The Art of Chopsticks
7 min readIn ancient times people ate raw meat with their hands. Today most people eat cooked food using chopsticks, knives, forks and spoons. It seems that mankind’s cultural evolution has been reflected in the development of eating utensils.
The evolution of Chinese cooking and eating utensils has played a key part in the evolution of the country’s eating culture. Over time, as China developed, eating utensils not only changed in terms of the materials they were made out of but they also became smaller and more refined.
The earliest Chinese cooking utensils were earthenware tripod cauldrons and earthenware containers for steaming rice. These developed into larger bronze and iron utensils that had more refined shapes. Among the cultural relics that have been preserved from China’s ancient past, we can find plates and bowls that are basically the same as those we use today. However, we can also find items that are not familiar to the modern eye. These include round-mouthed food vessels with two or four loop handles, square grain receptacles, standing cups and bamboo utensils for holding cooked rice.
China has a long history of brewing, and this is reflected in the utensils that have been found by archaeologists. For example, many bronze wine containers from the time of the Shang Dynasty have been unearthed. We can therefore infer that drinking wine was quite popular at that time.
There were many types of wine containers in ancient China. These include wine vessels, pots, bronze drinking vessels, wooden drinking vessels and earthen jars.
This earthen tripod from the Shang Dynasty is in the This cubical cooking utensil from the Western Zhou Inner Mongolia Museum. The tripod was a utensil used Dynasty is in the Luoyang Museum in Henan. Items like for boiling rice in ancient China. There were both earthen this were used to steam food in the pre-Qin period. It and bronze tripods. They usually had a large opening (the consists of two parts: the upper part(the “earthen utensil edge of which extended outwards) and three hollow feet, for steaming rice”) was used for holding food. There is a which facilitated cooking and heating. grate at its base to allow steam to enter. The lower part (the “tripod”) was for boiling water. Its feet would have been placed in a fire.
In antiquity, China saw the emergence of a number of important inventions, including gunpowder, the compass and movable type printing. These demonstrate the high level of science and technology achieved by the ancient Chinese.
This bronze square grain receptacle features kui-dragon patterns.It was made during the Spring and Autumn Period and is displayed in the Zhengzhou Museum in Henan.It was used as a utensil for holding glutinous millet，broomcornmillet，sorghum and rice.It was also used during sacrificial ceremonies and feasts.The lid and body of the utensil are the same shape and size and are symmetrical.They can be combined into one utensil or used as two separate utensils.
Chopsticks were called“zhu”in ancient times.The story of the mythical origin of chopsticks is well known in China:in the ancient period of Emperor Yao and Emperor Shun，floods caused many disasters.So Yu the Great was ordered to regulate the country’s rivers andwatercourses.One day，Yu the Great boiled meat in a cauldron.After the water had boiled，he did not have time to wait for the cauldron to cool before picking out the meat，so he cut off two tree branches and used them to pick the meat out of the hot soup.His subordinates all saw him eatinglike this-without scalding his hands or staining them with oil-and so followed his example.This is how chopsticks are meant to have started.
This bronze wine vessel made of horn from the late Shang Dynasty was unearthed from Yachang’s tomb in Anyang, Henan. It is displayed at the National Museum of China. Vessels such as these, with oval or cubic bodies, were popular from the late Shang to the early Western Zhou Dynasty. Some of these vessels were in the shape of animals-as is the case with this particular example.
There are clear historical records that show that Chinese people began to use chopsticks to eat during the Shang Dynasty(1600-1046 BC) more than 3,000 years ago. The oldest existing chopsticks are a pair made of bronze that were unearthed from the Yin ruins. The Yin ruins are the site of the late Shang Dynasty’s capital located in Anyang, Henan. Yin was the earliest Chinese capital that can be accurately dated. Words carved on bones for divination were discovered in the ruins in 1899 and large-scale archeological excavations began at the site in 1928. By the time of the Han Dynasty, Chinese people had generally begun to use chopsticks while eating.
