The wisdom of the ancients has both the broad mind of Zhuang Zhou's getaway, and the gentleman's way of dealing with the world in "harmony but difference", and the wisdom of the ancients, hidden between all things, savored, and all are humane learning. "Han Feizi Says Lin Shang" records: The saint sees the micro to know the cuteness, and the end to know the end, so he sees the elephant and is afraid, and knows that the world is insufficient. So, living in the new era, can we know why the ancestors stipulated that 16 two is 1 pound? Why is the length of chopsticks 7 inches and 6 minutes? The wisdom of the ancestors needs to be understood.
Modern people often say that "half a pound eight two" is actually a root cause, when Qin Shi Huang unified the world, due to the inconsistencies in the weights and measures of the six countries, has seriously affected the economic development and social order, The Minister Li Si suggested that Qin Shi Huang abolish the old system of the six kingdoms, establish a new system, and extract the weights and measures from the chaotic state. Qin Shi Huang felt justified, so he stipulated a sixteen-seat system of two pounds. However, why didn't Qin Shi Huang stipulate that the jin and jin were ten-fold? Be sure to choose the number "sixteen"?
The ancients once looked at the sky at night, and they observed the seven stars of the Big Dipper and the six stars of the South Dipper, plus the three stars of Fu, Lu and Shou next to them, which were exactly sixteen stars, and applied to weights and measures. Among them, the seven stars of the Big Dipper are the main death, the six stars of the South Dipper are the main students, and the three stars of Fu, Lu and Shou are respectively the blessings, lu and shou of a person's life. The ancients firmly believed that the stars in the sky corresponded to people's fortunes, just as the so-called "people are doing, God is watching", people who do business can not lack two pounds, if one or two, the blessing star is reduced; if two or two is missing, the Lu star is reduced; if three or two is missing, the life star is reduced. Under the traditional concept, the simple working people dare not do anything that is ignorant of conscience.
The standard length of chopsticks is seven inches and six minutes, which means that people have seven passions and six desires, to show that there is an essential difference with animals. Folklore, when Dayu went out to control the water, slept in the wild all year round, and when he was hungry, he beat some wild game and burned it to eat, but the cooked meat was very hot and could not be directly grasped by hand, so Dayu folded down two branches with his hand and added up the hot animal meat to eat, so the chopsticks were born.
However, the legend of Dayu inventing chopsticks has no realistic basis, so it cannot be counted. At present, the specific appearance of chopsticks is uncertain, but it is at least 3,000 years old. The "Li Ji Qu Li Shang" records that those who have vegetables in the soup use the stick. In the pre-Qin era, chopsticks were called "梜", in the Han Dynasty, they were called "箸", and the "First Aid" said: 箸, a 梜, so it is also clipped. It was not until the Ming Dynasty that the name of chopsticks was determined, and the Ming dynasty people called them "chopsticks".
However, the ancestors liked to call "a pair" of chopsticks instead of "two" chopsticks, why is this? In fact, there is a hidden concept of tai chi and yin and yang, tai chi is one, yin and yang are two, one contains two, and two are merged into one. In addition, when chopsticks are used, pay attention to cooperation and coordination, one move, one does not move, in order to clamp steadily; two are moving, or both do not move, they can not be clamped, both contain the Chinese principle of yin and yang, but also include the principle of leverage of Western mechanics, the wisdom of the ancestors is indeed infinite, we as Chinese descendants should be proud.