From ancient times to the present, people have taken food as their life, and three meals a day are an indispensable part of life. China, an ancient civilization with a long history, has a history of more than 5,000 years, and in the long process of development, it has given birth to a unique food culture.
As one of the main tableware in China, chopsticks have a history of more than 3,000 years since its birth, it is not only versatile, easy to operate, and deeply loved by people, but also has its own school in the evolution of history, forming a unique and rich cultural system.
In the era of ancient China, due to the backward production tools and insufficient development of agriculture, people mainly lived by hunting, and the food was mainly animal meat, supplemented by wild fruits. Their main eating tools are knives and forks, which are used to cut the meat of the animal and then eat directly with the fork.
With the progress of history, people's demand for diet has gradually increased, and a single meat product can no longer meet them, so soup came into being. As for chopsticks, their specific origins are no longer known, and according to folklore, chopsticks were invented by Jiang Ziya.
Jiang Ziya met a divine bird on the way home, and the divine bird told him: "When eating, you can't eat empty-handed, the tableware is at your feet." Jiang Ziya picked up the silk bamboo on the ground and went home.
During the meal, he remembered the words of the divine bird, so he inserted the silk bamboo into the rice, and found that the bamboo silk was completely black, and realized that the food was poisoned by his wife, so he questioned his wife, and the wife was frightened and fled.
Since then, Jiang Ziya has been using silk and bamboo chopsticks to eat, after people learned this story, they thought that chopsticks had the effect of warding off evil spirits and clearing poison, so they followed suit, and silk and bamboo chopsticks were widely circulated among the people.
Although this is just a fictional story and the efficacy of chopsticks is exaggerated, it does reflect the importance of chopsticks in people's lives.
As early as the pre-Qin period, the name of chopsticks was still "coercion", and it was called "chopsticks" in the Qin and Han dynasties. From the record of "Han Feizi", we can see that in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, people began to pay attention to dining etiquette, and only used chopsticks when drinking soup.
The earliest chopsticks are copper chopsticks unearthed in Yinxu, Anyang City, Henan Province, which can be traced back to the Shang and Zhou dynasties more than 3,000 years ago. As for the name "chopsticks", it was determined in the Ming Dynasty.
At that time, the early Ming Dynasty implemented a policy of rest and recuperation, and the commodity economy developed rapidly. In the water town south of the Yangtze River, the waterway is wide and the shipping industry is developed. The merchants' food, clothing, shelter and transportation were carried out on the ship, and chopsticks were needed when eating.
However, the homonym of "箸" and "dwelling" means stagnation, which is a taboo for boaters on the water. As a result, people came up with the idea of replacing "stay" with the antonym "fast" for slow, and called "chopsticks" as "chopsticks", implying that the boat is moving fast on the water.
Over time, the name "chopsticks" spread.
From ancient times to the present, after more than 3,000 years of historical precipitation, ivory chopsticks have an unrivaled position on the dining table. It not only changes the way we eat, but also integrates the cultural essence of Chinese Confucianism and Taoism.
In feudal society, chopsticks were a symbol of the ruling class, from royalty to common people, regardless of class, chopsticks were an indispensable dining tool. In the early days, wood and bamboo were the main materials used to make them, which were easy to obtain and flexible to use.
With the changes of the times, the materials of chopsticks have expanded from the original wood to gold, silver, copper, porcelain, jade, etc., but their status as an important dining tool has remained the same.
The most famous of the jade chopsticks is the silver chopsticks, because arsenic, a common poison in ancient times, would turn silver black. Therefore, for a long time, it was popular in society to eat with silver chopsticks.
The aristocrats would test for poison with silver needles before eating. The length of chopsticks is exquisite, usually seven inches and six feet, implying people's seven emotions and six desires. The picking up and putting down of chopsticks is a reminder not to be too addicted to **, to know how to make trade-offs.
