Chinese only ate two meals thousands of years ago, how can it become three meals now?

<>So, why is it that we have changed from two meals a day to three meals a day?

The answer to this question is actually quite simple. Although appetite is a natural desire of human beings, life is the main theme of human beings. With the emergence of society, people's lives are inevitably affected by social existence. Eating habits are also changing with the economic situation and the way society operates.

Over the past 2,000 years, Chinese society has undergone a transformation from a natural economy and a small-scale peasant economy to a commodity economy. It is so big that it affects the operation of the whole society, and it is so small that it also affects the eating habits of every family. Human beings are constantly evolving to transform society and nature, but at the same time, they are also being influenced by the environment and nature.

In the period of self-sufficient natural economy, everything in people's production and life comes from nature, and agriculture is the most important economy. The society is also an agricultural society, and the majority of the population is also farmers, advocating that the sun rises and the sun sets.

For farmers, farming to feed their families is the foundation of survival. Every day, the farmers eat breakfast at dawn and go to work in the fields with great energy. Generally, in order to improve efficiency, and the farming conditions are not developed, they all rely on manpower.

Save the time of traveling back and forth in the afternoon and continue to work, and do not go home until it is almost dark, so that there is only time for two meals.

As for the cultivation of the habit of three meals a day, it actually began in the Song Dynasty. The people of the Song Dynasty were prosperous, lived and worked in peace and contentment, and commerce also developed greatly. Many businessmen have developed a three-meal-a-day diet.

In ancient times, merchants ran merchants, and there were no developed transportation conditions, and merchants spent a lot of time either on the way to transport goods, or buying goods, in fact, they were extremely tired. Three meals a day can meet his daily needs, so that he will not be overworked due to hunger and affect his business.

As the commercial and cultural exchanges between China and Western cultures become more frequent and deeper, the eating habits of West Asia and Europe have also had a certain impact on us. Three meals a day was also more suitable for the gradual development and change of China at that time, so it spread to the common people and became a habit for most people.

To put it bluntly, eating habits are actually the result of historical choices.

In the past, the peasants were poor, the rate of crop output was low, and more than half of the agricultural products needed to be paid to offset the taxes, so the peasants kept less grain for their own use, so the amount of food they ate every day was minimized. And now that science and technology are developed, eating is also exquisite, so it is three meals a day, which is good for the body.

First, in ancient times, the level of agricultural production was not high, and the output of agricultural products was not abundant. After paying the grain tax of the imperial court, he had little left, and for the peasants, eating three meals was a bit of a luxury.

Second, the ancient work and rest time paid attention to the sunrise and sunset, so the ancients generally went out to work in the field at 8 o'clock, and rested at 7 o'clock in the evening, and ate two meals during this time to ensure the needs of the day.

In ancient times, candles were something that could only be used by the aristocracy. So at that time, ancient humans slept very early. So I paid attention to it, and I didn't eat at lunch.

Two meals are enough. But now we humans don't go to bed at six or seven o'clock. Nightlife was plentiful.

So it gradually became three meals.

Because our food production level has risen, we have become a reasonable eating habit of three meals a day.

After the Han Dynasty, two meals a day gradually changed to three or four meals.

Before the Qin and Han dynasties, people only ate two meals a day. Due to the underdevelopment of agriculture and the limited availability of food, even two meals are treated according to the person.

Before the Song Dynasty, the common people only ate two meals a day, only four meals for the royal family and three meals for the princes. In the Western Han Dynasty, on the holy decree to the king of Huainan who rebelled and was exiled, he pointed out the chaos of the mountain:"Subtract three meals a day to two meals"。

This is due to the economic prosperity of the Song Dynasty, except that the wine shops are no longer confined to the middle of the market as in the Tang Dynasty, and the night market does not implement a curfew at night, and the nightlife is rich at night, so a dinner is added.

Mozi Zashou said that soldiers ate two meals a day, and the amount of food was divided into five levels. The first meal is called "morning food" or "glutinous", and it is eaten when the sun travels to the southeast. The second meal is called "飧" or "食", and it is eaten at the time of Shen (around 4 p.m.).

The Chinese began to eat three meals a day after the Han Dynasty.

