How many kinds of ancient chopsticks

Chopsticks are made of many materials, including pure bamboo, colored lacquer, ivory and silver

One side of the story

Ancient "chopsticks" contain "chopsticks culture"

Chinese people have used chopsticks for a long time, and modern archaeological discoveries show that ancient people began using them at least as early as the Neolithic period. According to modern archaeological discoveries, ancient people began using chopsticks at least as early as the Neolithic period. Over the millennia, the sayings, uses and taboos about chopsticks have created a unique "chopstick culture" in ancient China -

The earliest records of chopsticks

When did it start?

The earliest record of chopsticks

When did it begin?

The Shuowen Jiezi (说文解字) states

"chopsticks, rice up also"

In ancient China, chopsticks were called by many names. There were three main ones: one called "箸", one called "" and one called "". If they are made of wood, they are also called " ". Among them, "箸" and "箸" were popular earlier, and "箸" was used more in the Wei and Jin dynasties, such as Gu Ye Wang's "The Jade Chapter", which said, "箸者，也，饭具也"; after the Sui and Tang dynasties, "箸" was used more often. "; after the Sui and Tang dynasties, the formal expression is called "chopsticks".

, two words, will be and form both. The meaning of the word reflects quite directly, is to clip food, help eat things. This thing in the eyes of the ancients is not ordinary, "Shuowen Jiezi" said, "chopsticks, rice up also." Up in the eyes of the ancients is a kind of strange and clever things, not only Westerners think that the Chinese chopsticks incredible, that is, the ancient Chinese themselves also think that the invention of chopsticks is very absolute.

Now the popular "chopsticks" called, after the Ming Dynasty in the literature appeared more, began to call "fast", "fast son". The more quoted statement is Lu Rong's "Beans Garden Miscellany" in the record of the customs of the time. At that time, the families who sailed on the water paid attention to avoiding taboo, especially in the area of Wuzhong (present-day Suzhou), such as the taboo on the words "flip" and "live", so they called the "streamer" a "rag" and "rag". "rag", "chopsticks" for "fast".

Li Yuheng, a Ming scholar, said something else in "Pushing the Tent to Dream". He thought that the boatman called "chopsticks" as "quick son", not because "chopsticks" harmonized with "live". He thinks that the boatmen called "箸" "快子" not because "箸" harmonizes with "住", but because "箸" harmonizes with "滞". "There are people who avoid bad words and call them beautiful words, such as "立箸" and "滞", and call them "快子"." Boaters take the meaning of the boat as fast as flying, over time they shouted open, "fast son" according to the law of philology, gradually became "chopsticks".

What are the rules for using chopsticks

?

Jian Sheng Ye Wen recorded

Tang Su serving meals "arch chopsticks" by Zhu Yuanzhang severely punished

In ancient times, what kind of chopsticks should be used to eat what kind of food are said. In the ancient times, there was a saying about what kind of food should be eaten with what kind of chopsticks. The book of rituals, "Qu Li", says, "I don't need chopsticks to eat rice," meaning that you can't use chopsticks when you are eating rice, but rather eat it with a spoon and a spoon. Only when there are dishes in the spoon will the chopsticks be used, that is, the so-called "spoon is used when there are dishes in the spoon, but not when there are no dishes. If there are no vegetables in the soup, you don't need to use them. How to use chopsticks, can be described as many rules.

Now from time to time, we can see two people with four chopsticks at the same time to clip the food, which is not allowed in ancient times. The ancients believed that this action is called "cut chopsticks", similar to the action of the ashes, unlucky. Ancient people also avoided stopping the chopsticks when eating, and "stopping the chopsticks" was for the dead. After death, the last bowl of rice would be placed in front of the coffin, and a pair of chopsticks would be inserted straight into the rice, called "offering chopsticks", so that the chopsticks would stop. Because of this taboo, you can't stick your chopsticks in the rice when you eat.

On formal occasions, even the placement of chopsticks should be careful. If the chopsticks are placed horizontally on the bowl or plate, it means that "the wine is drunk and full, no more food, you use it slowly". In some places in western Hunan, if you want to say that you will not eat again, you will cross your chopsticks and put them on the bowl to show that you "can't eat any more". In other places, if the chopsticks are placed on the left side of the bowl, it means that you have already eaten.

