How do chopsticks, which we use every day, carry 5,000 years of Chinese culture?

Chopsticks are one of China's traditional tableware, and also one of the oldest types of common Chinese tableware, made of bamboo, wood, bone, porcelain and metal.

The Chinese people have a long history of using cutlery, and so far according to archaeological excavations and estimated literature, the history of spoons is about 8,000 years, the history of forks is about 4,000 years, and the history of chopsticks has been inconclusive, but at least not less than three thousand years.

Because information about the fork can be found mainly before the Warring States period, and there are few records after the Warring States period, some people believe that chopsticks took the place of the fork at the end of the Warring States period, and made the fork slip from the status of the main tableware of the Chinese people.

Chopsticks

The use of chopsticks was already clearly separated from the use of spoons during the Qin and Han Dynasties, with spoons being used for eating and chopsticks being used to eat the food in the spoon.

Chopsticks were called "chopsticks" in the pre-Qin Dynasty, "chopsticks" in the Han Dynasty, and "chopsticks" in the Ming Dynasty. In the Book of Rituals, Chopsticks are used when there is a dish in the soup, and in the Book of First Aid, Chopsticks are used when there is a chopstick and when there is a food dish, and in the Book of Rituals, Zheng Xuan wrote Chopsticks are used when there is a chopstick. In Yunxian Miscellany, it is written: "Xiangfan had a lacquered flower plate, a chopstick and a fish-tailed spoon."

On the origin of chopsticks, various folk legends have emerged, one says that Jiang Ziya was inspired by the bird to invent silk and bamboo chopsticks, another says that Daji invented chopsticks with jade hairpins in order to curry favor with King Zhou, and there is also the legend that Yu invented chopsticks to save time when he was ruling over the water to fetch hot food from a tree branch. Some people have also suggested that chopsticks were invented during the Shang and Zhou Dynasties.

Chopsticks

And the origin of the name of chopsticks, the Ming Dynasty Lu Rong in the "Beans Garden Miscellany" recorded that the Wu custom boat people taboo, "live" and "chopsticks" resonance, so change "chopsticks for the fastest child! "

Additionally, Li Yu Heng, in his book "Pushing the Pond", also wrote similarly, "The world has a taboo on the word "evil" and calls it "beautiful", such as "Chopsticks", which is a taboo on stagnation and is called "fast child". Now, because of the circulation has been a long time, to the scholars also called the chopsticks for the fast son of the people, forget its beginning.

Chopsticks

But chopsticks were not recognized by the aristocracy, the Kangxi Dictionary includes only "chopsticks" and not "chopsticks", and Cao Xueqin called them "Chopsticks" and "Chopsticks" in "Dream of the Red Chamber". In the Dream of the Red Chamber, Cao Xueqin also referred to them as "箸" and "筯".