How many kinds of chopsticks were there in the late Qing Dynasty?

Chopsticks are made of many materials, including pure bamboo, painted, ivory and silver.

One side is hooked.

Ancient "Chopsticks Culture"

People in China have a long history of using chopsticks. According to modern archaeological discoveries, at least in the Neolithic Age, the ancients began to use chopsticks. For thousands of years, the sayings, usages and taboos about chopsticks have formed a unique "Qi culture" in ancient China.

The earliest record of chopsticks

When did it start?

The earliest record of chopsticks

When did it start?

Shuo Wen Jie Zi said

"Bang, the rice is delicious."

In ancient China, chopsticks had many names. There are three mainstream appellations: one is Zhu, the other is Zhu, and the other is Zhu. If it is made of wood, write "". Among them, "Qi" and "Qi" were popular earlier, and "Qi" was used more in Wei and Jin Dynasties, such as Gu's jade tablets, which said that "Qi is also good at eating"; After the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the official statement was often called "Zhu".

This word has both meaning and sound. Its meaning is quite direct, that is, something to hold food and help eat. This thing is unusual in the eyes of the ancients. "Shuo Wen Jie Zi" said: "Bang, the rice is delicious." In the eyes of the ancients, China's chopsticks were a strange thing. Not only westerners find it incredible, but ancient China people themselves find the invention of chopsticks wonderful.

The popular name of "chopsticks" did not appear in the literature until after the Ming Dynasty, and began to be called "chopsticks" and "chopsticks". One of the most frequently quoted quotations is Lu Rong's Garden Miscellanies. Boating on water was taboo at that time, especially in Wuzhong (now Suzhou). For example, the words "turn" and "live" are taboo, so "Zanbu" is called rag and "Zan" is called "Kuaier".

Amin scholar Li Yuheng has another saying in Sleeping on the Pushing Canopy. He thought that the boatman called "Kuai" a clown, not a homonym of "Kuai" and "Huo", but a homonym of "Kuai" and "Lag". "There are still people in the world who are jealous of bad words and call them good words. If they stand up slowly, they call them fast." The boatman drove the boat as fast as flying, and over time he shouted away. According to the law of philology, "chopsticks" gradually became "chopsticks".

The ancients used chopsticks.

What are the rules?

According to "Yi Sheng Ye Wen" records

Tang Su was severely punished by Zhu Yuanzhang for "Princess Theory".

In ancient times, there was a saying about what kind of chopsticks to eat. "On the Book of Rites and Quli" says that "you can't eat with chopsticks", which means you can't eat with chopsticks, but use a spoon. When there is food in the soup, use chopsticks-fish clips, which is the so-called "soup with food". People without vegetables don't need it. "There are many rules on how to use chopsticks.

Now from time to time, you can see two people holding vegetables with four chopsticks at the same time, which was not allowed in ancient times. The ancients thought that this action was called "chopping chopsticks", which was similar to the action when collecting ashes and unlucky. The ancients also avoided letting people stop chopsticks when eating. "Stop chopsticks" is aimed at the dead. After death, people will put the last bowl of "rice" in front of the coffin and insert a pair of chopsticks directly into the rice, which is called "chopsticks" to stop chopsticks. Because of this taboo, chopsticks can't be inserted into the rice when eating.

On formal occasions, even the placement of chopsticks should be paid attention. If chopsticks are placed horizontally on a bowl or plate, it means "You are drunk and full, please enjoy your meal". In some places in western Hunan, if you stop eating, you put chopsticks in a bowl, which means "I can't eat any more." In other places, if you put chopsticks on the left side of the bowl, it means that you are full.