This folk etiquette with chopsticks, generally used among acquaintances, peers, different identities, between generations to be used with caution, such as the younger generation can not be in the elders "cross chopsticks" before putting down chopsticks. Early Ming Dynasty, a great talent named Tang Su, a great honor by the Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang called to "serve meals", but because of the "arch chopsticks", that is, the placement of horizontal chopsticks and Zhu Yuanzhang severely punished. Ming Xu Zhenqing notes "Jian Sheng wild smell" in the account of this story: "(Tang Su) finished eating, arch chopsticks to respect as a gift. The emperor asked: What is this ritual? Su said: less customary courtesy. The emperor said angrily: the customary gift can be given to the son of heaven?" As a result, this is because of the "loss of court sitting exemption" Tang Su was convicted of "great disrespect", punished to Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown of Haozhou to guard the city, that is, the so-called "crime sitting disrespectful, banished to Haozhou," one said.

Summarized, the folk taboo on chopsticks have more than ten: taboo "three long and two short", the two chopsticks to be the same length; taboo "immortal pointing", the use of chopsticks, the index finger alone out of the bad, the old Beijing called the "scolding street". "It is not good to stick out the index finger alone when using chopsticks, which is called "cursing the street" in old Beijing; it is not good to sip chopsticks back and forth in your mouth; it is not good to hit the cup, which is what beggars do; it is not good to dig up graves with chopsticks, which is not good to dig up graves with chopsticks. Chopsticks to dig a grave", use chopsticks in the plate to flip around; avoid "tears chopsticks left ball", clip the dish when the juice dripped on the table or other dishes; avoid "Qiankun upside down", the two chopsticks size head upside down; avoid "the pin of the sea", do not eat the chopsticks back and forth.

What is the saying?

Folk popularity of auspicious words

"chopsticks fast son, fast birth son"

On different occasions with different colors of chopsticks, such as red chopsticks for joyous occasions, and funeral taboo, to use white chopsticks, to show respect for the deceased. A pair of chopsticks should be of the same color, if you use mixed color chopsticks, it foretells family discord.

Chopsticks also played an important role in the marriage life of the ancients. In the past, including Beijing, when a girl got married, chopsticks were always included in the dowry for the daughter. This custom, which is generally believed to have emerged in the Song Dynasty, was that after the parents of the man and the woman had agreed on the marriage of their children, the woman's parents usually sent a pair of altars holding water, with four live goldfish inside, and two pairs of chopsticks attached. The symbolism is: goldfish, harmonic "Jin Yu", wishing the couple lots of money; water means, the daughter of the marriage splash out the water; chopsticks have two meanings, one is to pray for a child, take the folk saying "chopsticks fast child, fast child". In the Guangdong Chaoshan region, there are still brides and grooms in the bridal chamber to drink cinnamon ball soup custom, but eat cinnamon ball without a spoon, to use red chopsticks, meaning "fast birth".

In addition, the wedding chopsticks with the hope that the young couple in the future pairs, never leave the meaning. In the rural areas of northern Shaanxi Province, the male party to meet the bride must bring a bottle filled with rice, to the woman's home, by the bride's father to the bottle of rice fried, with incense and wormwood to seal the mouth, which indicates that "love each other". Then take out a pair of red chopsticks, with a red head rope tied to the mouth of the bottle, handed to the daughter, and said to the daughter and son-in-law: "you have to be like chopsticks in pairs, never separate, 'fast' live life."

Why are silver chopsticks favored by

ancients?

"Compendium of Materia Medica" records

"with silver eating and drinking, when the poison is black"

Chopsticks are mainly made of bamboo and wood, but there is no lack of a variety of high-grade, precious materials to do chopsticks. For example, ivory chopsticks were used in the ancient Shang Dynasty. The Historical Records - twelve vassals chronology "has" Zhou for the elephant chopsticks, and Keiji sigh "said.

From the archaeological excavations, in addition to bamboo and wooden chopsticks, there are animal bone chopsticks, jade chopsticks, metal chopsticks, of which there are more metal chopsticks, such as gold chopsticks, silver chopsticks, copper chopsticks, iron chopsticks, lead chopsticks and so on. Rhinoceros horn chopsticks and silver chopsticks were given the function of testing food safety by ancient people. Earlier in the chopsticks drug testing said in the "Flying Swallow Outreach", this book describes the Han Emperor Liu arty and Empress Zhao Feiyan adultery, the old title of the Han Ling Yuan, which has a "rhinoceros poisonous chopsticks two pairs of" text.

