How to use chopsticks

The correct posture and usage of chopsticks are not unique, but they are all similar. The chopsticks on it are controlled by thumb, forefinger and middle finger. It is very important that the chopsticks below should be fixed, only the chopsticks above should be moved, and then the food should be caught.

When the chopstick heads of two chopsticks are closed and the chopstick tips are aligned, it is easy to pick up food.

Usually, there are two ways to hold chopsticks. Put your hands on the back part, and the fingertip contact position is in the middle part of chopsticks. According to the eighth issue of Cultural Relics 1980, "A pair of bronze chopsticks were unearthed in Huijiachong cellar of Lishan, Guichi, Anhui. Due to the corrosion of years, the length of the two copper bars is uneven, but they are almost the same, with an average of 20 cm. It has been verified as something in the late Spring and Autumn Period. "

1973 One of the most famous exquisite cultural relics unearthed from Mawangdui No.1 Tomb in Changsha, Hunan Province is a pair of bamboo sticks, which are17cm long and 0.3cm in diameter. This pair of round chopsticks of the Western Han Dynasty, which were dried more than 0/00 years ago, is now in Hunan Museum and is very precious. Chopsticks in the Han dynasty are mostly round-headed and slightly thin. Chopsticks in the Spring and Autumn Period are mostly cylinders with average thickness from top to bottom.

A pair of silver chopsticks unearthed from Li's tomb in Chang 'an, Sui Dynasty is the earliest silver chopsticks found in China so far.

Chen Zangqi, an ancient famous doctor, said: "The sweat on the bronze ware is poisonous, which makes people sick and gangrenous." Facts have proved that copper oxidation will produce copper smell, iron oxidation and rust, which makes it difficult to eat, so iron chopsticks and copper chopsticks are gradually replaced by silver chopsticks.

This also has a lot to do with funeral customs. However, judging from a large number of silver chopsticks unearthed in the Tang Dynasty, chopsticks and chopsticks developed greatly in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Before Wei and Jin Dynasties, bamboo, bone and copper chopsticks were mostly used, and a pair of silver chopsticks were unearthed from Li's tomb in Chang 'an, Sui Dynasty. It is 29 cm long, thin at both ends and thick in the middle, which is the earliest silver hairpin found in China so far.

"Kaiyuan Tianbao Legacy" says: "Song Jing is the prime minister, and the heart of the ruling and opposition parties is beautiful. When the royal banquet was held in spring, the emperor gave it to his inner minister with gold chopsticks. " At that time, gold tableware and utensils were monopolized by the palace. It was stipulated in the Northern Wei Dynasty that it was forbidden to raise "those who are good at gold and silver" privately from princes to ordinary people, and it was illegal to make gold wares privately. So when Song Jing heard that the emperor gave him a gold medal, the prime minister was very scared and was at a loss in the face of intimidation. When Tang Xuanzong saw this, he said, "I won't give you gold, but I'll give you a sparerib to show your straight ears." When Song Jing knew that he respected honesty and frank integrity as much as chopsticks and chopsticks, he was flattered to accept the golden chopsticks. However, this "law-abiding, upright" veteran did not dare to eat with gold chopsticks, but only dedicated them to the Prime Minister. However, according to the silver chopsticks unearthed in the Tang Dynasty, they were favored by Dagong nobles and literati. The silver chopsticks unearthed in the Tang Dynasty are listed as follows:

Look at the Tang Dynasty silver chopsticks unearthed above. They are not only numerous, but also long. The oldest one is 33. 1 cm. Among all kinds of chopsticks unearthed in the Spring and Autumn Period and Han Dynasty, most of them are between 17 ~ 18cm, and the longest one is 5 cm, which is made of wood, while silver is a precious metal, and its price is second only to others.

Many chopsticks were unearthed in Song, Liao, Xia and Yuan Dynasties, mostly made of silver and copper. Compared with the Tang dynasty, it is relatively short, about 25 cm, and the shortest is only 15 cm. According to the material, it does not exceed 20 cm.

Two pairs of silver chopsticks of the Northern Song Dynasty unearthed from Donghu Lake in Poyang, Jiangxi, are 23 cm long. A new breakthrough has been made in the upper part of chopsticks. The cylinder has been changed into a hexagon, and the lower part is still a thin cylinder.

The number of Nanzhong bronze chopsticks unearthed from Langzhong Silk Factory in Sichuan Province was greatly unexpected, with 244 pieces, namely 122 pairs. These bronze chopsticks vary in thickness, 0.3-0.6 cm in diameter and 25 cm in length. Chopsticks are thick and thin with strings in the middle. 1 double Jin dynasty bronze chopsticks unearthed in Sandaohao, Liaoyang, Liaoning, are 26.8 cm long, with hexagonal upper part and bamboo stripes on the chopsticks body. In the Yuan Dynasty, the shape of chopsticks had a new change. 1 10 silver chopsticks unearthed from Confucius Temple in Hefei, Anhui Province, with octagonal head and a length of 26.5 cm.

