China not only has a wide variety of cuisines and exotic fare in all its regions, even ordinary homemade cooking for three meals a day can provide for plentiful unique recipes. The Chinese stress the aesthetics of food, the refinement of dining ware, and the elegance of dining environment, so having food is a daily enjoyment. Eating, as a branch of learning and art form, not only gave birth to rich and excellent culinary techniques, also reflects the Chinese’s content and joyful nature. The Chinese have had a regular dining discipline since long ago. First it was a two-meals-a-day practice. The first meal, called zhao shi (morning food), is usually had around nine-o’clock in the morning. The second meal, bu shi, is had around four in the afternoon. The Chinese sage Confucius says that “bu shi bu shi,” which translates to “meals are not to be had if it is not the appropriate time,” meaning to emphasize the punctuality of meals. At around the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.), with better development of agriculture, people of every nationality group and region slowly began to adopt the “breakfast, lunch and dinner” practice. Only their dinners were had much earlier than modern men, as they believed “work starts with the break of dawn and rest is to be taken when the sun goes down.” Three meals of the day must be prepared and eaten fresh, a way of showing the Chinese’s crave and love for food. In recent years, the pace of life for urban Chinese are getting faster and faster. Dining out is becoming more and more common, especially for lunch. Most office professionals dine at nearby restaurants, or in cafeterias of schools and work units. As for dinner, female heads of households are usually very attentive in its preparation. In comparison with the Western way of individually served foods, the way of shared dining is seen as a distinguishable characteristic of the Chinese. For the Chinese, no matter if it is dining with family or with friends and associates, people usually sit around the table and eat from the same served dish and the same bowl of soup. But this was not always the case, as ancient Chinese practiced individually served foods for quite some time before the switchover. The earliest cooking and dining utensils were mostly earthenware placed on the ground. Later, supporting tools were invented, such as low, wooden tables. In the Shang Dynasty (around 17th to 11th centuries B.C.) oracle bone writings, one can see the character “su.” Its image is that of banquet seat (mat) with people sitting on it. The character “xi,” the pictograph of mat, shows that Chinese men at the time sat low on the ground. Most seating was rectangular or square in shape with the distinction of di ff erent sizes and lengths. The longer ones could seat several people while the shorter ones can seat at most two. The square ones were called du zuo (single seat), used by the elderly or people with high status. According to the needs, single or multi-tiered small mats can be set up. A person’s status can be observed from the number of people he or she is sitting next to. At the dining seats, a strict set of proprieties exists. Elders and younglings, or the noble and the vulgar, may not sit together. There exists factual occasions after someone has broken the proprieties, where the person who was dishonored wielded his sword to cut the seat into halves so as to end the inappropriate and humiliating seating situation. Corresponding to the seating customs, the Chinese also had a small table for each eater. The practice of individual seating and servings continued until the later years of the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.). In Chengdu, Sichuan Province, uncovered from an Eastern Han Dynasty (25 B.C.-220 A.D.) tomb site were brick paintings with scenes of banqueting. People were shown to be sitting in groups of two or three, while tables lay in front. These paintings depict the lives of people during those times.