The so-called "Wen rhinoceros to avoid poisoned chopsticks", that is, made of rhinoceros horn chopsticks. Ming Li Shizhen "Compendium of Materia Medica" in the "rhinoceros" article has this record, "rhinoceros horn, rhinoceros elves gathered, foot Yangming medicine," so "rhinoceros horn can solve all the poisons.

Rhinoceros horn is a flavor of Chinese medicine, but the chopsticks made of it can "avoid poison" may not be reliable, silver chopsticks are commonly used is a fact. Ancient people believe that "silver can test poison", the Song Dynasty forensic masterpiece, "Wash Grievance Collection", will be useful "silver needle corpse inspection" practice. Ming and Qing dynasties, people especially believe that the silver chopsticks test poison test said, "Compendium of Materia Medica" "raw silver" article said, "Today, people eat and drink with silver, when the poison is black; poisoning of the dead, but also with silver to test the probe."

Silver test poison in the Ming and Qing dynasties in life does exist, "Dream of Red Mansions" forty, Phoenix will be on the countryside during dinner, Liu Lou Lou said, "If the dish is poisonous, this silver went down on the test out ......"

possible. It is because of this, silver chopsticks more favored by the ancients. However, in the Qing Dynasty Imperial Cuisine, to the emperor for food used to detect poisonous tools are no longer silver chopsticks, but instead of "silver plate", or directly with a silver plate.

The superstition of chopsticks

What is the basis?

"Taiping Yuban" cited "Xiangshu" said

"five fingers with chopsticks, great wealth and prosperity"

Chopsticks in the eyes of the ancients is not just cutlery, the ancients also believe that chopsticks have a god, often through chopsticks to observe and analyze life and the future. The Taiping Yuban quoted the "Xiangshu" as saying, "People who use chopsticks with their three fingers are comfortable; those who use chopsticks with their four fingers are expensive; and those who use chopsticks with their five fingers are very rich and valuable." Obviously, this argument is nonsense, because the general use of chopsticks is mostly five-finger linkage.

In fact, chopsticks were often used as a divination tool in ancient times, called "chopsticks divination". At the end of the Tang Dynasty, every Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month in the Southern Tang Dynasty, the popular chopsticks divination, early Song Dynasty, Xu Xian, "Audit God Record" that recorded this statement: "will be the first month of the night of the hope, when the custom to take the rice Kei clothes, clothes insert chopsticks for the mouth, so that the paintings of the disk powder in order to divination."

Stick divinations were popular in Lingnan and other places in the past. Tang Zheng Xiong "Panyu Miscellany" said, "Ling table divination is very much, rat divination, chopsticks divination, cattle divination, bone divination, snail divination, chicken egg divination, scorn bamboo divination, common ghosts so." In the eyes of the ancient Cantonese, not only chopsticks, what other things can become a divination tool.

In the past in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, Jiangsu Province, Gaoyou and many other places, women have "please dustpan girl" custom, is also a "chopstick divination", the method is this: a dustpan with a crepe pocket, insert a chopstick, the two little girls carry, you can ask fate divination, to chopsticks point table, get a chopstick, the fate of the table, and the fate of the table, the fate of the table, the fate of the table, the fate of the table, the fate of the table, the fate of the table, the fate of the table. The method is as follows: insert a chopstick into the crepe of the dustbin, and two young girls will carry it, so that they can tell the fate of the table.

In the divination system of chopsticks, "chopsticks God" is the most simple, so it is extremely popular in folklore: three or four chopsticks, dipped in wet, make and stand in a bowl of water or on the stove. During the process of setting up the chopsticks, one keeps chanting the names of different deities under one's breath, and the god that one is chanting when the chopsticks are set up is the "god on duty", which one has to pay respect to and pray for its protection. In fact, this kind of chopsticks is no different from chopsticks game, do not have to take it seriously.

Disclaimer: The article in the "One Side Hooked" column was written by Mr. Ni Fangliu, a famous history scholar, for this newspaper, so please be sure to contact the author.

Parenting

It's reasonable to assume rebellion

Qiao Jian

Pega: Hello!

Tomorrow is Annie's 12th birthday, and in your words, Annie is about to enter puberty, and right now she seems to be showing the beginnings of rebellion.

I understand your anxiety when I read your long letter about Annie. But you have to realize that such troubles are not unique to your family. At this point, you need to both face up to the unpleasant realities and try to look beyond them to more positive things. Worrying about the troubles in front of you will not help to turn things around, the point is - to find a way.