Before the Qin and Han dynasties, people only ate two meals a day. Due to the underdevelopment of agriculture and the limited amount of food, even two meals must be treated according to people. Mozi Zashou said that soldiers ate two meals a day, and the amount of food was divided into five levels.

The first meal is called "morning food" or "glutinous", and it is eaten when the sun travels to the southeast. The second meal is called "飧" or "食", and it is eaten at the time of Shen (around 4 p.m.). As for mealtime, the ancients said that "if you don't eat from time to time" (The Analects).

Eating at a time when you shouldn't be eating is considered a deviant act or a special reward. As recorded in "Historical Records: Xiang Yu's Benji", Xiang Yu heard that Liu Bang wanted Wang Guanzhong, and he was angry and ordered "to enjoy the soldiers every day", so as to reward the soldiers and stimulate morale.

After the Han Dynasty, two meals a day gradually changed to three or four meals. In addition, the three meals began to be divided into breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast, known as cold utensils in the Han Dynasty, refers to the snacks used after getting up and washing in the morning.

In the Tang Dynasty, the cold equipment began to be called a dim heart. "Neng Gai Zhai Manlu" cloud: "The secular example is to use morning snacks as snacks, which has been said since the Tang Dynasty.

To this day, breakfast is still called breakfast in many parts of the country. Lunch, the ancients used to call it "Chinese rice" or "over the middle".

The Han Dynasty unified the world, there was a surplus of food, and people began to eat three meals a day, and then you also know that the historical changes of the Yuan Dynasty people had their own habits, and they really set down three meals a day, and it should have started from the time of Zhu Yuanzhang in the Ming Dynasty.

As the saying goes, people are iron and rice is steel, and three meals a day are something that everyone must experience. But in fact, the history of the habit of eating three meals a day is not very long, at most it is more than 100 years old. It was not until the late Qing Dynasty that it began to tremble and form three meals a day.

Before that, Chinese had always eaten two meals a day. So, why is there two meals a day, and why does it continue to have a history of more than 3,000 years?

Network illustration. China is a country with a very developed agricultural civilization, and in ancient times, it has always paid attention to the habit of working at sunrise and resting at sunset. In other words, the time when the ancients got up and rested was similar to the law of the sun.

Generally speaking, people go out to work in the fields at 8 o'clock and rest at about 7 o'clock in the evening. This was the case not only for the peasants, but also for the emperor who was high up at the time. People eat two meals a day, once in the morning and the other around 2 p.m.

Because of the long interval between them, they were all about eating well at that time.

Since the Shang Dynasty, people have gradually formed the habit of eating two meals a day. This habit was not broken until the late Qing Dynasty, and under the action of external forces. At that time, breakfast was called morning food, which means to get up in the morning and eat.

Dinner is called supper, which means to go to bed after eating. This pattern continued until the Song Dynasty, which had a very developed commodity economy. The curfew in the evening was lifted, and people had the habit of eating a late-night snack, which had a little taste of a third meal.

Network illustration. However, supper is a treat only for the residents of the city. For the peasants outside the city, they still go to bed after eating.

The following Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties also followed this model until the outbreak of the Opium War. After the Opium Wars, the Qing Dynasty was forced to open its borders. Western culture began to infiltrate the Qing Dynasty, including Western eating habits.

At that time, the West had already begun to have three meals a day, and changes began to occur within the Qing Dynasty, and three meals a day began to gradually become popular.

In fact, the Qing Dynasty accepted three meals a day was also a practical need, first of all, the beginning of modernization, people's labor time greatly increased. The pattern of two meals a day before the cong stall is no longer enough to ensure that people replenish their physical strength when they work. In addition, nightlife is gradually becoming more abundant, and people are no longer eating and sleeping.

In this way, in the late Qing Dynasty, three meals a day were gradually formed. Of course, it is not completely popular, and when some literati wrote travelogues, they found that the people in the southwest and northwest regions still had two meals a day.

In today's society, people have long been accustomed to three meals a day. Some people also like to go out at night to eat supper, which is considered the fourth meal. Of course, there are also some people who choose to eat two meals a day.

