Two Cultural Facts of Daily Life in the Han Dynasty

The Han Dynasty was a pivotal era in the formation of China’s cultural DNA. Many practices that we regard as “traditional” today had already begun to take shape more than two thousand years ago. From dining customs to social etiquette, the everyday practices of Han society laid important foundations for Chinese culture in later generations. The following two cultural facts concern, respectively, “what and how people ate” and “how they socialised and expressed emotions.” Together, they reveal a Han society that was both pragmatic and remarkably expressive.

Fact 1: Hot Pot, Including a Divided “Mandarin Duck” Style, Already Existed in the Han Dynasty

If you travelled back to the Han Dynasty, you would probably not go hungry. At the very least, you could enjoy a steaming communal meal cooked in a vessel remarkably similar in concept to today’s hot pot.

Archaeological discoveries provide intriguing evidence. Partitioned ding cauldrons have been unearthed from the tomb of Liu Fei, King of Jiangdu, in Xuyi, Jiangsu Province, and from the tomb of Marquis Haihun in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province. The interiors of these bronze ding vessels were divided into separate compartments, allowing different broths or ingredients to be cooked simultaneously. Some researchers regard such vessels as early prototypes of the modern divided hot pot. In other words, the basic idea familiar from today’s “mandarin duck” hot pot—cooking different flavours side by side—had a physical counterpart on the dining tables of Han elites more than two thousand years ago.

Hot pot was not an isolated culinary phenomenon. Han society already possessed a rich repertoire of cooking techniques. Historical texts describe more than ten ways of preparing meat, including stewing, roasting, spit-roasting, pan-frying, simmering, steaming, braising, drying, curing, and making meat paste. Considerable attention was also paid to seasoning. In addition to salt and vinegar, honey and sugarcane juice could provide sweetness, while ginger, cinnamon, garlic, and coriander added aroma and flavour.

Bamboo slips excavated from the Mawangdui Han tombs even record specific mutton dishes, including mutton stew and cured mutton. Among the pottery animal figurines excavated from the Yangling Mausoleum, more than four hundred depict sheep, suggesting that mutton was an important part of the diet of the upper classes.

Barbecuing was not limited to the wealthy. It was also common among ordinary people during the Han period. Stone relief carvings from Han tombs frequently depict banquet scenes in which people hold skewers and roast meat over open fires. More importantly, food in Han society served purposes far beyond mere sustenance. Archaeological exhibits and historical records show that banquets functioned as important occasions for social interaction. Powerful families gathered in grand halls, playing zithers and participating in games such as pitch-pot, while ordinary villagers shared simple meals in humble homes.

Food became a means of strengthening social bonds. Communal meals, grilled meat, and other shared dishes were already an integral part of social life during the Han Dynasty.

Fact 2: Guests Were Expected to Dance at Banquets, and Refusing Could Be Seen as an Insult

If hot pot represents one aspect of Han culinary culture, banquet song and dance reveal another distinctive feature of Han social life: emotional expression was often direct, exuberant, and deeply embedded in social etiquette.

The Han people’s enthusiasm for song and dance was far greater than modern readers might imagine. Singing and dancing together formed an important social custom. After drinking, people did not simply sit back and watch performers—they often joined in themselves. This practice crossed social boundaries. From Emperor Gaozu of Han playing the zhu and singing the famous Song of the Great Wind after drinking in Pei County to the spontaneous musical entertainment found at village feasts, song and dance could form the climax of a banquet and an important part of social interaction.

Surprisingly, Han society also had a formal social practice known as yi wu xiang shu, roughly meaning “dancing in sequence.” In this context, shu carried the sense of inviting someone to participate. The ritual proceeded roughly as follows: the host danced first. When he finished, he invited a guest to take his turn. That guest would then invite another person, and the process continued from one participant to the next.

Under this custom, refusing an invitation to dance could be interpreted as a serious breach of etiquette and, in some circumstances, could even lead to conflict.

The Eastern Han scholar Cai Yong is said to have encountered such a situation. Wang Zhi, Governor of Wuyuan, held a farewell banquet for him. As the wine flowed, Wang Zhi danced and invited Cai Yong to take his turn. Cai Yong refused. Wang Zhi felt publicly humiliated, insulted Cai Yong, and falsely accused him, eventually prompting Cai Yong to flee to the Wu region.

Whether viewed through this particular story or through the broader evidence for Han banquet culture, the custom illustrates an important feature of social interaction at the time: emotional expression could be public, physical, and governed by a strong sense of interpersonal obligation.

Unlike the more restrained image often associated with later Confucian literati culture, people in Han society could use music, dance, drinking, and communal feasting as active forms of interpersonal communication. Bodily gestures were capable of conveying respect, intimacy, acceptance, or even hostility. This was consistent with the broader ethos of Han society, which is often characterised by its relative frankness, vitality, and simplicity.

Hot pot and dance may seem to belong to completely different worlds—one concerned with physical nourishment and the other with social bonding. Yet they point to the same underlying cultural logic: Han people valued shared experiences and the maintenance of social relationships.

The divided design of the ding cauldron offered a practical solution for accommodating different flavours and ingredients. The practice of dancing in sequence provided a lively way to affirm social connections. More than two thousand years ago, around bronze cauldrons and banquet halls, people in ancient China cultivated a social instinct that remains faintly recognisable today: gather together, eat well, celebrate, and share the moment.