Separate meals and combined meals are two ways to divide meals. The difference lies in the use of tableware. The former is separated from the latter, which can be used together. These two dining styles have existed in China since ancient times. As for whether to adopt separate meals or combined meals, we think hygiene is one of the important considerations, but it should also be considered from the perspective of food culture.
? 1. Get out of the barbaric era of eating animals and drinking blood.
China's food culture is very unique, not only because of its delicious dishes and gorgeous tableware, but also because of its rich and profound humanistic spirit and health preservation concept. From the perspective of humanistic spirit, there is a famous saying in the Book of Rites: "The ceremony begins with all kinds of meals." Can point out the essence of China's food culture.
Ceremony refers to civilization. At the beginning of Chinese civilization, with the development of food culture. Ancient people lived a life of eating meat and blood. "Eating meat and blood" refers to the barbaric scene of eating raw meat with hair and blood. Later, people began to master the technology of using fire and began to eat cooked food. Relatively speaking, cooked food is more hygienic and easier to digest, which is conducive to improving people's physique.
Four or five thousand years ago in China, the Yellow Emperor invented cookers such as cauldrons and retort, and taught people to steam grains into rice and cook them into porridge. Therefore, it is recorded in Shiben that "the Yellow Emperor made fire food", not that the Yellow Emperor made people eat cooked food, because primitive people had already eaten cooked food hundreds of thousands of years ago. This sentence is that the Yellow Emperor invented the tableware of conventional cooked food. ?
The complete tableware makes people have a sense of discipline and ceremony when eating. If the diet in the animal kingdom is usually selfish competition and the law of the jungle, then people's diet has begun to have a distribution mechanism and a sharing ceremony. At this time, the relationship between people broke away from barbarism and moved towards civilization.
2. What does the catering system mean?
Dining system is an early Chinese dining system, which contains a very profound food culture. Perhaps the most familiar eating system is the idiom "eat at a table". What does this mean? Ding is an ancient vessel for holding food. As early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, the number of Ding became a symbol of the status of host and guest and the specifications of banquet. "Biography of the Spring and Autumn Ram" records: "The son of heaven is Jiuding, the princes are seven, the doctors are five, and the scholars are three." At that time, people ate separately with different tableware.
Tian Zi Jiuding, the usual meat includes cattle, sheep, pigs, fish, wax, intestines, stomach, skin, fresh fish and fresh wax. There are also three accompanying ding, which will contain beef soup, mutton soup, pork soup and so on.
If you understand this system of eating while eating, it is easy to understand a grandiose sentence of Zhu in the Western Han Dynasty, "A husband can't eat five meals, but he will cook his ears when he dies." (Historical Records Biography of Ping Jin's Late Father) Wuding's index finger is the position of Doctor Qing, which shows that there is a very strong hierarchical order in the catering system.
But is the dining system just a food culture based on authoritative order? Obviously not. In fact, sharing meals means mutual respect between people.
Archaeological findings show that the painted lacquer food case of the Western Han Dynasty unearthed from Mawangdui 1 Han Tomb in Changsha City is very similar to the plates we eat separately now, and it is not the same as the way of eating according to the number of ding.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there were some stories that reflected the mutual respect of China's food culture, such as the story of "going our separate ways". The commander-in-chief rewarded the soldiers with killing sheep, but the food was unfairly distributed, and the driver did not eat it, which was a shame. When the war started, the coachman said, "You divided the sheep the day before yesterday; It is my decision to drive today. " As he spoke, he drove directly into the enemy camp and the coach was captured.
On the other hand, another story is recorded in Biography of Historical Records and Meng Changjun: "Meng Changjun used to entertain guests in the evening, and one person built a fire. The guests were so angry that they stopped eating and resigned. Meng Changjun is not as good as he is. The guests are embarrassed and complacent. " The public thinks that food is unequal, and Meng Changjun doesn't respect himself, so he is very angry. But later, the plot reversed. It turned out that Meng Changjun respected himself very much, because he was narrow-minded, distrustful and committed suicide in shame.
The ancient dining system, fundamentally speaking, made people feel due respect. So there are a series of etiquette rules, which is the fundamental intention of the dining system.
3. Why did the catering system finally win?
In ancient China, it is almost difficult to find the record proof of the system of joint meals before the Song Dynasty, that is to say, the system of separate meals should be more popular in ancient China, and the system of joint meals is a later product.
After the Western Jin Dynasty, with a large number of ethnic minorities moving in, Hu Feng spread to the south, which changed people's eating style, and the habit of sitting on the floor was changed, which benefited from the introduction of beds, Hu beds, chairs and stools. With the introduction of these tables and chairs, it has become a jingle for people to eat around the table.
According to textual research, a tomb of the Tang Dynasty Webster family was found in Nanliwang Village, Chang 'an County, Shaanxi Province. There is a picture on the east wall of the tomb with a large rectangular console table on it. There is a lotus leaf-shaped soup bowl and spoon in front of the console table for everyone to use. There are three benches around, and there are three people sitting on the benches, which reflects the change from sharing meals to sharing meals.