This kind of folk chopsticks etiquette is generally used between acquaintances and peers, and should be used with caution between different identities and generations. For example, the younger generation should not put down their chopsticks in front of their elders. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, a great talent named Tang Su was honored to be called "waiter" by Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, but he was severely punished by Zhu Yuanzhang for "arching chopsticks", that is, putting chopsticks horizontally. This anecdote is recorded in Xu Zhenqing's note "Victory News" in the Ming Dynasty: "(Tang Su) After dinner, arch chopsticks as a gift. The emperor asked: What gift? Su Dui said, I'm not that polite. The emperor was angry and said, "Can the son of heaven perform vulgar rituals? "As a result, Tang Su was sentenced to disrespect and sent to Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown, Haozhou, guarding the city, which is the so-called' sin to sit irreverently and defend Haozhou'.

To sum up, ten taboos about chopsticks: avoid "three long and two short", and two chopsticks should be equal in length; Avoid "the gods lead the way". When using chopsticks, it is not good to stick out your index finger. In old Beijing, it is called "curse street". Avoid "lingering sound" and don't put chopsticks in your mouth to play back; Avoid "knocking on the cup", which is the practice of beggars; Avoid "digging graves" and rummage around the plate with chopsticks; Avoid "tears" and drop the juice on the table or other dishes when taking vegetables; Avoid "Gan Kun hangs upside down", and the two chopsticks are upside down; Avoid "fixing the sea needle" and insert a chopstick in the middle of the dish; Avoid "burning incense in public", put chopsticks in the rice and give them to your deskmate. ...

Chopsticks for marriage and dowry

What did you say?/Sorry?

Kyrgyz popular among the people.

"Chopsticks are quick and babies are quick."

Use chopsticks of different colors on different occasions, such as red chopsticks for weddings and white chopsticks for funerals, to show respect for the dead. A pair of chopsticks should be the same color. If you use mixed-color chopsticks, it shows 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 indispensable in her dowry. This custom is generally believed to have appeared in the Song Dynasty. At that time, after the parents of both men and women agreed on the marriage of their children, the parents of the woman usually sent a pair of jars filled with water, with four live goldfish and two pairs of chopsticks. Its moral is: goldfish, homophonic "today", wish the newcomer Qian Duoduo; Water refers to the water spilled by the married daughter; Chopsticks have two meanings, one is to pray for children and raise children, and take the folk auspicious language "chopsticks will soon have children and raise children". In Chaoshan, Guangdong, the bride and groom still have the custom of drinking longan soup when they enter the bridal chamber, but they should use red chopsticks instead of spoons to eat longan, which means "the baby is coming soon".

In addition, there is hope that the young couple will pair up and never part. In the countryside of northern Shaanxi, when a man greets his wife, he must bring a vase with rice. At the woman's house, the bride's father will fry the rice in the vase and seal his mouth with incense and wormwood to show "love". Then he took out a pair of red chopsticks, tied them to the bottle mouth with a red rope, handed them to his daughter and said to his daughter-in-law, "You should pair up like chopsticks, never part, and live happily."

Why are silver chopsticks popular?

The ancients favored it?

Compendium of Materia Medica records that

"Eating with silverware will turn black when exposed to poison."

Chopsticks are mainly made of bamboo and wood, but there are also many advanced and precious chopsticks materials. For example, "ivory chopsticks" were used in ancient Shang Dynasty. There is a saying in Biography of Twelve Archons in Historical Records that "elephant is like an elephant, and Ji Zi is sad".

According to archaeological excavations, in addition to bamboo chopsticks, there are animal bone chopsticks, jade chopsticks and metal chopsticks, among which metal chopsticks are the most, including gold chopsticks, silver chopsticks, copper chopsticks, iron chopsticks and lead chopsticks. Rhinoceros horn chopsticks and silver chopsticks were endowed with the function of testing food safety by the ancients. The idea that chopsticks were used to test poison earlier can be found in The Biography of Flying Swallows, which describes the adultery between Liu Ao, the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, and Zhao, the Empress. The old title was written by Han Lingyuan, which contained the words "A rhinoceros found two pairs of poisonous chopsticks".