Chopsticks also embody the Taoist belief that everything needs to be harmonized with yin and yang to achieve balance. Two chopsticks, one yin and one yang, symbolize mutual cooperation and the intersection of yin and yang to achieve a balance.
The chopsticks are square at one end and round at the other, symbolizing the round sky and the place, expressing people's awe of nature. Chopsticks are homophonic to happiness, representing the blessings of Chinese people to their relatives and their expectations for peace and joy.
In the Tang Dynasty, there was an upright prime minister Song Jing, who was an honest official and did not dare to risk his life to advise the emperor.
Tang Xuanzong was deeply moved and rewarded Song Jing with a pair of golden chopsticks, hoping that he could be as upright as chopsticks, which is the origin of "golden chopsticks straight". Chopsticks are not only practical tools, but also represent the humanistic spirit of China.
In China, honesty and respect for the elderly. Confucianism pays attention to filial piety and pursues benevolence and righteousness, so that the idea of filial piety is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. During the Han Dynasty, the rulers promoted Confucianism and emphasized filial piety, making filial piety a norm of people's lives.
In terms of table manners, it is also heavily influenced by Confucianism. When eating, the elders and young are orderly, and the younger generations should wait for the elders to move the chopsticks before starting to eat, as a sign of respect for the elders.
There are also many rules for the use of chopsticks, for example, when handing out chopsticks, they should be neatly organized, the chopsticks should be placed in the same direction, and the chopsticks should not be inserted in the rice bowl, and the chopsticks should not be used to hit the rice bowl.
While waiting for the food to be served, sit upright with chopsticks neatly placed on the side of the bowl. During the meal, you can't pick and choose, you can't compete with people for food on the plate, and you can't lick the food on the chopsticks.
These are the rules that Chinese must abide by when using chopsticks, and they are a manifestation of Chinese respect for tradition and etiquette.
In dining etiquette, there is an old saying called: "People don't accompany you, chopsticks accompany you." It means that if you want to stop for a while during a meal, you can place your chopsticks on the plate to indicate that you are ready to continue eating.
And if you are full, place the chopsticks horizontally on the plate to symbolize the end of your meal. This ritual originated in ancient China and is usually used among friends or peers.
The younger generation must wait for the elders to cross the chopsticks before finishing the meal, which is a way of showing respect to them. Different cultures have their own unique ways of dining.
In the United Kingdom and the United States, cutlery is the main cutlery; In ancient Rome and ** religious culture, people grabbed food with their hands. The ancient Romans believed that the less they worked with their hands, the more honorable, while the ** religion regarded food as a gift from God, and the use of utensils was disrespectful and insulting to God.
Although the tableware varies from culture to culture, they all reflect the respect and gratitude that humans have for food. In the course of thousands of years of historical development, people's ideological concepts and quality of life have been continuously improved, and the quality of life has also been continuously improved.
Clothing, food, housing and transportation have been greatly developed, thus forming a unique Chinese historical civilization. Although the tableware is different, they all carry the value and significance of their respective cultures.
Chinese chopsticks, as tableware invented by the Chinese, have been widely used internationally. In addition to China, countries such as South Korea, Japan, and North Korea are also using chopsticks as their main tableware.
For Chinese, chopsticks are not only a tool for eating, but also represent China's history and civilization, and are known as"Civilization of the East"It is a national treasure of China.
Nowadays, learning table manners can not only improve one's intelligibility and elegance, but also help to broaden one's horizons, enrich one's thoughts, and promote interpersonal relationships. The invention of chopsticks is in line with the development trend of Chinese history and is the crystallization of social progress and people's wisdom.
It not only changed our dining tools, but also formed a set of table manners with Chinese historical characteristics. In abiding by the rules of chopsticks, we can see the 5,000-year-old Chinese civilization, as well as the rich connotation of the harmony of yin and yang, the unity of heaven and man, which has important reference significance for the development of contemporary society.