The famous Chinese-born physicist Tsung-Dao Lee made the following evaluation of chopsticks:
“Such a simple pair of sticks shows a marvelous utilization of the lever principle. Chopsticks are extensions of the fingers, and are able to do anything fingers do. They can be used in the heat and in the freezing cold. They are wonderful.”
The invention of chopsticks was closely related to the introduction of more vegetable roots, stems and leaves into the Chinese diet. The use of chopsticks also helped in the creation and development of certain Chinese dishes and eating customs-for example, instant-boiled mutton, long noodles and cold jelly became individualized, convenient and interesting thanks to the introduction of chopsticks. In addition,”instant-boiled”mutton could not be eaten without chopsticks.
Chopsticks have many functions, including lifting, stirring, pinching, mixing and skinning.
They can be used to pick up any food other than liquids such as soup. However, it is more difficult to control chopsticks than to control a knife or fork because there is no direct connection between the chopsticks’ two thin sticks. Users must learn to co-ordinate their thumb, index finger and middle finger. Studies have shown that the use of chopsticks to eat involves the movements of more than 80 joints and more than 50 muscles including those of the shoulders, arms, wrists and fingers. The use of chopsticks has also been shown to make people quick-witted and nimble-fingered. Many Westerners think that the way in which Chinese people use chopsticks is an art, and some people even think that the Chinese play table tennis so well because they eat meals with chopsticks.
However, chopsticks do have one disadvantage: when round and slippery foods such as rice dumplings, meat balls and pigeon eggs are encountered, then considerable skill is needed to eat them using chopsticks-which can be a source of embarrassment for some.
Just as Westerners have rules about how to eat politely, so Chinese people have a set of rules about eating. They use chopsticks to eat rice and use spoons to drink soup, and they only use one hand at a time(unlike Westerners who normally use both). There are a number of other etiquetterules related to use of chopsticks. They are generally held with the right hand (which follows ancient tradition). If one stops eating temporarily during a banquet, then one’s chopsticks should be placed on the table near one’s rice bowl. However, they should not be stuck vertically into the rice in the bowl. This can’t be done because, in ancient times, the Chinese offered food as a sacrifice to their ancestors and chopsticks could only be stuck vertically above bowls and pots containing sacrificial food. While eating, one should not point one chopsticks at anybody. While talking withothers, one should not stir food or pierce things with one’s chopsticks. One should not pick up a piece of food with chopsticks while another person is picking it up. Nor should one knock on an empty bowl with chopsticks. After eating a meal, one should place one’s chopsticks carefully in the Chopsticks as folk artwork.A picture ot a feast in ancient China.
One should not use chopsticks of different lengths, nor should one eat food using one chopstick, use chopsticks upside-down or use one’s chopsticks as a tooth-pick.
The chopsticks that Chinese people normally use on a day-to-day basis are mostly made of bamboo and wood, but chopsticks are also made of other materials such as gold, silver, bronze, iron, jade, ivory and rhinoceros horn. Chinese emperors in ancient times usually used silver chopsticks. They did this to ensure their safety, because silverware turns black when it comes into contact with poison.
Chopsticks are not only the most loyal”servants”on a Chinese dining tables, they can also be a kind of folk-art that is characteristic of China’s culture. Indeed,”famous chopsticks”made of special materials are produced in many areas of China. Chinese chopsticks’ unique artistic value is shown by the fact that they are bought and collected by people from both China and abroad.
For example, Mr. Lan Ling is a very insightful folk-art collector from Shanghai. He founded the first museum in China that specializes in chopsticks. He has collected more than 2,000 pairs of splendid chopsticks(representing more than 800 different types) for people to appreciate. These include souvenir chopsticks, chopsticks used for dyeing in rural areas, prop chopsticks used for the Mongolian chopstick dance, iron chopsticks that were used as weapons in ancient times and bird chopsticks used for breeding birds. An old ex-pat Chinese man living in Indonesia has also collected 908 kinds of chopsticks, including a pair of gold chopsticks used by an imperial concubine in ancient China.
