When did the ministers in ancient China begin to bow down to the emperor?

The recorded history of ancient China began in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (the upper limit of Confucius' Spring and Autumn Annals was 722 BC, and Sima Guang's Zi Tongzhi Jian was written in 403 BC). From the Eastern Zhou Dynasty to the Qin and Han Dynasties for thousands of years, we have not found any record of "kneeling and kowtowing".

What was the etiquette for courtiers to meet the king in the Spring and Autumn Period? We might as well walk into "a hundred schools of thought contend" and listen to how these cultural celebrities at that time described the ceremony of meeting the monarch and the minister.

There is such a record in Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals: When I went to see Duan Ganmu, a wise man at that time, I stood very tired but didn't dare to rest. See Huang Zhai when you come back, and sit in the classroom and chat with him. Huang Zhai is very unhappy. Hou Wen said, "I treated Duan Ganmu with courtesy because he refused to be an official and accept his salary. Now that you want to be an official, you are in a position. If you want to get a salary, you will get the salary of Shangqing. " I'm afraid it's hard for you to accept my formal salary and ask me to be polite. "

This story is very interesting. The most noteworthy thing is Huang Zhai's dissatisfaction with the monarch he served sitting in the hall talking with him. This is in sharp contrast to the monarch who wanted his minister to die after the end of the Han Dynasty, but dared not.