Chapter 18 Section 4 Drinking and Eating

The etiquette and customs of ancient diet are mainly manifested in banquets.When holding a banquet, the seats should be divided into high and low priority, and the toast should also be distinguished according to the status of the guests.The most popular banquet etiquette in ancient times was the rural drinking ceremony.According to "Zhou Li", there are three types of rural drinking in the Zhou Dynasty.One is that the three-year study in the ancient township has achieved a great ratio, inspecting its virtues and skills, and recommending worthy ones to the monarch.After the candidate is determined, the township doctor will hold a banquet to treat each other as guests, and invite the elders of the township to accompany them, calling the township to drink.The second is that Dangzheng (the head of five hundred households) entertains the villagers at the annual La Festival to correct the teeth.The third is that the state officials entertain the neighbors before the school archery practice in spring and autumn every year.After the Tang Dynasty, rural drinking gradually evolved into a rural tribute for local officials to welcome them to Beijing for the examination or a banquet for the candidates of the provincial examination.According to the records of "Yi Li", the guest of honor is located in the northwest, and the guest of honor (second only to the guest of honor) is located in the southwest.This is because the ancients believed that "the dignity of heaven and earth" "begins in the southwest and flourishes in the northwest" (Volume 4 of "Ritual Collection and Explanation"), and this arrangement shows respect for the guests.The host sits in the southeast as a companion.When opening a banquet, the host toasts to the guests first, the guests toast to the host, and the host to toasts to the guests;When drinking, there is usually music to accompany it.Rural drinking continued until the Qing Dynasty, and compared with the Zhou Dynasty, many procedures were added, but the basic etiquette remained unchanged.As for other banquets, although there is not a fixed program like that of rural drinking, they still have to be divided into the upper seat, the accompanying seat, and the lower seat, or the main seat and the guest seat, and give way to each other.Of course, the above-mentioned division of seats is a difference in etiquette between people of the same class, and masters and servants are not allowed to eat at the same table, even if the relationship between masters and slaves is very close, they dare not overstep.For example, in the sixteenth chapter, it is written that Jia Lian and Sister Feng are drinking in the room, and Jia Lian's wet nurse Zhao Nanny comes in and asks her to go to the kang to have a drink, "Zhao Nanny insists on refusing."Ping'er set up a table on the edge of the Kang, Zhao Mama sat on the footrest, and Jia Lian picked out delicacies for her, and asked her to put them on the table to eat alone.

There is no feast without wine, and it is essential to toast each other between the host and the guests at the banquet.According to "Rituals", there was a complete set of etiquette procedures for toasting in the Zhou Dynasty, and there were special terms.For example, the host first toasts to the guest, which is called "offering", and the guest toasts to the host in return is called "酱〔zuozuo〕". .After presenting the ceremony, the guest can express his intention to leave according to the ceremony, and the host will send someone to hold up the wine cup (zhizhi) to persuade him to stay.Immediately, all the guests rewarded each other with wine, which is called "travel reward".After the travel remuneration, "the guests and hosts drink, the nobles go countless, and stop when they are drunk" (Volume 3 of "Explanations of the Book of Rites"), which is called "no counting nobles".There are also differences in the wine vessels for toasting. "Offer" wine and "Yu" wine use Jue, "Remuneration" wine uses Ji, and "Travel Reward" wine can only use Zun.In order to distinguish between superiority and inferiority, men and women, it is also stipulated that "whenever drinking wine, the monarch and his ministers do not share the title, and men and women do not share the title" (same as before), that is, the wine vessels of the monarch and his ministers, men and women cannot be mixed.