It's hard to say what the future of our children's lives will be like, but one thing is for sure: their future will not be what you or I envisioned, just as our parents could not have predicted what you or I look like today. My experience is: don't expect your child to be introspective or change because you are anxious! I once asked Linda a question in a casual conversation with her, "Why is it that you kids don't want to act on a lot of what your parents say when you know they are right and looking out for you?" Linda's answer made sense to me, "For one thing, who would want to be driven through their precious youth by someone else? Even if you can thus fall less and take fewer detours; and secondly, if you easily agree to the first request of your parents, there is still a pile of your higher requests, and you can't do it all!"

Listening to such a frank answer, the situation of the children oil born a trace of sympathy. This is like a baby learning to walk, parents are afraid of children fall, hard to put the baby, although the legs are too soft to support their own bodies, but the heart of the forward can always be seen through their wobbly little body. This is the reason why I suddenly feel that the children's "rebellion" is really very reasonable!

Let's try, if we sincerely show a little bit of generosity to the child's disobedience, how likely is it that the child will "get an inch"? Can we close our mouths for a while and try to create some quiet examples that can awaken the good side of our children's hearts? Worrying is futile, the only way to solve the problem is to come up with a solution, but also have the tenacity and patience.

When you see a child not valuing time, don't just blame him or her, try asking in a caring tone: "What did you do for your goal today? The first thing you need to do is to get your hands dirty. If you make a schedule to help yourself is not better?" See the child dressed inappropriately, and do not rush to correct or sarcastic irony, the establishment of the aesthetic must also be set up from the root of the ...... If necessary, you can take the way of writing letters, want to say the truth logically expressed to the child. Of course, to do these is not easy, and once done, we and the child will see a very different family atmosphere.

In addition to refraining from sending unthinking "firecrackers," it's also important. I don't know how much you remember of your mom and dad's anxiety when we were young. If you think about it now, those old people's worries don't play a big role in really changing us, but what does is their own behavioral style that parents ignore - and that children will unconsciously imitate. Knowing this, it is worth trying to remove the eyes from the child to themselves, practice their own words and deeds, adhere to a period of time, there may be unexpected results. Give up the lifestyle of fighting with Annie every day, remove your eyes and your tightly gripped ruler from the back of the child, and show a rich life content, rational and elegant self in front of Annie, rather than the day-to-day chatter, only a child in the heart of the "matter of mom". Life has taught us that focusing too much on one thing doesn't always lead to the desired result.

Think about ten years later, Annie, 22 years old, in the prime of life, the beginning of the school, and then bring up when she was rebellious, we are just a laugh, you today's anger will be in vain. In another ten years, she was thirty-two years old, you and I have been half a hundred, I'm afraid it's her turn to start a new round of trouble for a more naughty little Annie.

Recount! Sister

Filial piety is the first of all good deeds

Li Ren

China's filial piety culture has a long history. "The concept of filial piety arose in the Yin and Shang dynasties, and the word "filial piety" is found in the oracle bone inscriptions, undoubtedly related to the Yin people's reverence for ghosts and gods. The ancestors had passed away and become gods, which had a protective effect on the descendants, so they did not dare to be negligent. The Yin people's "filial piety" is more embodied in the good deeds to ghosts and gods, "Rituals - Sacrifice System" said: "Sacrifices, so the pursuit of filial piety also." The Zhou people, unlike the Yin people, were mainly farmers and relied on the experience of the elderly, and "respecting the elderly" became a tradition. The word "filial piety" in the San's Pan (Figure 1) means "supporting the elderly"; In Sima Qian's "Records of the Grand Historian of the Zhou Dynasty", there is a saying: "Dudu Ren, respect for the elderly, and compassion for the young," on the basis of respect for the elderly, "filial piety" became an important part of the Zhou rites. After a long time of accumulation, filial piety has become the basic value of the Chinese nation, which is related to all aspects of the spiritual life of the Chinese people.

"Filial piety" simply means that children should do their duty to their parents, and filial piety is a responsibility, which is natural; on the other hand, it is another kind of inheritance that children should be disciplined by family rules, which is both strict and merciful. A "filial piety" word, dedicated to a book to discuss, can be seen its importance, the classic passed down through the ages, "Xiaojing", successive emperors made the preface of nine, the interpretation of the scholars of the past generations there are hundreds of more. As a Confucian ethical work, the Classic of Filial Piety systematically summarizes and elaborates on the culture of filial piety. In the Qing Dynasty, Ji Yun pointed out in his "Siku Quanshu" that this book was the last words of Confucius' "seventy disciples" and was written during the Qin and Han Dynasties. Since the Western Han Dynasty to the Wei, Jin and North and South Dynasties, the annotators and a hundred, the book *** divided into eighteen chapters, the first chapter of the first chapter, is the purpose of the whole book: "filial piety, the basis of virtue, the teaching of the birth of the same." "The body hair and skin, by the parents, do not dare to destroy, the beginning of filial piety. To establish one's self, to make one's name known to the future generations, to show one's parents, is the end of filial piety." A few dozen words summarize the beginning and the end of filial piety.