The so-called "writing about rhinoceros to cure poison" is chopsticks made of rhinoceros horn. The article "rhinoceros horn" in Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica in Ming Dynasty records that "rhinoceros horn, where the spirit of rhinoceros gathers, is enough for Yangming medicine", so "rhinoceros horn can cure all kinds of poisons".

Rhinoceros horn is a traditional Chinese medicine, but it is not necessarily reliable that chopsticks made of it can be "poisoned". Silver chopsticks are often used. The ancients believed that "silverware can detect poison". In the famous forensic work Injustice Collection in Song Dynasty, the practice of "silver needle autopsy" was useful. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, people especially believed that silver chopsticks had the effect of testing poison. "Compendium of Materia Medica" article "Raw Silver" said, "Today's people eat with silverware and turn black when they encounter poison; People who are poisoned also use silver for experiments. "

Silver poison test did exist in Ming and Qing dynasties. In the 40th episode of A Dream of Red Mansions, when Feng was eating, he said to Granny Liu from the countryside, "The food is poisonous. You can try it if the money goes down ..."

Perhaps because of this, silver chopsticks were more favored by the ancients. However, in the imperial chefs of the Qing Dynasty, silver chopsticks were no longer used as poison detection tools when serving food to the emperor, but "silver plates" were used, or silver plates were directly used.

Superstition of chopsticks

What is the basis?

"Taiping Yulan" quoted "Book" as saying

"Five fingers with chopsticks make you rich and expensive."

Chopsticks are not just tableware in the eyes of the ancients. The ancients also believed that chopsticks were sacred. They often observed and analyzed life and future through chopsticks. "Taiping Yu Lan" quoted the saying in "Xiang Shu", saying that "people who use chopsticks with three fingers are at ease; Four fingers are expensive; Five fingers are used, and it is rich. " Obviously this statement is nonsense, because most people use five-fingered chopsticks.

In fact, chopsticks were often used as divination tools in ancient times, called "divination". In the Southern Tang Dynasty in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, divination became popular on the fifteenth day of the first month of the Lantern Festival. This statement was recorded in Xu Xuan's "Record of the Gods" in the early Song Dynasty: "Watch the night in the first month, take rice and clothes when you are studying, and put them in swaddling clothes to make you paint powder."

Bamboo cloth used to be very popular in Lingnan and other places. Zheng Xiong of the Tang Dynasty said in Panyu Miscellanies that "there are many divinations on the mountain, such as rat divination, bamboo divination, ox divination, bone divination, snail divination, chicken egg divination, bamboo divination and common ghosts." In the eyes of ancient Cantonese, not only chopsticks, but anything else can be used as a divination tool.

In the past, in Ningbo, Zhejiang, Gaoyou, Jiangsu and many other places, women had the custom of "inviting a dustpan girl", which was also a kind of "divination". The method is as follows: wrap crepe silk with a dustpan, insert a chopstick, and two little girls carry it, so that you can predict your fate. It is a good sign to order a table with chopsticks.

In the divination system of chopsticks, "please chopsticks god" is the simplest, so it is very popular among the people: soak three or four chopsticks in water and let them stand side by side in a water bowl or stove. In the process of erecting chopsticks, I kept chanting the names of different gods. When chopsticks stand, the god who reads is the "god on duty". We should respect him with courtesy and pray for his shelter. In fact, this profession is tantamount to a chopsticks game. Don't take it seriously.

Disclaimer: The column "One Party Hooks the Sink" was contributed by the famous historian Mr. Ni. Be sure to contact the author himself.

Parental way

It is reasonable to assume treason.

Qiao Jian

Peggy: Hello!

Tomorrow is Anne's 12 birthday. In your words, Anne is about to enter adolescence, and now she seems to have signs of rebellion.

I understand your anxiety when I read your long letter criticizing Anne. But you should know that such troubles are not unique to your family. At this time, you should not only face up to the unpleasant reality, but also try to look far away and devote yourself to more positive things. Worrying about the immediate trouble won't help things turn around. The key to the problem is to find a way.

