Chinese culture is broad and profound, long-standing, and the food culture in it is even more enviable to the world, and there is a rather unique "sub-culture" in China's food culture, that is, "chopstick culture"!
Chopsticks are one of our most commonly used tableware, everywhere in life, three meals a day are indispensable to it, perhaps because it is too common, so that people ignore its importance, let's imagine, if there is no chopsticks in life, how a scene should be!
So who invented such an important chopstick? Let me sell it first, let's first see when the chopsticks appear.
The time when the chopsticks appear
Here we need to popularize a knowledge point for everyone, although chopsticks are the most commonly used tableware now, but in fact, in ancient times, spoons are the only tableware for people, the appearance of spoons is more than five thousand years earlier than chopsticks, and even the appearance of forks is more than a thousand years earlier than chopsticks.
According to historical research, chopsticks should have appeared more than 3,000 years ago, and we have no way of knowing the first person to use chopsticks, but the first king who used chopsticks is recorded in history.
According to the "Han Feizi Yu Lao", "In the past, the people were like elephants, and the baskets were terrible. The "箸" here refers to the chopsticks, and the "纣" is naturally the famous King of Gong, yes, the King of Gong is the first king to use chopsticks in history.
In addition, the King of Lu was the monarch at the end of the Shang Dynasty, which also confirmed the appearance of chopsticks more than 3,000 years ago.
The time of the appearance of chopsticks is determined, so who invented chopsticks
There are generally two theories about the "founder" of chopsticks:
The first theory: the prototype of chopsticks is Jiang Ziya's silk bamboo chopsticks invented by the inspiration of the divine bird, Jiang Ziya everyone knows, the founding father of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the chief think tank of Ji Chang, the Marquis of Xibo, but he was seventy-two years old when he was appreciated by Ji Chang.
Before this, he had achieved nothing, poor and poor, all day with a "straight hook" fishing at the water's edge, his wife felt poor and loved the rich, she wanted to poison Jiang Ziya to find another way out, one day she poisoned Jiang Ziya's meal.
However, whenever Jiang Ziya wanted to eat, there was a bird that flew over to peck At Jiang Ziya's hand, two or three times in a row, Jiang Ziya was suspicious in his heart, followed the god bird out, retrieved the two branches where the god bird landed, used the branch to take the rice, and the result was that the branch touched the rice and smoked white, Jiang Ziya knew that the rice was poisonous, and the two branches in Jiang Ziya's hand also became the initial chopsticks.
The second theory: chopsticks were invented by Su Daji, I didn't expect it, people only know that Su Da's own disaster to the country and the people, but did not expect that she is still an "inventor".
According to the "General History of China", the king of Lu was tyrannical, moody, and extremely particular about eating, and the meals could not be cold, nor hot, nor salty, nor light, otherwise the cooks who cooked and the concubines who served him would have their heads killed.
Over time, no concubine in the palace dared to serve the King of Lu to eat, Dai Ji took the initiative to undertake this errand in order to please the King of Lu, one day when Dai Ji was "trying dishes" for the King of Gong, he found that two dishes were too hot, and it was too late to temporarily change them, the King of Gong had already arrived at the table, and in a hurry, Daji pulled out the two jade hairpins on his head, took a little food with a jade hairpin, blew it with his mouth and sent it to the mouth of the King of Gong, who had seen this "thing", and only felt comfortable and comfortable.
So he ordered Dai Ji to serve her in this way in the future, and Dai Ji ordered someone to make two elongated jade hairpins to better pinch food, which was the earliest chopsticks.
Let's compare these two statements, it is obvious that Jiang Ziya's invention of silk bamboo chopsticks is more like a mythical story, and the two are more credible than Dai's invention of chopsticks!
Chopstick culture
Chopsticks were originally just utensils for picking up food, but with the development of the times, people gave it a special meaning, such as the standard length of chopsticks is seven inches and six minutes, representing that people have seven emotions and six desires. In addition, the chopsticks are round at one end and square at the other.
The symbol of the circle is the heaven, the symbol of the square, corresponding to the "heavenly round place", which is the ancients' first exploration of the world, although now it seems that the "heavenly circle place" is wrong, but at that time this was an "epoch-making" innovation!
In addition, there are many taboos in the use of chopsticks, such as the most taboo "three long and two short", "immortals guiding the way", "mimic planing graves", etc., and the posture of holding chopsticks is also exquisite, the standard holding method is: thumb index finger on the top, ring finger little finger on the bottom, middle finger in the middle, this is in line with the image of the three talents of heaven and earth.
How, is not an eye-opener!
brief summary:
Dai Ji is a "unique demon concubine", her image of red face and disaster to the water, the disaster of the country and the people has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, but in addition to the identity of "demon concubine", she is also the inventor of chopsticks, everyone did not expect it!
Just as the so-called "people can not be disguised, the sea is invincible", do not underestimate anyone around you!
References: Han Feizi Yu Lao, General History of China