Ba xian zhuo, the square table
The square table of a Chaoshan banquet: two to a side, eight to a table, the head the seat of honour and the side by the door the serving seat.
Pronunciation bā xiān zhuō｜Rites of life｜One entry in the Chaoshan glossary
What it means
The ba xian zhuo is a square table with four equal sides, two people to a side and eight to a table — the name comes from those eight. It stands in the hall, the side facing the main door is the head, backed by the ancestral shrine or the altar table. The two at the head are the seats of honour and the rest descend from there, the last falling on the side by the door.
Table and seat are two things: the table is how many sit and where it stands, the seat is who sits where. On the same square table a wedding and a funeral are arranged differently; the table stays, the seats are reordered.
When you see it
Weddings, funerals, birthdays, house-warmings and thanks to the gods all use it. Village feasts mostly use the square table, and table, benches, bowls and plates are usually hired as a set; city restaurants have gone over to round tables of ten or so, the host’s seat facing the door and the serving side falling by the entrance.
Where the old hall is narrow, four square tables count as roomy; where they will not fit, tables go into the courtyard and by the door, and those seats rank a step lower.
The two sometimes meet in one feast: townspeople going back to the village to give a banquet use round tables but keep the old seating, and the serving seat by the door fades away.
Words easily confused
Ba xian zhuo is the furniture, shi zhuo the occasion, zuo zhuo the cooking end. It is the same thing as the “four-sided table” under another name; in Chaoshan the eight-immortals name is the commoner.
Read next: Banquet custom: seating, the order of dishes and how many.
See also: Shi zhuo and banquets: five occasions kept apart, Rites of life: the five thresholds side by side.
Same group: the serving seat, the banquet.
Home › Glossary › Rites of life › The square table
Text on this site is CC BY-SA 4.0; copyright in images is reserved and commercial use requires a separate licence.
Last revised: 4 November 2026