It's hard to say what children's future life will be like, but what is certain is that their future is not what you and I expect, just as our parents can't predict what you and I will look like today. My experience is: don't expect children to introspect or change anything because of your anxious mood! I once asked Linda a question in a chat: "Why do you children know that many of your parents' words are right and are for your sake, but they are unwilling to follow them?" "I think Linda's answer is quite reasonable:" First, who wants to be driven by others to spend their precious youth? "Even if you can fall less and take less detours; Second, if you easily agree to your parents' first request, you still have many higher requirements that you can't complete! "

After listening to such a frank answer, I felt a little sympathy for the children's situation. Just like a baby learns to walk. Parents are afraid that their children will fall and hold them hard. Although their legs are too soft to support their bodies, they can always see their forward posture through their rickety little bodies. From this, I suddenly feel that the children's "rebellion" is really reasonable!

Let's try, if we sincerely show generosity to children's disobedience, how likely is it that children will "push their luck"? Can you stop nagging for a while and try to quietly create some examples that can awaken the child's inner beauty? It's no use worrying. Only come up with clever tricks is the only way to solve the problem, and you have to be resilient and patient.

Don't blame children for not cherishing time. Try to ask in a caring tone, "What did you do for your goal today? How is the completion effect? Wouldn't it be better to make a schedule to help yourself? " When you see that your child is not dressed properly, don't rush to correct or satirize. The establishment of aesthetics must be rooted in ... writing letters when necessary and expressing the truth you want to tell your children logically. Of course, it is not easy to do this, and once it is done, we and our children will see a completely different family atmosphere.

In addition to not issuing those thoughtless "rapid-fire", it is also very important. I don't know how many times you remember when my parents were in a hurry. Now that I think about it, the troubles of the old people actually don't have much effect on changing us. What can play a role is their own behavior that parents ignore-children will unconsciously imitate. Knowing this, you might as well try to shift your eyes from children to yourself, cultivate your words and deeds, and persist for a period of time, which may have unexpected results. Give up the lifestyle of competing with Annie every day, take your eyes off the children with a tight ruler, and show Annie a rational, elegant and rich self, instead of the "mother" who talks all day and has only one child in her heart. Life tells us that if we focus too much on one thing, we may not get the desired result.

Think of Anne ten years later, 22 years old, in her prime, and just finished her studies. If you mention her rebellious behavior from the beginning, everyone will just laugh it off, and your anger today will be in vain. In ten years, she will be 32 years old, and you and I will be over 500 years old. I'm afraid it's her turn to start a new round of trouble for a more naughty little Annie.

Talk to you later! elder sister

Filial piety is the most important of all virtues.

beautiful woman

China's filial piety culture has a long history. The concept of "filial piety" originated in Shang Dynasty, and the word "filial piety" appeared in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, which is undoubtedly related to the Yin people's reverence for ghosts and gods. When the ancestors died, they became gods, which protected future generations and did not dare to neglect them. The "filial piety" of Yin people is more reflected in the good deeds of ghosts and gods. The Book of Rites Sacrifices says: "Sacrifice, so pursue filial piety." Different from the Yin people, Zhou people mainly farmed, relying on the experience of the elderly, and "respecting the elderly" became a tradition. The word "filial piety" in the disk (figure 1) means "helping the elderly". There is a saying in Sima Qian's Historical Records Zhou Benji: "Respect for benevolence, respect for the elderly, and less kindness." On the basis of respecting the elderly, "filial piety" has become an important content of Zhou rites. After a long period of accumulation, filial piety has become the basic value of the Chinese nation, which is related to all aspects of China people's spiritual life.

