In the TV series "I Love My Home", Ge You plays a little leper who is a tramp who eats and drinks. He described himself as follows: If you do what I do, eat more when you have it, be hungry when you don't eat it, and manage it for a week after eating a meal, such an appetite is the appetite of a tramp. In fact, the appetite of the ancient people was similar to that of the tramp.
Don't look at us now people three meals a day has become the normal standard, but at that time the ancient people's food sources were very unstable. When the food is abundant, you can eat whatever you want, but when there is no food, sometimes you can't catch a meal a day. However, after entering the agrarian society, people's food sources were relatively stable, but before that, it was not three meals a day, but two meals a day.
The earliest record of two meals a day is in the oracle bone. During the Shang Dynasty, people divided a day and night into eight periods. These eight periods are not divided according to our current average of 24 hours a day, but according to people's work and rest activities, a day and night are divided into eight periods of different lengths. They are: Dan, Dashi, Dacai, Zhong-Ni, Xiaojiao, Xiaocai, and Xi.
The longest time is, of course, the sunset, because the whole night is called the sunset, which is the time period when people sleep. Big and small snacks are the time period when people eat. In "The Daily Life of ancient people", it is said that the time of the big meal is 8:00 a.m., and the time of the snack is 4:00 p.m. That is to say, during the Shang Dynasty, people ate a meal in the morning and a meal in the afternoon.
In the Western Zhou Dynasty, the ancient people's eating time changed again. They divided the day and night into 12 time periods, which is the 12-hour chronograph, which has lasted for thousands of years. Two of these twelve hours are called "eclipse time" and "dawn time", which is the time when the ancients ate two meals a day, almost from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The ancients had two meals a day, called "yōnɡ" in the morning and "sūn" (飧) at lunch. It is said that "chao yue, xi yue yue", so there is also an idiom "饔飧飧". The meaning of this is that after eating a meal without eating, this person is very poor. The habit of eating two meals a day was retained until the Tang Dynasty, when due to the relatively strong national strength, people were relatively wealthy, coupled with the obvious increase in the time of daytime activities, the interval between the two meals was indeed hungry, so at noon, snacks were added, that is, the prototype of lunch.
If there are southerners among the officials, maybe you still have lunch and dim sum there, which is actually the use of the ancient law. In addition, in Han Chinese, dim sum is actually the meaning of lunch. This is also the influence of the Tang Dynasty. Of course, the people who can eat from the beginning of the heart only exist in some rich families, and ordinary people still eat twice a day.
In the Song Dynasty, as people became richer and richer, three meals a day gradually became the standard, and even some cities had to eat some supper at night, which is the so-called four meals a day. Four meals a day is also done more by southerners. The more meals you eat in a day during the Song Dynasty, the higher your wealth and social status will be.
During the Ming Dynasty, it basically became three meals a day, and during the Qing Dynasty, the Han people mainly had three meals a day, but the Manchus still maintained the habit of eating two meals a day. In particular, the Kangxi Emperor once said: You Han people have to eat three meals a day and drink alcohol at night, which is really not very healthy. You see people like me, two meals a day can be. I think when I was riding a horse outside, it was no problem to eat only one meal a day.
It can be seen that how many meals a day are also related to national traditions. If you are more interested in the daily life of the ancient people, then the "Daily Life of the Ancient People" written by Teacher Wang, who talks about history, is quite good. This book is divided into life, diet, culture, emotion, and society, showing us everything about the daily life of ancient people, if you have the intention of crossing, you must buy this book in advance to prepare.