From the copper and silver chopsticks unearthed in the Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan Dynasties, we can see that their biggest feature is that their shapes are changeable, unlike the chopsticks before the Tang Dynasty, which were mostly plain cylinders and were very monotonous.

Two pairs of silver chopsticks from the Northern Song Dynasty were unearthed in the East Lake of Poyang Lake, which changed the traditional cylindrical shape into hexagonal shape. However, decorative patterns also appeared on bronze chopsticks and chopsticks unearthed in Langzhong, Sichuan. It can be said that from the last generation, chopsticks and chopsticks not only paid attention to its practicality, but also began to develop in the direction of handicrafts.

Chopsticks craftsmen all know that it is difficult to get out of the routine and need to show their talents. On four Yuan Dynasty silver chopsticks unearthed from Xingfu Reservoir in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, craftsmen boldly engraved their names on them. In the Ming dynasty, the development of chopsticks was particularly obvious, first square and then round. The so-called "first face" means that the upper part is square; "Full circle", that is, the lower part of the hairpin is round. Silver, copper, bamboo, wood and dentures before the Ming Dynasty. Most of them are cylindrical and hexagonal, but few are square, but the denture of Ming Dynasty is characterized by the first round foot. There seems to be little change from the first round hairpin with thick feet to the first round hairpin with square feet in the previous generation, but this small reform has three major advantages:

1. First of all, cylindrical chopsticks are easy to roll, but the first round chopsticks, which are called four-stare chopsticks by ordinary people, will not roll, so it is very stable to put a banquet on the table.

4-sided chopsticks are more stable than round chopsticks. For example, eating shredded vegetables, holding square chopsticks in your hand and stirring hard is not easy to slip, and eating noodles is more handy.

3. Square chopsticks provide good conditions for skillful craftsmen to inscribe poems, engrave characters and engrave flowers on chopsticks. Cylindrical chopsticks are difficult to express painting lettering. Square chopsticks can not only be combined into a picture, but also be arranged into a larger picture with ten pairs of chopsticks. Therefore, the development of the hairpin from round to square has laid a broad foundation for making more exquisite craft chopsticks. Square chopsticks can be carved on one side, two sides and four sides, which dwarfs round chopsticks.

According to the seventh issue of "Cultural Relics" published by 1980, the red lacquer bamboo stick of Amin period was found in the hanging coffin of Luobiao commune in Gongxian County, Sichuan Province. The stick is 28 cm long and has a round head. The cursive script of "Jiangshan Koukou Changkou Adanxiu" is engraved on the upper part of the four stare blankly, three of which are illegible, so the corrosion is illegible. In addition, a wooden hairpin was found on a wooden boat in Huagang, Ningling, Henan Province in the Ming Dynasty, which was 3l cm long: coincidentally, it was also square-headed and round-footed, and Dingling in Beijing was the tomb of Zhu Yijun, a god of the Ming Dynasty. In the underground palace excavated in 1956, besides precious stones, there are golden hairpin, golden pot, Jin Jue, golden crown, golden spoon and hairpin bottle rack. The author has visited Dingling and enjoyed two pairs of Ming Shenzong funerary objects, ebony chopsticks inlaid with gold. This kind of imperial chopsticks is also the first round, but the top of the four wooden chopsticks are inlaid with a square gold hat. According to experts' research, the style of square head and round feet is a popular style in Ming Dynasty.

Chopsticks in Qing dynasty are characterized by exquisite and beautiful production technology. There are many bamboo chopsticks inlaid with silver. For example, the chopsticks of Qing Dynasty collected by Shanghai Folk Chopsticks Museum include ivory inlaid with silver chopsticks, torreya grandis inlaid with silver chopsticks, ebony inlaid with silver chopsticks, mahogany inlaid with silver chopsticks and so on. These chopsticks inlaid with silver not only have a silver cap at the top and a 6-7 cm silver sleeve at the bottom, but also have a 7-8 cm silver chain at the top of the cap, so the two chopsticks can't be separated. This is not only for decoration, but also for beauty: practical, two chopsticks in pairs, easy to keep, will not lose its function because of the lack of one.

Chopsticks in the Qing Dynasty included upper and lower double inlaid chopsticks and three inlaid chopsticks. In the forty chapters of A Dream of Red Mansions, it was written: "Feng held a towel made of western cloth, wrapped in ebony inlaid with silver hairpin, and put it on the mat." The so-called "three inlays" means a silver hat on the top, silver sleeves on the feet and a silver ring in the middle. But by the end of the Qing Dynasty, "Central" was out of fashion, and the styles were mostly inlaid with silver chains. (Source: China Chopsticks Network)