Why did ancient people kneel when eating?

Kneeling generally means sitting, which is a sitting posture in ancient China, that is, sitting on the floor with hips on ankles, keeping upper body straight, and putting hands on knees regularly, which is dignified and beautiful.

In the earliest days, there were no chairs. When people receive visitors, they all kneel on the mat, or the big bed called sofa, with their hips on their heels. Although uncomfortable, you must sit like this in formal occasions, otherwise it is impolite.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, a folding bench named "Hu Chuang", similar to Mazar-e, was introduced into the Central Plains from the nomadic areas in the north, which changed people's sitting posture for the first time. People gradually began to give up the uncomfortable sitting posture of kneeling. In the Tang Dynasty, the formal etiquette was still "sitting up", but "sitting around" had become popular in the society. In the mid-Tang Dynasty, Hu Chuang gradually evolved into a chair with backrest and armrests, which could make our legs droop naturally, and it was widely popular in the Song Dynasty.