In many costume film and television dramas, we often see such a scene, that is, the innkeeper said to the guest with a smile on his face, "Guest officer, are you sharpening or staying in the hotel?"
In this, the "stay" mentioned by Xiao Er can basically be understood by everyone, that is, the meaning of accommodation and accommodation, and what does the "tipping" mean?
Combined with the sentences before and after, and according to the services that the ancient inn could provide, we can roughly guess that this so-called "tipping" refers to the meaning of eating.
But there is a problem, since it is eating, why not just say eating, but use such a weird word as "sharpening"?
In fact, sharpening does not just refer to eating, but also includes several other meanings.
The term "sharpening" was very common in the novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties.
For example, in the novel "Mirror Flowers" written by the Qing Dynasty literati Li Ruzhen, there is the appearance and application of the word "sharp".
"If you stay on the road every time, the shopkeeper will kill the chicken and slaughter the duck when he hears that he is a first-class passerby. --- sixty-third episode of "Mirror Flowers".
From this passage in "Mirror Flowers", it can be seen that hitting the tip and accommodation are the main services provided by the ancient inn.
The ancients had already explained this problem, and another Qing Dynasty literati, Fuge, made a detailed interpretation of this term for the first time in his book "Listening to the Rain".
According to Fogg, the so-called sharpening refers to people finding a restaurant to eat at noon during the journey, which is called "tapping".
As for why eating well is called "sharpening", Fogg also has a relevant interpretation, he believes that the word "sharpening" should be evolved on the basis of the word "fire".
As early as the Song and Yuan dynasties, whether it was in the folk or the literary works at that time, the meal was called "fire", the reason why it was so called was because there were no advanced ignition tools in ancient times, and people mostly used fire sickle and flint and steel to light the fire.
The so-called fire sickle is a sheet of metal, and flint generally refers to flint, and some places where there is no flint will also be replaced by hard stones such as pebbles.
The reason is very simple, that is, the fire sickle is used to strike the flint back and forth so that it can produce sparks, and after the sparks fall on the fire velvet prepared in advance, they will produce fires.
In this way, the fire is lit, and if there is a fire, you can cook, and if you have food, you can eat, so the whole process of making a fire is abbreviated into the word "fire", which means to cook and eat.
Using a abbreviated word to refer to a complex thing, is a very common thing in ancient and even modern people's lives, such as the word "under the ground" that we often say in the countryside, in fact, it is to work in the crops, and similarly there is the "brick" on the construction site, to put it bluntly, it refers to building a house.
Therefore, the same is true of the use of "fire" to represent cooking and eating.
The reason why "fire" has evolved into "sharpening" is because of the tangled attitude of the ancients towards fire.
We all know that the progress of human civilization is very closely related to the discovery and use of fire, and it is precisely human beings who know how to use fire that will greatly guarantee the survival of human beings.
Drilling wood for fire is the best example of the progress of human civilization.
But as the use of fire has become more sophisticated, humans have also discovered the great damage that fire can bring, and a small spark can cause a huge disaster.
Therefore, while enjoying the benefits of fire, human beings are also very cautious about preventing fire, for example, as early as the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the act of casually discarding charcoal that has not been burned out was criminalized.
Including in our costume TV series, we will often see the husband patrolling back and forth in the middle of the night, shouting words such as "the weather is dry, be careful of the fire candle".
All these are some measures taken by the ancients to prevent fire, and while preventing fire, the ancients deliberately did not mention the word "fire" in order to avoid suffering from fire.
For example, "fire" is not called "fire", but "water", or "careless", a term that is still used today.
Therefore, on the premise of avoiding the word "fire", the ancients replaced the word "fire" in "fire" with the word "sharp", that is, "hitting the tip".
Therefore, the "sharpening" mentioned by the inn junior is to ask the visitor if he wants to eat.
Of course, this is just a speculation on the part of Fogg, his personal opinion, and in addition to his opinion, the word "sharpening" has another meaning.
In the famous work "Proof, Interpretation, and Interpretation Five", the word "sharp" is explained to have another meaning.
"Sharpening, Zhaoren said that the journey rest is sharp" --- "Evidence, Interpretation, and Interpretation Five"
The tip here refers to the meaning of pedestrians taking a temporary break during the journey, based on this statement, then the inn Xiaoer's question of "tipping or staying in the hotel" can be interpreted as whether it is a temporary rest or a long stay.
It's like when we modern people go to a hotel with accommodation, the service staff asks us whether to stay in an hourly room or a long private room, the hourly room is a tip, for those who need a temporary rest, and if you need to stay overnight or stay for a few more days, you have to open a long private room.
