After the Tang Dynasty, why don't the Chinese people "sitting"?

Sitting upright, also known as sitting across the crane, sitting, kneeling, kneeling (sitting), is the traditional sitting posture of our ancient Chinese people, the correct kneeling posture is elegant, reflecting the Chinese civilization dignified and modest manners. Historically, people in the pre-Qin, Han and Tang dynasties sat kneeling on the ground wearing wide and flowing clothes, with a kind of atmospheric beauty. From ? Kneeling and Talking? and? and "to raise one's case to one's eyebrows". and other idioms, you can also see the culture of the ancients.

Kneeling not only reflects a kind of cultivation and charm, from the point of view of health, is also very beneficial to human health. Sitting on the ground, that is, sitting on the ground, hips on the ankles, the upper body straight, hands on the knees in a disciplined manner, the body temperament is dignified, the eyes do not look askance, that is, now the Japanese sitting posture. Sometimes, in order to express the solemnity of speech, the hips leave the heels, called long kneeling, also called up. Rakuyoko's wife spoke in this posture when she advised her husband to pick up the gold.

In the earliest times, there were no chairs, and people meeting guests sat on a mat, or a large bed called a couch, with their buttocks resting on their heels, called sitting upright. Although not very comfortable, but in formal occasions, you have to sit like this, otherwise it is rude. As early as the Shang and Zhou dynasties, we had a system of etiquette, so naturally we were rude in this regard. This way of life continued for thousands of years, and it was not until the Tang Dynasty that we ended this way of sitting, which had lasted for thousands of years. So what made us give up sitting upright, let's take a look at it.

First of all, there must be an alternative to sitting upright, that is, the introduction of chairs from the northern nomadic people, so that the people of the Central Plains can liberate our legs, do not have to sit on the ground. The end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, a kind of named ? Hu bed? The folding bench, similar to the present-day matzah, from the northern nomadic region into the Central Plains, the first time to change the people's sitting posture. People gradually began to give up the uncomfortable sitting position.

By the middle of the Tang Dynasty, the hu bed gradually evolved into a chair with a backrest and armrests that allowed the legs to naturally sag, and it became widely popular during the Song Dynasty. Ancient Chinese legs were finally liberated.

Second, the change in dress allowed us to change the way we sit. In prehistoric times, our clothing was characterized by a shirt on top and a garment underneath. A garment was a skirt, and both men and women wore skirts without underwear underneath. Sitting upright in such a situation would do a good job of preventing us from getting naked and from being rude in front of guests. During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, the ancients learned to use robes as undergarments (later robes became outerwear).

There was an extra layer of robe inside the top and bottom, and the risk of getting naked was a little smaller. During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, pants were finally popularized. However, at that time, the pants did not have a crotch, not even the waist of the pants, a left and a right set in the two legs, the vital places still maintain a vacuum. Crotch pants were invented only after the Eastern Han Dynasty, and were popularized for use during the Northern and Southern Dynasties. So even if the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there is a small horse, people are still sitting in the sitting style, is to prevent the light. Until the age of the Tang and Song dynasties, the invention of crotch pants, only to make people completely give up the way to sit, the use of chairs and stools.

Third, sitting makes people very difficult

Before the chair appeared, people in the formal occasions must be sitting, this sitting position now seems to be very difficult, I'm afraid that it is difficult for modern people to adhere to this sitting position for half an hour. Therefore, people in ancient times had to be trained hard from childhood to adapt.

This sitting position will make our legs numb after a long time, and I believe we all have had this difficult feeling, so in order to avoid the difficult, change is inevitable. It is also because of this change, at least our countrymen now do not need to suffer the suffering of this kneeling, now we have a variety of chairs and benches for us to use, do not have to stick to sitting.