the Yuanshi". Common people are not qualified to use tripods. Folk eating utensils are mainly pottery and food utensils made from plants such as baskets and ladles.
Among the aristocratic class, pottery tableware is also widely available, and is used in conjunction with bronze tableware. Many bronze tableware also has corresponding pottery products, such as pottery tripods, pottery guis, pottery statues, etc.
Judging from the cultural relics of the Pre-Qin period unearthed from various places, there are obvious differences in the production techniques of the pottery tableware used by the nobles and the common people. In modern archeology, the pottery unearthed from the ancient tombs of the Pre-Qin nobles Most tableware has the characteristics of exquisite shape and craftsmanship, while most of the pottery tableware used by the people is simple in shape and crudely made. For example, at the Baimakou site in Wuding, Chuxiong, Yunnan, which was rescued and excavated in 2019, many of the tombs had no burial objects, and there were very few bronzes among the unearthed cultural relics. They were believed to be sites where people at the bottom of society lived and were buried during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Many pottery has loose texture and sparse patterns, which is far inferior to the exquisite and high-quality pottery unearthed from the tombs of nobles of the same period.
In order to achieve the goal of "ordering the top and bottom, the people will not be slow", some systems in pre-Qin society, including dietary etiquette, stipulated and restricted the life behaviors of all social strata. Among them, dietary etiquette Some unreasonable regulations in the diet have exacerbated the social gap between rich and poor. On the one hand, the nobles occupied the scarce meat and food resources of cattle, sheep, pigs, dogs and other livestock, as well as exquisite and durable bronze tableware, and were wanton and extravagant. On the other hand, the common people at the bottom could only use simple tableware to process rough food. The grains, beans and vegetables are only for subsistence. Some insightful people have seen 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 it, everything will be wasted. People are living in luxury, and the poor and widowed are freezing and starving. Under such circumstances, it is impossible even to avoid turmoil in the country.
In terms of the process of pre-Qin food etiquette, the process of food etiquette on different occasions is also different. For example, the process of food etiquette in Ji Li is more important than the process of Yan Li and Xiang Drinking Ceremony. It is simpler, because the focus of rituals for different purposes is different. The focus of sacrificial rituals is to highlight the reverence and worship of gods and ancestors. The sharing of sacrifices at the end of the ritual process is to obtain the gods and ancestors. 's blessing. The Yan ceremony and the rural drinking ceremony highlight the relationship between people, and express the superiority and inferiority and the importance of worthy people through a series of numerous processes.
Banquet etiquette procedures that focus on promoting interpersonal relationships, such as Yan Li and Xiang Drinking Ceremony, are complicated. They include the seating positions of the host and guests, the order and movements of toasts, the placement of dishes, and the songs and dances performed. There are clear process regulations. In "The Book of Songs·Xiaoya·Huye", from the perspective of toasting etiquette between the host and guest, the dietary etiquette process in this type of banquet is simplified:
This poem shows this A picture of a banquet and toasting among nobles:
The owner of Eguan in a wide robe gathers with his guests. Vegetables such as gourd leaves are cooked in the tableware, and rabbit meat is roasted. The heat rises in the hall, and the atmosphere rapport.
The host first tastes the taste of the wine contained in the wine set, which is called "taste it with discretion";
After tasting the strong and mellow taste of the wine, the host uses the wine cup to serve it out. When arriving at the guest table, offer the wine to the guest with both hands, which is called "offering it with discretion";
After the guest accepts the wine barley offered by the host with both hands, he then returns it to the host, which is called "offering it with discretion";
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The host takes the wine cup from the guest and pours the fine wine into the wine cup, which is a drinking vessel. He drinks it first and then invites the guests to drink it. This is called "rewarding them with words".
The combination of offering, drinking, and remuneration is called "one offering". After the host and the guest of honor have made an offering, they will also make offerings and drinks with other guests, taking turns in this way, supplemented by music, singing and dancing during the meal, until the host and guest stagger away after enjoying themselves.
This toasting etiquette has been passed down to later generations as an important part of dietary etiquette. Today, the shadow of this ancient etiquette can still be seen in banquets in many places in our country, such as the banquets in modern Shandong. The toasting etiquette is related to the custom of "offering" and "rewarding" between host and guest. This banquet custom is spread and simplified from the pre-Qin banquet etiquette.
Today, many of the dregs in the pre-Qin dietary etiquette system have been washed away by the waves of the times. The function of class division has been abandoned, the connotation of worshiping gods has been stripped away, many red tapes have been simplified, and it has been integrated with traditional Chinese culture. The integration of Western food etiquette has become an important part of traditional Chinese culture, playing an important role in carrying forward fine Chinese traditions such as courtesy and humility, respecting the elderly and caring for the young, and promoting harmonious relationships between people.