Some people are reluctant to eat it for the sake of **. There are also Taoist priests who practice in the mountains, and I have to say that Taoist friends still continue the habit of eating two meals a day, especially Quan Zhen.

China's total daily consumption of urban and rural residents is more than 2,127 billion yuan; Every day, more than 740,000 tons of grain, more than 470,000 tons of pork, more than 170,000 tons of edible vegetable oil, more than 460,000 tons of sugar, 18.7 million kilograms of fresh eggs, 19.56 million kilograms of aquatic products, and 360,000 tons of wine are consumed.

Grainfoodstuffscereals refers to a general term for various plant seeds that are used as staple foods in cooking foods, and can also be summarized as "grains". Grains are basically grasses, and the nutrients contained in the rented circles are mainly sugars, followed by proteins. Grains include wheat (wheat, barley, barley.

rye, oats), coarse grains.

species (corn, sorghum, buckwheat, state pure millet, millet, millet) and rice.

There are three major categories (japonica rice, indica rice, glutinous rice, upland rice, and deep rice).

Because today's living environment and material conditions are better than before, as well as the progress of science and technology, science and technology have enabled the increase in food production to meet the needs of more people, and the money earned by people's income can improve their own lives, so every household can now eat three meals.

Because in ancient times, productivity was very low, and the life of the peasants was very poor, so they ate two meals a day, and with the development of the economy, the peasants' lives got better and better, so it became three meals.

In the past, eating two meals was because the conditions did not allow it, and there was not so much food, but with the development of social economy and science and technology, the Chinese people have become rich and naturally eat three meals.

Because in ancient times, people had low productivity and did not have enough food to eat, so in order to save food, they only ate two meals, but now the economy is developed, food and clothing are not a problem, and people eat three meals.

We Chinese have made great efforts to eat since ancient times, each place has its own food style, the people take food as the sky, since ancient times, regardless of the dynasties and generations of the people to eat enough is the most important, but more than 2,000 years ago, the people only ate two meals a day. Or before the Song Dynasty, people ate two meals, one from seven to nine in the morning and the other from three to five in the morning.

First, the food production is less, people eat two meals does not mean that they are not hungry and only eat two meals, it is really because the food problem is difficult to solve during that period, the people are not full of food and clothing, two meals a day is already very good, some families can not maintain one meal a day, social productivity is relatively low, the people in order to maintain the future life, so it is stipulated that two meals a day, even the soldiers are no exception, according to the number of people to distribute food, before the Han Dynasty, people paid special attention to the time of eating, if you accidentally passed the time to eat, you can not eat again. In the Han Dynasty, the social productive forces progressed, and gradually there was food, and some wealthy merchant families began to eat three meals a day, but most people still had two meals a day.

Second, the specific time of economic development during the Song Dynasty can not be studied, but in the Song Dynasty, people developed the habit of three meals a day, many people think about the Tang Dynasty, thinking that the Tang Dynasty is the most prosperous dynasty, but the Song Dynasty is not bad, but the army is relatively weak, the people live and work in peace and contentment during the Song Dynasty, and the development of agriculture makes the people not worry about food, and three meals a day began to be implemented.

Third, the merchant group began to implement the work of three meals a day businessmen to go south and north, so in order to rush to eat more to replenish the body, at that time overseas ** was more developed, but also affected by foreigners, businessmen distributed in all strata of society, so by the influence of businessmen, ordinary people also began to eat three meals a day. Moreover, there was no curfew in the Song Dynasty, people could also go out at night, many people got together to eat and drink and have dinner, and finally had a supper, in fact, the specific time of three meals a day could not be investigated, and people slowly formed habits.

Because of the development of productive forces, life has been enriched. At night, the ancients did not move, and often went to bed very early, and were not allowed to eat dinner. Now there are a lot of activities in the evening, and the time has been extended, and it has been changed to three meals.

I think it may be because of the continuous improvement of farming technology and level, we can get more and more food, which also enriches our path to consume it, and two meals gradually become three meals! It may also be out of a kind of thinking about health, eating three meals is more conducive to the development of health and longevity!

In the past, the productivity was low and the grain production was small, but with the development of the social productive forces and the change of people's living habits, it was gradually changed to eat three meals a day.