It should be said that the development of material culture has changed people's diet. Anyway, in the end, people in China generally implemented the system of separate meals. In fact, compared with the separate meal system, the combined meal system has a huge difference, which is more conducive to the affinity between people and the atmosphere is more relaxed. Especially suitable for family dinners and lively banquets.
Obviously, for China people who value human feelings, the catering system is more popular. The most important thing is that the separate meal system does not simply replace the separate meal system, but absorbs the cultural gene of the separate meal system-ceremony. Mutual respect in the separate dining system, including the fine tradition of ordering young and old, has been preserved by the joint dining system.
From the Ming Dynasty, the "Eight Immortals Table" became popular. Wang Mingsheng's "On the Seventeenth History" in Qing Dynasty recorded: "The table used by modern people has the same cover as the Hu bed. The ancients sat underground, borrowed seats, and relied on a few. ..... Today, it is very big, commonly known as the Square Table, which means that eight people can eat together. Although it is similar to several, it is very different. "
The square table is a typical eating utensil around the table, but the seating of the square table is very regular, and the generations match the orientation of the southeast and northwest, which also includes the etiquette rules when eating. People who don't obey the rules and etiquette are often bored and will directly lower their status in the eyes of others because they don't respect others. This is the same as the dining system. For example, at the Hongmen banquet, Xiang Yu deliberately arranged Liu Bang as a guest to show humility, but this was inconsistent with the ancient etiquette of putting customers first. Xiang Yu's arrogance is the main reason for his failure.
The system of sharing meals eventually replaced the system of sharing meals, not because China people just wanted to be lively and forgot the etiquette rules, but because they inherited this etiquette rule, the system of sharing meals was generally accepted by China people.
4. The use of public chopsticks in ancient China.
Now people are discussing whether the separate meal system and the combined meal system are based on hygiene or unsanitary. This is a one-sided way of thinking, and the understanding of food culture is by no means simple. If only from the perspective of hygiene, it is better to implement the system of public chopsticks and spoons on the basis of the joint meal system. Male chopsticks were born in China a long time ago.
Tian Rucheng's Notes on Visiting the West Lake in the Ming Dynasty recorded: "When Emperor Gaozong was in Deshou Palace, he put two pairs of spoons and chopsticks every time he ate. Before eating, he chooses what he wants to eat and puts it in a container with other chopsticks. All the food has been used up, so use another spoon to reduce the meal before eating. Wu Zetian asked him why and said to him,' I don't want to eat leftovers with the imperial secretary.' "
Song Gaozong Zhao Gou put two pairs of chopsticks and two spoons in his meal, and the rest were male chopsticks and spoons. He thinks that his favorite meals and meals are all put in a food container with chopsticks and spoons first, and then eaten cleanly. Before that, those meals were given to the maids. The queen asked him why, and he said, "I don't want others to eat my leftovers."
Explain that Song Gaozong used public chopsticks and spoons first, because he wanted to show respect for others, because chopsticks and spoons would touch his mouth, which was what was left, but if they didn't touch his mouth, it wouldn't count, and it wouldn't make people feel uncomfortable. Of course, this objectively improves the health level and prevents the spread of diseases.
5. It is more realistic to popularize public chopsticks, and it is necessary to reflect on the "ceremony" of the dining system.
Dining separately and dining together are two ways for people to eat together. Since the catering system is the choice of China's catering culture, it should be reformed carefully. It is suggested that it is more appropriate to use public chopsticks and spoons, which can not only solve the hygiene problem of sharing meals, but also save costs, not only the cost of tableware, but also food.
For example, ten people eat together and cook ten dishes. If they share meals, each person will have one dish and ten sets of dishes. Some people waste it when they can't finish it. Too many sets of tableware are also nerve-racking. What if it's twenty people?
Moreover, it is a bit unkind to eat separately within the family. The family used to eat around the table to enhance the emotion of daily life, but now they eat separately. For China people, this is even emotional discomfort.
So we suggest popularizing public chopsticks and spoons. Chopsticks are one of the symbols of Chinese food culture, and their existence has changed the habit of being directly used for hygiene, so it is more appropriate to promote public chopsticks.
In addition, we also reviewed the separate dining system and the combined dining system in ancient China. The common feature of these two ways of eating together is etiquette.
China is a country of etiquette, and "courtesy" is one of the core concepts of Chinese civilization. According to Zuo Zhuan in the Spring and Autumn Period, Zen, the son of Zheng Guo, once said, "The ceremony of husband, the classics of heaven, the righteousness of the earth and the trip of the people." Confucius said in the Analects of Confucius: "If you don't learn etiquette, you can't stand." Etiquette is the basis for people to become adults, and it is indeed closely related to food culture.
To this end, we summarized some etiquette rules from the Book of Rites.