China's long-standing traditional culture is full of the wisdom and innovative spirit of the sages. Although the standard of living of people in ancient times could not be compared with that of today, they gave new vitality to civilization through wonderful thinking and bold innovation.
And some of the details that we often overlook are the embodiment of the ingenuity and wisdom of the ancients. For example, why is a pound set at 16 taels? Why is the length of chopsticks for eating 7 inches and 6 minutes?
As the descendants of Yan and Huang, we should have a deep understanding of this knowledge.
The difference between ancient weights and measures and modern ones lies mainly in the difference in units of exchange. For example,"Half a pound and eight taels"This ancient unit of measurement originated from the calculation method of 16 taels for 1 catty, which is not consistent with the modern unit of measurement of 10 taels for 1 catty.
This makes it necessary to understand and use weights and measures in an understanding of how calculations were made in different eras. For example, decimal is more practical than hexadecimal, which is much more profound in understanding and using weights and measures.
The reason why ancient people set 1 catty as 16 taels may be related to the social culture at that time. It is said that the ancients added the 6 stars of the Southern Dipper, the 7 stars of the Big Dipper, and the 3 stars of Fu Lu Shou in the sky together to form a conversion unit of weights and measures, and formulated it based on the reference of conforming to the stars.
In the concept of the ancients, the stars are closely related to the fate of people, and no event can escape the gaze of the stars. If the trader is manipulating the weight of the goods, missing one or two, the lucky star will be reduced by one luck; If two taels are missing, Lu Xing will be reduced by one merit; If there is a lack of three taels, the birthday star will be reduced by one life.
This intuitive and simple concept, believing that those who are dishonest in the world will eventually be punished, has also penetrated into the daily life of the ancients.
The length of chopsticks is 7 inches and 6 minutes, which just corresponds to the seven emotions and six desires of people. The reason why humans are more advanced than animals is that we are able to use tools skillfully, and chopsticks are the embodiment of this ability.
About the origin of chopsticks, there is an ancient legend, when Dayu ruled the water, he found that the barbecue was too hot to grasp with his hands, so he used two small wooden sticks to pick up the meat to eat, which is one of the origins of chopsticks.
In the Neolithic period, despite the lack of historical evidence, it is not surprising that practical chopsticks were invented in order to facilitate the consumption of cooked food. It was only because there was no written text at the time that it was not possible to record the incident in detail.
However, with the development of history, the invention of chopsticks has a rich cultural connotation. In ancient times, chopsticks had a variety of names, such as "梜", "碸", etc., "The Book of Rites" recorded: "The soup has vegetables with the use of the soup", and the "First Aid Chapter" says that "the chopsticks, a chopstick, is used to hold food".
The shape of chopsticks also has a lot of exquisiteness, can not be called chopsticks just two small wooden sticks, they must be one side and one round, one thin and one thick, which coincides with the ancient natural philosophy of "the sky is round and the place is round".
In the theory of yin and yang, chopsticks are considered to be the embodiment of the two poles of yin and yang, tai chi is one, yin and yang are two, the two are divided into two, and the two are combined into one, so the unit of chopsticks is called "one pair" instead of "two".
Chopsticks have a long history as tableware that goes far beyond knives and forks. In fact, as early as the Warring States period in China, and even earlier 3,000 years ago, Chinese ancestors used knives and forks to eat, but compared to the more convenient and comprehensive chopsticks, knives and forks gradually faded out of the table.
To this day, we can still hear many legends about chopsticks, and the wisdom and mystery contained in them deserve our in-depth study.