If you have a banquet with the guests of all directions, the guest of honor presents the wine vessel to the king, saying, "The minister accepts the gift, and the minister asks Sasuke to take the wine vessel." The order of the king, who assisted in the ceremonies, replied: Do not be too polite. In the course of the banquet, there are poems and music of the string songs "Zhou Nan" and "Zhao Nan".

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Yan Li is the meaning of banquet ceremony, which is the etiquette of the ancient Chinese nobles in their leisure time for political affairs and the feelings of their subordinates. The Yan ceremony can be held for a specific object, such as a minister returning from a mission, a newly meritorious subordinate official, a hired dignitary, etc., or it can be a banquet for ministers without special reasons. The purpose of Yan Li is to show the righteousness of mutual respect between the monarchs and ministers.

The Yan ceremony was held in the main hall of the Son of Heaven or the princes. In ancient times, the Son of Heaven had six bedrooms, 1 road dormitory, and 5 sleeping palaces. The princes have three bedrooms, 1 road bedroom, 1 dormitory, and 1 side room. The road bed is the main bed, it is the place where the Son of Heaven and the princes listen to the government and deal with affairs, and the dormitory is a place to rest.

Before the Yan ceremony begins, there are priests who have to set up all kinds of utensils. Chef Jae set up the dishes on the east side of the roadbed. Musical instruments such as chimes, chimes, bells, bós, and drums are placed between the east and west steps under the main hall. Directly facing the dripping place on the eaves on the east side of the hall house, there is a washing vessel for discarding water when washing hands, and on the east side of the washing vessel is a water container, and on the west side of the washing vessel is a bamboo basket for the sake of the doctor. The drinking vessels used by the monarch were decorated with ivory and were called elephant goblets. The bamboo basket on which the elephant goose is displayed is called a food basket and is set up on the north side of the washer.

The wine bottles of the monarch and the king were also separated, and the doctor used two square pots, which were displayed on the west side of the pillar on the east side of the main hall. The sake bottle used exclusively by the monarch is called a food bottle, which is placed on the side of the wine bottle of the prince, and is covered with coarse kudzu cloth or fine linen, and there is a bracket at the bottom of the bottle. There were also many taxis who had not yet received the knighthood, and they used two round pots, which were displayed on the west side of the door.

There are many people who participate in the Yanli, and their identities and status are very different, so the arrangement of seats should reflect the dignity and inferiority. In the Book of Rites, it is written that the seat of the monarch is set above the eastern steps, which means that the seat of the monarch is the main seat; The king ascended to the throne alone, standing in his seat, facing west, which meant that no one dared to match him.

After the monarch took the throne, the secretary, the doctor, the scholar, the traveler, etc., entered the dormitory under the guidance of the minister. On the right side of the door, facing north, they stand side by side in the order of dignity and inferiority, and those of honorable status are on the east side. The men stood side by side on the left side of the door, facing east, and the nobles on the north. The traveler and eater stand on the left side of the door, facing north, and the nobleman on the east side.

After the doctor and the others stood still, the monarch stood in the southeast of the east steps, facing the south and facing the qing, letting the qing go forward, and the qing went slightly to the north, and then stood facing the west; The king invited the doctor to come forward, and the doctor also went a little north, standing facing north; This is to determine the position of the ministers.

The procession of the princes turned and faced west, and the nobles were in the north; The king saluted the doctor again and asked them to come in, but the doctor only stepped forward slightly, and the direction of the procession remained unchanged; The queue of taxis remained in place. The monarch faces south, and the secretary, doctor, and scholar stand on the east, south, and west sides, and surround the monarch. This position of the monarch and the minister is the position where the Son of Heaven meets the courtier, so this procedure contains the meaning of determining the position of the monarch and the minister.

During the ceremony, the guests and the doctor had to sit in the main hall one after another, and their seats in the main hall were also arranged in advance: the seats of the guest of honor were between the doors and windows of the main hall; The seat of the secretary is on the east side of the guest seat, and the seat of the noble person in the secretary is the first on the east side. The seat of the big and small secretary is on the west side of the guest seat, the seat of the noble person is in the first place on the west side, close to the seat of the guest, the doctor's seat is then the seat of the small secretary to the west, if the number of doctors is large, the west side can not be photographed, you can fold it before the west wing and sit south. The principle of the seat arrangement is that the more noble the status, the closer it is to the monarch. Scholars are not eligible to sit in the main hall, and their seats are arranged in the east of the court.

The ceremony of feasting and drinking, the host and the guest of honor must be set up, otherwise it cannot become a ceremony, which is the same as the virtuous guests in the township drinking ceremony and the township shooting ceremony.

According to common sense, the host of the Yanli should be the king, and the guest of honor should be the person of honorable status. However, the host and the guest of honor in the Yan ceremony are on an equal footing and compete with each other. In this way, two problems will occur, one is that the status of the Qing is the highest among the courtiers, the status is second only to the monarch, and the respect and humility are the closest. If the monarch is the master and the secretary is the guest, then the monarch is bound to fight with the secretary everywhere, which will inevitably make people feel that the country has two masters. Second, if the monarch is the host and the secretary is the guest, then the two will always be burdened by cumbersome etiquette and it will be difficult to drink to the fullest.

Therefore, Yan Li used a workaround: let the zaifu in charge of the meal be the master, and the zaifu was a knight; Another doctor will be the guest of honor. Let the butcher and the doctor go around and let go, not only will there be no other scruples between the monarch and the minister, but also the monarch and the secretary can be liberated, sit and watch the success, and gather for a feast. Therefore, in the "Etiquette", it is said that the king asked the ruler to toast the guests on his behalf, because no one in his subordinates dared to salute the monarch on an equal footing; Don't use the minister as a guest, but use the doctor as a guest, this is because the minister is already very noble, and now let him be the guest of honor, there is a suspicion of rivaling the monarch, so this means avoiding suspicion.