In terms of diet, the ancients also had the etiquette and customs of paying attention to cleanliness.According to "Yi Li" and other documents, whenever a drinking ceremony is held, the host must first "wash (guan) wash" before toasting the guests, that is, wash hands, wash the jue and other wine vessels, and it is used as a part of the toasting etiquette. A procedure, conducted in person.In addition, although chopsticks already existed in the pre-Qin period, they were only used on specific occasions.As the "Book of Rites · Qu Lishang" said, "Those who have vegetables in the soup use  (that is, chopsticks)", this is because "the dishes are intertwined, so  must be used."And people mainly pinch with hands when having a meal at ordinary times, without auxiliary tools such as chopsticks and spoons.Therefore, the "Book of Rites·Qu Lishang" requires: "You should not use your hands when sharing meals." Kong Yingdashu explained: "In ancient rituals, you don't use chopsticks [zhu] for meals, but use your hands, which is convenient for sharing meals with others." It is clean, and it is not allowed to eat before eating Shasha (nuo suo打雨) with your hands for food, for fear of being dirty." The "捼sha" mentioned here is to explain "Ze", which means rubbing hands together to remove sweat, there is this The action shows that the hands are not clean, and it is impolite to eat with others with unclean hands.

When eating, there are many specific etiquette rules.For example, "Book of Rites · Qu Lishang" requires that "don't put rice" when eating, which means that you can take rice from the utensils with your hands. In the tableware, lest others think it is dirty.When eating at a banquet, it is required to "never zha [zha] food", that is, the tongue and mouth should not make any noise when eating, because the ancients believed that talking and talking is a sign of dislike of the host's food.When eating fish and meat, it is required to "not turn back the fish", that is, the pieces of fish that have been bitten by oneself should not be put back in the original food container even if they have not been eaten, otherwise it will be regarded as indecent.During the banquet, it is also required to "don't 魠醢 [chuo hai]".醢 is a kind of finely processed meat sauce. It is a delicacy prepared for entertaining guests and ceremonies. It is served with beans (food utensils) alone. It is generally eaten with other foods or eaten with other foods. It has the effect of seasoning, so the taste Should be salty.If the guest picks up the bean curd (ready to drink), it means that the taste of the fermented bean curd is too bland, and it is suspected of blaming the host for the tasteless food.The etiquette and customs of eating at banquets mentioned above are all reasonable to a certain extent, so they are probably used by later generations.

Ancient food customs are also related to seasons.As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, our country had the concept of "four o'clock and eight festivals".The so-called four seasons refer to spring, summer, autumn, winter;In the "Lushi Chunqiu" in the Warring States Period, Meng Chunzhiyue "eats wheat and sheep"; Mengxia's moon "eats beans and chickens", Mengqiu's moon "eats hemp and dogs"; 〔zhizhi〕'.The diet pays attention to seasons, which is in line with the physiological characteristics of the human body. For example, people like refreshing food in summer and mellow food in winter.But what kind of food to eat in which seasons, and the formation of certain etiquette and customs are related to the food giving system of the courts of the past dynasties.From the ruler's point of view, the uniform pace of everything is conducive to maintaining their ruling order, and food and customs are no exception.Therefore, through the form of giving food, it contributed to the popularity of festival eating customs.Shen Defu of the Ming Dynasty recorded in "Wanli Ye Huo Bian": "Give all officials food... Spring pancakes are eaten in the beginning of spring, Yuanxiao Yuanzi is eaten on the first lunar month and Yuanxi, and it can't be eaten on April 8th (wrapped with white flour and vegetables) Foods steamed inside the leaves), eating rice dumplings at the Dragon Boat Festival in May, eating cakes at the Chongyang Festival in September, and eating waxed noodles on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. If you are an official in the court, you will be tired of the grace of the gods." Because the rulers have brought seasonal foods into the track of etiquette, these festive foods have also taken on the color of etiquette.If you don't eat the corresponding food in a certain season, you will be ridiculed by others.

In addition, according to the homonym of the food's shape and name, people associate eating certain food with good wishes, which has become a custom.For example, every New Year's Eve, each household will put one or two fish on the dining table, as a picture of "surplus (fish) every year"; rice cakes are always eaten during the New Year, expressing "every year (sticky) high (cake) rises". "; and Lantern Festival must eat Yuanxiao (also known as Tuanzi, Yuanzi) as food, in order to make the whole family "reunite".