Posted 2012/3/27
It was recorded in Liji (The Book of Rites) that chopsticks were used in the Shang Dynasty (1600 BC - 1100 BC). It was mentioned in Shiji (the Chinese history book) by Sima Qian (about 145 BC) that Zhou, the last king of the Shang Dynasty (around 1100 BC), used ivory chopsticks. Experts believe the history of wood or bamboo chopsticks can be dated to about 1,000 years earlier than ivory chopsticks. Bronze chopsticks were invented in the Western Zhou Dynasty (1100 BC - 771 BC). Lacquer chopsticks from the Western Han (206 BC - 24 AD) were discovered in Mawangdui, China. Gold and silver chopsticks became popular in the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907). It was believed that silver chopsticks could detect poisons in food.
Chopsticks can be classified into five groups based on the materials used to make them, i.e., wood, metal, bone, stone and compound chopsticks. Bamboo and wood chopsticks are the most popular ones used in Chinese homes.
There are a few things to avoid when using chopsticks. Chinese people usually don't beat their bowls while eating, since the behavior used to be practiced by beggars. Also don't insert chopsticks in a bowl upright because it is a custom exclusively used in sacrifice.
If you are really interested in chopsticks, you may want to visit the Kuaizi Museum in Shanghai. The museum collected over 1,000 pairs of chopsticks. The oldest one was from the Tang Dynasty.
The origin of rice was asked recently in an email. I thought it is good question, so I did some research about it. I tried to send the answer back to the person who asked the question. Unfortunately the email did not go through, so I decided to put together what I found on the Net here.
Rice has been one of the most important foods of Chinese for thousands of years. It is believed that Chinese started to eat rice about 5,000 years ago. It is also believed that rice cultivation was originated by Shen Nung, the Divine Farmer, around 2,737 BC. By tasting various wild plants, he also discovered which plants were useful and which plants were harmful or poisonous. Yet origin is always a very complicated issue, especially for rice, such an antique plant. For more information, check out the following links.
