Why do the Jia family in Red Mansion eat five meals a day?

Dream of Red Mansions touches on all aspects of Chinese culture, especially food. Some people are curious about how the Jia family eats. The original text of Dream of Red Mansions does not describe much, so how many meals do the Jia family eat a day? It took a lot of effort to explain this clearly. We looked for clues from Jia Mu and Wang Xifeng. ? How many meals does the Jia family eat every day in Dream of Red Mansions? The answer is: Normally, there are two meals. Counting the noon banquet, afternoon snacks and night banquet, it can also be said to be five meals.

The two-meal system has the longest history in China and is still used today. Three meals is a dining system that only existed after the Tang Dynasty. Generally speaking, there are three meals in the south, and two meals and three meals in the north according to the season. ?

Before the Qin and Han Dynasties, there were only two meals in China. "Mozi Zashou" said that soldiers ate two meals a day. The first meal was called "Chaoshi" or "祔"; the second meal was called "磧" or ?Food?. Zhu Xi also said: "The morning is called eating, and the evening is called eating."

In the original work: The Liu family said hurriedly: "Even the girl and her sisters, who are forty or fifty people, only need two chickens, two ducks, more than ten kilograms of meat, and a sling of vegetables a day. You guys do the math. Forget it, what is enough for you? You can’t even support this item for two meals, but you can still do this and that.

This sentence from Liu’s family in the 61st chapter? Even this item Two meals?, it has been pointed out that the Jia family implemented a two-meal system in late spring and early summer before Jia Baoyu's birthday in April, indicating that the ancients practiced a two-meal system in winter and summer. There are strict regulations on the meal time. The time for "morning meal" or "dinner meal" is when the sun moves to the southeast, which is from nine to eleven o'clock. Eat at Shen Shi from three to five o'clock, and Shen Zheng at four o'clock. In the original work: (Wang Xifeng) I all have a certain time. Anyway, there is a time clock in your room. Come on, it’s already time to have breakfast. If there is anything to do, it’s only at the beginning of the afternoon. ?

In the fourteenth chapter of Dream of Red Mansions, Wang Xifeng made it clear that it was already time to have breakfast. This is also a very clear meal time.

Shi Taijun had two banquets in the Grand View Garden. It can be seen that it took a long time for everyone to get up and set up in the Xiaocui Hall of Qiushuangzhai in the Grand View Garden. After breakfast. Mother Jia took Grandma Liu and a group of others to have breakfast, and then took Grandma Liu to visit the Grand View Garden. After leaving, it was time for a banquet at noon. In the Lotus Champs! ?

In ancient times, drinking and entertaining were two different things. Although there were dishes, there was no staple food. Grandma Liu was not invited to drink during the dinner. Between breakfast and dinner, they mainly drank wine and ate food.

After the banquet, they had another snack. Jia Mu disliked the taste of the crab roe dumplings and refused to eat them. After drinking tea in Cui'an, Jia Mu went to Daoxiang Village. After taking a nap, I got up and had dinner at Daoxiang Village. It was probably around three or four o'clock?

Similarly, before Grandma Liu came, Shi Xiangyun invited her to eat crabs, which was also a noon banquet, not a dinner. The same goes for Mrs. Wang asking Aunt Xue to wait for lunch. ?

Drinking in Dream of Red Mansions strictly follows the two-meal rule. The dining time for Jia Mu is from 9 to 10 in the morning and from 3 to 4 in the afternoon. Have some snacks. Do you rarely eat them before going to bed? The ancients went to bed early and got up early.

Like the Lantern Festival night banquet and the Yihongyuan night banquet. It is rare for Jia Mu’s moon-viewing dinner to last until midnight. It is also a banquet, not a meal. Of course, the owners of the Jia family will never be short of food. ?

Eating is an unavoidable topic when reading Dream of Red Mansions. There is a mention of eating in every chapter. The Jia family, headed by Jia Mu, seems to have banquets every day, hosting them themselves and participating in other people's banquets. Two meals, breakfast at nine o'clock and dinner at three o'clock, but actually eating four or five meals a day is a very unhealthy lifestyle!