"Filial Piety" is the "Six Sutras" essence and the purpose of the Confucian "Six Sutras" advocate "benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, faith," the nature of the Five Constants, Five Constants in the benevolence and virtue as the first, benevolence is in the "pro pro" on the basis of the promotion of the open, such as Benevolence is the sum total of all good virtues, such as "honoring the old as we honor the old". Filial piety is the beginning of benevolence, filial piety and fraternal duty is the first way of practicing benevolence, and also the core spirit of benevolence, the most crucial thing for practicing benevolence is filial piety and fraternal duty, as it is said in the Book of Filial Piety, "There is nothing better than music to change the customs and customs; and there is nothing better than etiquette to rule people in peace and security." "To teach the people to be dear, there is nothing better than filial piety; to teach the people to be courteous and obedient, there is nothing better than fraternal duty."

Needless to say, some of the contents of the Classic of Filial Piety have become outdated, such as "the father is the program of the son", "parents in, not far away from the tour, the tour of the party", "unfiliality has three, there is no queen for the big "and so on. Similarly, there are some concepts in the Twenty-four Filial Piety that are not worth advocating, such as "Guo Ju buried his son", which is not a kind of filial piety at the expense of destroying one's parents. It may also belong to the blackmail, the original word is "Guo Ju sold children"; "lying on the ice to seek carp" is also not in line with the facts, in fact, is "breaking the ice to seek carp", change the "broken" to "lying". The change of "broken" to "lying" is to strengthen the color of sadness. This kind of blackmail is commonplace, for example, "no poison, no husband" is actually "no degree, no husband", and He Long's "two kitchen knives to start a revolution" is actually "two wood knives", and "two wood knives" is actually "two wood knives". The "two wood knives", wood knives in line with the reality, due to the dialect and blackmail.

"Filial piety" and "compassion" are also known. Ci is an animal instinct, filial piety is the product of the development of civilization, that is, the reason why people are people.

"Filial piety" and "respect" are related. Because "filial piety" from the bottom of the heart, the heart is sincere, have respect for the heart, in order to better filial piety.

In the process of evolution and development of the whole society, "filial piety" and "teaching" are more and more closely related, but not simply from the glyphs to understand. The word "教" (教) is from (图2) and "攴" (攴) meaning "to teach" (执以教導人者), and "爻" is the same as "to" (要). The word "爻" and "要" have the same sound, which originally referred to the symbols used in divination, but was later extended to mean the understanding of things, and children need to learn various kinds of knowledge from adults, and "子" is used to refer to those who are relatively uneducated and need to be instructed by others, and "攴" originally means "to teach". Tap" originally means to hold a pole-like object with branches in one's hand and gently tap it, which is derived as a reminder to pay attention. It should be noted that at the time when the character for "teaching" (Figure 3) was first created, there was no systematic concept of filial piety, or rather, filial piety was not yet a generally recognized mainstream consciousness. As mentioned earlier, the concept of filial piety sprang up in the late Shang Dynasty, and after the fall of the Shang Dynasty and the ensuing social upheaval, the legend of "not eating Zhou's millet" illustrates the formation of filial piety consciousness, which emphasizes loyalty and righteousness in essence, which is related to filial piety to a certain extent, or, in other words, loyalty and righteousness is the filial piety of the political world. Social unrest, making the world generally lose a sense of stability and security, based on the strengthening of personal responsibility, to achieve the stability of the whole society, and gradually there is filial piety ideology and social foundation.

13 pages on paper, each page is 25.8cm high and 13.9cm wide, now in the Palace Museum, Beijing.

This book is signed: "Chongzhen xinsi (1641) August, Huang Daozhou re-recognition in the library of the white clouds. "White clouds" that is the Ministry of Criminal Justice, the legend says that the Yellow Emperor to cloud life officer, the autumn official for the white clouds, the Ministry of Criminal Justice belongs to the autumn official.