A large round table for Chinese New Year's Eve meals
Just after the New Year, the annual Chinese New Year's Eve meal, whether it is at home or going to a restaurant, is usually seated around a round table. The large number of round tables may lead many people to think that perhaps the round tables appeared in ancient societies and have been used to this day. But the real situation is not the case, that is, in the Ming Dynasty, where the furniture is very complete, the round table has not appeared, and in the Qing Dynasty and even the Republic of China, the round table has gradually appeared in the homes of ordinary people, until today it has become an object that people use every day. How did this shift happen?
<h1 style="text-align: left;">, sitting and furniture</h1>
Today, Japanese people live as they used to, sitting on the floor, and if Chinese to experience this way of life, they may soon be unable to hold on and their legs will hurt. But our ancestors, for more than a thousand years before the high-foot furniture entered China, have been living on the floor. Sitting on the floor is our orthodox sitting posture, and today's habitual sitting with our feet hanging down is contrary to etiquette and custom, and this way of life of sitting with our feet hanging down was brought into China after Buddhism entered China. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there were many debates between Chinese and Buddhist monks about how to "sit".
Great Qin Fu sat on his knees
Chinese believe that sitting on the floor is an expression of solemnity and respect for the other party, while Buddhists sit on their feet is very arrogant and rude. It can be said that the Chinese scholars at that time were very disgusted and disgusted by sitting on their feet, but what made them helpless was that the integration of Buddhism and Chinese culture greatly transformed the face of Chinese culture, and its influence still exists today. No matter how fierce the argument between the two sides, the form of "sitting" still forcefully broke into the life of the Chinese and transformed the original way of sitting on the floor.
Sitting cross-legged is different from sitting cross-legged, the latter does not require any furniture, while the former requires a corresponding chair or stool. It can be said that sitting has completely changed China's eating and living habits, and by the Song Dynasty, sitting has replaced sitting cross-legged as a way of life Chinese. This brings about a huge change in the furniture of the Chinese, first of all, the emergence of seats and mass production, and then the furniture such as coffee tables, tables and chairs, tables and cases has gradually increased to adapt to the height of the people in the sitting state.
Kiyohei Le High tables and high chairs
<h1 style="text-align: left;" > the appearance of round tables and chairs</h1>
Although high-foot tables and chairs have appeared in large numbers and gradually become part of Chinese daily life, large round tables and chairs have never appeared. The reason is that this is related to the concept of "heavenly round place" that the ancient Chinese people have consistently adopted, the sky is round, the earth is square, the combination of circle and square is fixed and insurmountable etiquette, and the large round table is contrary to the concept of "heavenly round place", so it is rarely used.
The Heavenly Circle Place is the imagination of the world Chinese ancient times
Chinese has always attached great importance to the culture of sacrifice and has a lofty admiration for the heavens. Taking the Temple of Heaven as an example, although the most core part is a circular building, the entire temple of heaven square as the foundation is square, which is completely in line with the concept of "heavenly round place". This view led to the development of Chinese furniture, until the Ming Dynasty, there were never large round tables and chairs, most of which were still rectangular tables and benches. Even the tables and chairs used by the emperor were still rectangular, and the large round tables and chairs never became members of the furniture family.
The Temple of Heaven in the "Round Place"
It was not until the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty that large round tables and chairs officially appeared. Why didn't today's round tables and chairs appear until the Qing Dynasty? It is easy to understand that the Qing Dynasty was the last minority regime in China, and the Manchus replaced the Han as the supreme ruler of the country. Unlike the Han Chinese, the Manchus did not have the concept of "heavenly round place", and although they absorbed and borrowed a large amount of Central Plains culture after entering the Central Plains, the Manchus always maintained their national identity without loss. As we all know, the Yongzheng Emperor was a very diligent emperor, he did not often go down to Jiangnan like Qianlong, his task was to work in the capital, so his requirements for furniture and other objects were also higher. As far as Yongzheng himself is concerned, when he is bored, he will also design some objects and things himself, and then hand them over to craftsmen to make.
Square furniture has always occupied the mainstream furniture of ancient China
In 1730, the court minister received a holy order from the emperor to make a table with red or black paint, but unlike in the past, the Yongzheng Emperor specifically asked for a "round table". Not only should the table be round, but also a rotating bearing should be installed on the pillar in the middle of the round table, so that the table can be rotated, which is the same as today's rotating round table. This request was entirely the invention of Yongzheng himself, who was not influenced by the concept of "heavenly round place" in the Central Plains culture, but invented such a table out of practicality and mood, and what he did not expect was that such a table would completely enter thousands of households in hundreds of years.
Round table of the Qing Dynasty
<h1 style="text-align: left;"> third, the gradually popular round table</h1>
The Yongzheng Emperor died shortly after inventing the round table, and his son, the Qianlong Emperor, was a playful emperor himself, and his interest in the round table exceeded that of his father. Among the many figure drawings about Qianlong that can be seen today, where there are tables and chairs, most of the tables are mainly round tables, and the Qianlong in the painting has experienced changes in life from youth to old age, but the round table has consistently appeared in the pictures. This shows how much the Qianlong Emperor loved the round table.
In the famous novel "Dream of the Red Chamber" of the Qing Dynasty, there are also a large number of records depicting the round table. As we all know, in the first half of the novel, the luxury of Jia Fu is famous, and there are countless banquets and banquets, and in many descriptions, the round table "appears" many times. For example, in the thirty-eighth time, "Put the big reunion table in the middle", in the seventy-fifth time, "All tables and chairs are round in form, and the meaning of reunion is specially taken", etc., not only explain the popularity of the round table, but also explain the meaning of the round table, which is the same as the meaning of today's symbol of reunion and happiness. As for other folk paintings and literary notes, the appearance rate of the round table is also very high, which shows that although the appearance of the round table has not replaced the square table, it has gradually become comparable to it.
The round table in Dream of the Red Chamber
<h1 style="text-align: left;"> Wen Shijun said</h1>
The big round table that is commonplace today has not appeared for a long time. A small round table reflects the changes in ancient Chinese ideology and concepts, as well as the adaptation between the minority cultures in the north and the Han culture in the Central Plains. In the process of the fusion of Chinese and Western, barbarism and civilization, Chinese gradually abandoned the traditional sitting posture of sitting on the floor, borrowed and adopted the foreign hanging foot to the left, and at the same time, high-foot furniture also began to become popular. However, the table case is always square, in line with the concept of "round place". Then, with the entry of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the Han culture in the Central Plains was hit hard, and the round table broke through the constraints of the concept of "heaven and round place" and was created and popularized.
< h1 style="text-align: left;" > Reference</h1>
Wu Meifeng: "The Origin of the Great Round Table", Forbidden City, No. 11, 2015.
Chen Yongjun, "On the Inheritance and Innovation of the Traditional Round Table", Tiangong, No. 8, 2018.
(Author: Haoran Wenshi Little Sun)
This article is the original work of Wenshi Science Popularization Self-media Haoran Wenshi, and unauthorized reprinting is prohibited!
The pictures used in this article, unless otherwise noted, are from the network search, if there is infringement, please contact the author to delete, thank you!
We will provide you with wonderful historical articles every day, and we kindly ask all readers and friends to pay attention to our account! Your likes, retweets, comments, this is the best support for us!