Chen Xiaolang's so-called nine baskets, which is circulated in the workshop, is "eight dishes and one soup, and white rice is free to pack." "Eight dishes and one soup" has a number of classic combinations of dishes. Nowadays, the villages in the Pearl River Delta still abide by this rule every festival ... I am glad to hear that Kaiping Diaolou has successfully applied for the heritage, but I remember that Guangzhou once declared "drinking tea" in Cantonese cuisine as an intangible cultural heritage. The content and form of Cantonese cuisine are unique, and my humble article only talks about the origin of the "nine big baskets" of Cantonese cuisine. This leads to an interesting topic, how are the specifications of today's banquets formed? Speaking of ancient banquets, there are quite a few famous banquets. Apart from official banquets and wedding banquets with three festivals and two birthdays, there are also banquets for welcoming guests, farewell banquets, garden pavilions and boat banquets, but there are basically two kinds of banquets: official banquets and private banquets. There are many stresses on the ostentation and extravagance of official banquets, among which seating is the most important, which is the product of the hierarchical system and cannot be taken lightly. Therefore, official banquets are divided into "strict seats" and "open seats": "strict seats" are also called "special seats", which are reserved for the most distinguished guests and let him enjoy a seat alone; "Opening a seat" is a seat for three people, with one side open, the head of the seat facing the hall or stage, and the two sides are accompanying seats; This arrangement is to facilitate the guests and hosts to watch the program. Readers should not equate official banquets with public meals and drinks at present. In those days, regardless of official entertainment or folk banquet, as long as the rules of hierarchy were strictly followed, it was called official banquet. On the other hand, even if all the people attending the banquet are officials, eating, drinking and having fun are all paid at public expense, but it is a private banquet if the flowers are intertwined. In Dunhuang frescoes, there is a picture depicting the behavior of the Tang people: four men and five women sitting opposite each other like dumb birds, with men's gauze hats and gowns and women's high-bun palace dresses. This form is sitting around in the garden pavilion banquet, and it is also the ostentation and extravagance of the Tang people's poetry and wine party as a private banquet. This kind of event is full of prostitutes, so there is an extra lady in the female guest table in the picture. The author speculates that she should be a "law clerk" and also a "magistrate", that is, a prostitute who is responsible for performing rituals and taking orders. Perhaps the painter didn't dare to record the drunkenness of the princes, so he stopped a group of men and women for a moment, but it was a pity that some Tang style was missing. It is said that since the Kangxi dynasty, the banquet was no longer popular among the people, and the guests were "sitting all around" at the square table or "sitting obliquely around the big round table", and the Cantonese "surrounding banquet" was probably called from then on. The atmosphere of sitting around the table spread all over the country and affected the officialdom, so the huge desktop also provided a broad stage for the appearance of "eight cold and eight hot" or "nine big baskets". The "Nine Big Handicaps" in Lingnan and the "Eight Cold and Eight Hot" in Lingbei all originated from the Manchu-Han banquet. According to Mr. Li Qingren of Sichuan, "Since the sixth year of the Republic of China, banquet guests have not reused all the seats, let alone spoken Chinese. That is, shark's fin, sea cucumber and other seats are often served in the format of rice, that is, four water plates, four small hot meals, eight dishes plus one soup, or one midpoint. " This statement summarizes the changes in the modern banquet food customs in China. "eight cold and eight hot" and "nine big baskets" parted ways and formed their own styles after the Manchu-Chinese banquet appeared in order to make rice format. From the early Republic of China's "Cantonese Cuisine Preserves Truth", we can also see clues. The Cantonese-style Manchu-Han banquet recorded in this book is divided into five rounds, with eight dishes and one soup in each round, and abalone, ginseng, wings, belly, bear's paw and bird's nest as the main dishes. The fifth round of the finale was really amazing, and it even brought out home-cooked dishes full of common customs. The dishes at the whole banquet included: Magnolia Belly, Oolong Elbow, Steamed Seafood, Pan-roasted Mutton Grilled, Salted Fish, Rape, Salted Eggs, Beef Grilled and Egg Flower Soup. Such a menu is out of reach even in small restaurants nowadays. There were once gourmets in Lingbei who were amazed at Cantonese cuisine in Hong Kong, but they did not forget to ask for advice on the origin of the nine big baskets. The food industry in Hong Kong claims that the nine baskets symbolize the nine basic elements of the universe: heaven, earth, wind, cloud, thunder, rain, electricity, water and fire. This gentleman believes in it and writes it into his masterpiece. There is another popular saying in Guangdong: "nine" symbolizes "many" in the ancient concept, and the so-called "number begins with one and is extremely nine", so there are nine days in the sky and Kyushu in the ground; At the same time, in Cantonese, "Jiu" and "Jiu" are homophonic, meaning a long time, a long time to eat. Therefore, the nine baskets are indispensable. Even if one dish of green vegetables is missing, the nature will change immediately, and it may become the specification of funeral-Cantonese people call it "food seven". Of course, what is said in Guangdong and Hong Kong is just a supplementary meeting, believe it or not. What remains in folk memory is often this kind of beautiful collateral. However, the author believes that, as a talk after dinner, readers can choose between the truth and the postscript. If it is a cultural heritage, we must return it to its true colors, cherish and inherit it with an attitude of reverence for history and respect for the status quo. (Zhang Yilin/compiled)