In addition, in "Guangya Commentary III", the meaning of "eating and drinking" is added to the "sharpening" that is interpreted as a temporary break.
The so-called "small rest and diet" means that the ancients ate in the inn in the process of "beating the tip", but this diet is not a main meal, but a supplementary food for no limited time, which is what we often say "casually pad the stomach".
The reason why I say this is because it is not easy for the ancients to go out to travel far away, unlike our modern modern with various advanced means of transportation, but mostly rely on foot power or animal power, plus various living facilities in ancient times are not modern convenience, therefore, in the process of hurrying, there are often things that miss meals because of hurrying.
After missing the meal, I finally came across an inn, and the hungry traveler naturally wanted to eat something to satisfy his stomach, but because it was not a meal, there would be no main meal prepared in the inn, and some were just some snacks or simple meals.
But something is better than nothing, and travelers will take a short break in this inn while eating a light meal to better catch the rest of the way.
Therefore, the "tipping" here is the meaning of the innkeeper asking the traveler if he wants to eat something and rest for a while.
Based on this statement, some scholars believe that "hitting the point" should be "hitting the room", which refers to the meaning of the interval, and resting and eating in the interval of the journey is called "hitting the room", but it may be that in the process of oral transmission, people pronounce the "room" as "Jian'er" with a child's pronunciation, so it will be habitually called "hitting the point" by later generations.
In addition to the above theories, there is also a relatively niche theory, which is related to the great migration of Hongdong County in Shanxi Province in the early Ming Dynasty.
At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, due to the perennial war, coupled with plagues, natural disasters, etc., the Central Plains at that time was extremely desolate, according to historical records, many places in the Central Plains have appeared in the tragic situation of "manpower is not there, long-term barrenness, accumulation of remains into mounds, few residents", in view of this, but also in order to quickly resume production, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang formulated measures to revitalize agriculture centered on immigration reclamation.
The core of this measure is very simple, that is, to move from a place with many people and few fields to a place with vast land and sparsely populated areas, and Shanxi at that time was a place with many people and few fields.
Therefore, in the third year of Hongwu, a vigorous "great migration" migration began.
In the process of migration, one of the habitual attire of people is to put a cloth bag on their shoulders, which contains food and other items, one end on the chest and the other behind the back.
And when they walked into the inn to eat, the shopkeeper helped them take down the cloth bag on their shoulders, and when these guests continued to hurry after eating, the shopkeeper would politely help the guests put the cloth bag on their shoulders, and over time, the shopkeeper would receive those guests who only ate and did not stay, called "shoulders".
And the tip is the homonym of "shoulder", which means to refer to those guests who only eat and do not stay.
In addition, the word "tipping" also has an explanation of the tip of the tongue, that is, to satisfy the desire of the tip of the tongue, which means to eat a full meal or eat something good, which has a similar meaning to the word "tooth beating", which means to enjoy food.
So, which is the most accurate meaning of the word sharp?
In my opinion, the phrase "hitting the tip" means "hitting the room", which is closer to the most accurate.
The word "hit", because there is "hit" in it, can be characterized as a verb, since it is a verb, then it represents several or a series of actions.
And after a traveler enters the inn, all he needs is two things, one is to live, and the other is to eat.
Living, that is, staying in a hotel, this does not need to be expressed more, and eating, you need the inn to carry out a series of actions, such as lighting a fire, such as boiling water.
As an inn, under what circumstances do you need to re-light the fire to cook and boil water for the guests?
If there is a large flow of customers, such as a meal, then the fire in the kitchen must be burning, so that you can cook anytime and anywhere, and at the same time, if it is a meal, then you will directly ask the guests what to eat, instead of asking "sharp".
Therefore, when the word "sharp" is said, it is most likely during non-hotel hours, which may be from morning to noon, or from afternoon to evening.
It is only during this time that the fire will be lit again (or the fire will be burned) to cook for the guests.
It is precisely because of this that we can conclude that the guests at this time are most likely those who are busy with their journey, and they will just eat a mat and leave.
Such guests, entering the inn at this time, want a short rest and replenishment of food, after which they will continue on their journey.
Therefore, the process of resting and eating is a short pause in their journey, which is the "interval" mentioned above.
Since it is an interval, the "beating" mentioned by the inn guy is actually "beating", which means asking the guests if they are just having a meal and taking a break before leaving.
And "打間" and "打開" are different words but have the same sound, and when people pass on them by word of mouth for a long time, they will gradually pronounce "打間" as "打開".