What does the Gelao Sanyutai mean?

The "three tai" custom of the Gelao people, "three", refers to the three tables, that is, the tea banquet, the wine banquet and the meal banquet. "Yutai", the regional local language of Zheng'an, Daozhen, and Wuchuan, means "end" or "completion". "Sanyitai" means a banquet, which will end after a tea banquet, a wine banquet and a dinner banquet, so it is called "Sanyutai".

The custom of "Sanmotai" is spread in some areas of Zheng'an County, Daozhen, and Wuchuan Lao and Miao Autonomous Counties in northern Guizhou. In ancient times, the Gelao people married, set up a house, celebrated birthdays, held banquets during major folk activities and festivals, and all prevailed in the "three platforms" to entertain guests, which was grand and lively. Between each stage, accompanied by "blowing" (gongs, drums, suona), that is, every time you go up and every seat you leave, you have to play a blow, and the atmosphere is lively.

Later, it gradually became a way to entertain guests during the Spring Festival. Nowadays, as long as there is a distinguished guest, the Gelao family has to entertain them with "three platforms" to show respect for the guests. When guests arrive, they are greeted by opening the door of the hall.

The man beckons everyone to sit down, the hostess prepares tea and food, and the child goes to call the man in the neighborhood to accompany the guests. After the guests and hosts arrive, eight people a table (there are also ten people a table), back to the incense shrine (commonly known as "incense"), facing the door for the upper seat, the left for the guest seat, the right for the host seat, the lower seat for the younger generation, the seat and the generation have the customary rules, everyone in turn. The seniority is the same, and the elder sits on the top.

Generally, women and children do not serve at the table. Once everyone is seated, the first tea table begins. <>

The Gelao people, the origin of the ethnic group is related to the ancient bureaucrats, the national language is the Gelao language, which belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family, there is no script of the ethnic group, and the common Chinese language is used. The Gelao language worships ancestors, worships the bamboo king, the barbarian king ancestor, and the mountain god. The Gelao people are concentrated in the two Gelao and Miao autonomous counties of Wuchuan and Daozhen in the northern part of Guizhou Province and Shiqian County, and the rest are scattered in more than 20 counties and cities such as Anshun, Pingba, Puding, Guanling, Qingzhen, Zheng'an, Fenggang, Songtao, Qianxi, Liuzhi, Zhijin, and Dafang.

According to the statistics of the sixth national population census in 2010, the total population of the Gelao ethnic group is 550746. Due to regional differences, many ethnic minorities in China have very special customs. "Sanyutai" is the highest food etiquette of the Gelao people's hospitality, every marriage, birthday, house, festival banquet, etc., must use the "Sanyutai".

Its flavor food is numerous, the way of eating is unique, it can be described as a booth of national food, reflecting the culture of the Gelao people, and it is also a "wonderful" flower in Chinese food culture. In 2014, the customs of the Gelao people were listed on the list of national intangible cultural heritage representative items. <>

The first is a tea ceremony, which is mainly for drinking tea, accompanied by fruit cakes. Tea is served in a large earthen bowl, mainly to quench thirst and eliminate fatigue. The so-called "big bowl of tea, big bowl of wine", the folk customs are like this.

The fruit cakes accompanied by the tea ceremony are nine plates, one is melon seeds, the second is peanuts, the third is chestnuts, the fourth is walnuts, the fifth is "red hat cake", the sixth is "beauty mole bubble cake", the seventh is "flower crispy", the eighth is "crispy food", and the ninth is "hemp cake". Most of the tea is soil tea, and the big tree tea is the top grade in the soil tea (most of the people in Wuchuan County drink vegetarian tea (soil tea), and Daozhen and Zheng'an counties all drink oil tea). After the tea, the first platform was removed and transferred to the second platform.

The second is the banquet, after placing the cups, plates and bowls, first burn incense and paper, worship the ancestors, one is to express the merits of the ancestors for the benefit of future generations, and the other is to invite the ancestors and gods to share the delicacies. Then re-invite guests to their seats. Most of the second wine dishes are braised vegetables and cold dishes, such as sausages, braised pork offal, braised chicken, braised duck, lean bacon, preserved eggs, salted eggs, pickled radish, pickled ground beef, peanuts, etc., the content of the dish is uncertain, but it must be nine plates.

Most of the wine is self-brewed bud valley small pot wine. Local drinking habits, those who hold a cup, must drink three glasses, and those who do not drink alcohol use tea instead of wine. The first glass is a toast, and the host speaks, toasts to each guest, says some welcome and humble words, and does it first.

The second glass is a blessing wine, and the guest representative will say some words of thanks and blessings, and then toast together. The third cup is a toast for filial piety, and the younger generation toasts to the elders, and the younger generations must wait for the elders to finish drinking before drinking. When the wine is finished, the second table ends, and then the third table is served.

The third table is the rice seat, which is the main seat of the "three platforms", and the number of bowls of the dish is still nine bowls, commonly known as "nine big bowls". The "Nine Big Bowls" are "Dengzi Meat", crispy meat, meat balls, avocado tofu, gray tofu, button meat, daylily, bamboo shoots, soup dishes, etc. Among them, "Dengzi meat" is also called "big dish", which cannot be missing at any time.

When eating, the younger generation cannot use the dishes at will, and each bowl of dishes must wait for the elders to eat first before moving chopsticks (especially eating "Dengzi meat"). "Deng" is a ritual vessel for meat in ancient sacrifices, and "Erya Shiqi" says that "Wadou is called Deng." It can be seen that the title of "Dengzi meat" is derived from the sacrificial ritual vessel of "Deng", which holds meat), and when the elders serve vegetables, they should invite everyone to use the dishes together.

After eating, hold the chopsticks flat or together, and signal "everyone use slowly". The younger generation can not leave the table until the elders have finished eating. The shape of each dish is not round or square, and the reunion is reunited and the four seasons are rich.