"Filial piety" simply means that children should do their best to their parents. Filial piety is a kind of responsibility, which is justified; On the other hand, it is another inheritance to cultivate children in family rules, paying equal attention to strictness and kindness. There is a book devoted to the word "filial piety", which shows its importance. The Classic of Filial Piety, which has been handed down through the ages, has the preface of nine emperors and the interpretation of hundreds of scholars. As a Confucian ethical work, The Book of Filial Piety systematically summarizes and expounds the culture of filial piety. In the Qing Dynasty, Ji Yun pointed out in the Catalogue of Sikuquanshu that this book was Confucius' last words and was written in Qin and Han Dynasties. From the Western Han Dynasty to the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, there were hundreds of commentators, and the book was divided into eighteen chapters. The first chapter is the purpose of the book: "Filial piety is the foundation of virtue, and teaching also gives birth." "The body hair skin, entrusted by parents, dare not damage, the beginning of filial piety. Standing on the road, I will make a name for myself in later generations to show my parents that I am filial. " Just a few dozen words summed up the whole story of filial piety.

Filial piety is the essence and purpose of the Six Classics. The Six Classics of Confucianism advocates the nature of "benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and faith". Among the five permanent members, benevolence is the first, which is promoted on the basis of "kinship", such as "providing for the old and relying on it", and benevolence is the sum of all kinds of good virtues. Filial piety is the beginning of benevolence, the first line of benevolence and the core spirit of benevolence. The most important thing to be kind is filial piety. There is a cloud in the Book of Filial Piety: "Change customs and habits, and don't be good at fun; It is not good to govern the people with courtesy. " "Dear parishioners, be good at filial piety; Teach the people to be polite and obedient, but not good at it. "

Needless to say, some contents in the Book of Filial Piety are out of date, such as "father is son", "parents are here, they must swim well if they don't travel far away" and "there are three unfilial things, and there is no future". Similarly, there are some ideas in "Twenty-four Filial Piety" that are not worth advocating, such as "Guo Ju buried his son", and filial piety is at the expense of killing his relatives, which is far from benevolence. Or it could be a mistake. The original words are "Guo Ju sells children"; "Sleeping on the ice for carp fish" is not true. In fact, it is "breaking the ice for carp", and changing "breaking" into "lying" is to strengthen the tragic color. This kind of misinformation is common, such as "no poison, no husband" is actually "no husband", and He Long's "two kitchen knives revolting" is actually "two firewood knives", which is in line with the reality and is misinformed because of dialect.

"filial piety" and "grace" are also called. Kindness is the instinct of animals, filial piety is the product of the development of civilization, and people are human.

Filial piety is related to respect. Because "filial piety" is from the heart, sincerity is spiritual, and with respect, filial piety can be better fulfilled.

In the process of the evolution and development of the whole society, the relationship between "filial piety" and "teaching" is getting closer and closer, but it can't be understood simply from the glyph. "Teaching" from (Figure 2) "Teaching" means "people who insist on teaching others". "Yi" and "Yi" are homonyms, originally referring to symbols in divination, and later extended to knowing things. Children need to learn all kinds of knowledge from adults. "Zi" refers to an object that is relatively uneducated and needs guidance from others. It should be said that the word "filial piety" (Figure 3) is not a systematic concept of "filial piety", or filial piety is not a universally recognized mainstream consciousness. As mentioned above, the concept of filial piety sprouted in the late Shang Dynasty. After the demise of the Shang Dynasty, the subsequent dynasties changed and the society was in turmoil. The legend of "not eating Zhou Su" shows the formation of filial piety consciousness, which emphasizes loyalty in essence and has certain connection with filial piety. In other words, loyalty is political filial piety. Social unrest has made the world generally lose its sense of stability and security. Based on strengthening personal responsibility and realizing the stability of the whole society, the ideology and social foundation of filial piety gradually emerged.

Paper book 13, each page is 25.8cm high and 13.9cm wide. It is now in the Palace Museum in Beijing.

The title of this book is: In August, Huang Daozhou was rediscovered by Baiyun Library in Chongzhen (164 1) New Temple. "Baiyun" is synonymous with punishments. It is said that when the Yellow Emperor was in charge of officials, Qiu Guan was regarded as Baiyun and the punishments belonged to Qiu Guan.