When did the chopsticks come into being?

There is no definite historical record of who invented chopsticks or when they were created. Most of the earliest mentions are closely related to legendary figures. Chopsticks are said to have been invented by Da Yu, an ancient hero whose most remarkable accomplishment was taming floods. One day, Da Yu was so hungry after battling a flood that he immediately began to cook some meat to allay his hunger. As the cooked meat was too hot to eat, he snapped off two tree twigs to pluck the meat out of the boiling soup; others followed his example, leading to the birth of chopsticks.

Existing archaeological evidence includes sticks made of animal bones of different lengths unearthed from Neolithic sites all across China. Some archaeologists call them guzhu (bone chopsticks), and they might be the predecessor of modern chopsticks.

According to historical literature, ancient Chinese people initially ate with their fingers, as people do in the Middle East and South Asia today. The fact that we still call the index finger shizhi (meaning dining finger) in Chinese pinyin is a vestige of that custom. It was commonplace to eat with one's hands at least until the end of the Spring and Autumn Period (770–476 BC).

Earlier still, during the late Shang period (1300–1046 BC), a large number of fine cooking and serving vessels emerged, such as tripods, rice steamers, cauldrons, pots, gui (a round-mouthed food vessel), and fu (a square grain receptacle), indicating that the ancients loved hot food. Of course, the tradition of eating hot food has never vanished. For food cooked by the traditional Chinese methods of steaming, boiling, stewing, or braising, it is absolutely impossible to "eat it while it's hot" without the use of utensils. However, the earliest tools for picking up food might not have been chopsticks. Spoons, knives, and forks came into being very early, like in other civilizations. Chopsticks were then mainly used for picking up non-grain food.

According to the Book of Rites, vegetables in soup were supposed to be eaten with chopsticks, while the soup itself would be eaten with spoons; likewise, rice was not supposed to be eaten with chopsticks, but with spoons. In fact, the commonly used term kuaizi for chopsticks did not really appear until around the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). Another name zhu was used before that. According to Selections from Miscellaneous Records from the Bean Garden, people from Wuzhong, who often traveled by boat, would avoid saying zhu (meaning stop in Chinese pinyin), and instead refer to chopsticks as kuai (meaning fast in Chinese pinyin), indicative of smooth and fast sailing.

In historical literature, bizhu (meaning spoon) and shizhu (meaning chopsticks) always appear together, with the former invariably coming before the latter, which reflects their primary and secondary statuses. According to Records of the Historian: a great general during the reign of Emperor Jing of the Han dynasty (202 BC–AD 220), prided himself on his brilliant achievements in war. Once, when he was summoned to the royal palace to dine with the emperor, he found a large piece of meat on his plate which was neither cut into small pieces nor served with chopsticks. He furiously asked an attendant for chopsticks, but Emperor Jing asked him, "Is that not enough for you?" He was making a pun, where his ostensible meaning was "What's wrong with no chopsticks?" but the implication was "Are you not satisfied with your power and position?"

The above records show that chopsticks were already one of the common eating utensils in the Han Dynasty. If we look carefully at stone or brick paintings excavated from tombs dating back to the Han Dynasty, we will often find chopsticks in banquet scenes.

Throughout the world, people who eat meat as a staple usually use knives and forks. China prefers chopsticks because of its traditional cooking methods, unchanged for thousands of years. We complete meat preparation in the kitchen, cutting it into bite-sized pieces before cooking. Thus, we have the sayings "a gentleman stays out of the kitchen" (meaning a gentleman does not kill) and "no objection to the rice being of the finest quality nor to the meat being finely minced." What's more, besides steaming and stewing, stir-frying is another popular method of cooking, where chopsticks—capable of flipping, choosing, picking, and mixing food—are the tool of choice.

Becoming popular in the greater Chinese cultural sphere

When we take a closer look at countries that use chopsticks, we find that while people in East Asia all use chopsticks, the chopsticks they use are different.

However, in Vietnam, as in China, chopsticks are usually round at the bottom and square at the top, a design that reflects the ancient Chinese belief that the sky is round and the earth is square. This probably has a lot to do with China’s influence on Vietnam, which began as early as the Qin (221–206 BC) and Han dynasties, as well as the close cultural ties between the two countries.

Before the Tang Dynasty (618–907), most Japanese people ate rice with their hands. In 607, the Japanese Empress Suiko sent Onono Imoko and his party to China to study, and it was then that they noticed that rice could be eaten with chopsticks. From that time, chopsticks gradually became popular in Japan. This is also consistent with the Japanese tradition of calling chopsticks Tangzhu (chopsticks of the Tang Dynasty). If you eat at a restaurant in Japan today, you will find that chopsticks are placed above the plate, parallel to the table, regardless of the size of the restaurant. This is completely different from the Chinese habit of placing chopsticks to the right of the plate, vertically on the table. But it is a little-known fact that in the Tang Dynasty, Chinese chopsticks were placed horizontally on the dining table, and this can be seen in many Tang Dynasty paintings.

How did chopsticks reach Europe?

Chopsticks spread to Europe later than East Asian countries, in the years from late Ming to early Qing Dynasty in the 17th century. The first European to describe how the Chinese ate with chopsticks was an Italian, Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), who came to China in 1582 during the reign of Emperor Wanli of the Ming Dynasty. In his memoir I commentari della Cina (1580–1610) (Notes on China; its Latin version was published in Augsburg, Germany in 1615), he described, in Italian, Chinese banquets: "They did not eat with a knife, fork or spoon, but with very smooth chopsticks, about one and a half palms long, with which they could easily put any kind of food into their mouths without the help of their fingers." He also wrote: "Chopsticks are made of ebony or ivory or other durable materials, and they do not stain easily. The end that touches food is usually covered with gold or silver."

During the Qing Dynasty (1616–1911), exchanges between China and European countries were more frequent than before. In addition to missionaries, more diplomatic envoys, merchants, and tourists came to China from Europe. Meanwhile, Chinese people also traveled to Western countries and spread the use of chopsticks in Europe.

Louis XIV loved Chinese things. In addition to wearing satin, he also displayed Chinese porcelain, lacquerware, furniture, and daily necessities at Versailles and Fontainebleau, and learned to use Chinese chopsticks at banquets. He started a trend for the French court and upper class to eat with chopsticks. Then countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands followed suit.

Chopsticks also appear in the accounts of the Russian mission. Itais, who led the mission, wrote as follows:

At a Chinese meal, a pair of small round chopsticks of ivory or ebony was placed on the table. Chinese were very good at using chopsticks, and it was particularly surprising that they could even use chopsticks to pick up a pin by its head. They held chopsticks with the thumb, forefinger, and middle finger of their right hand. All meals such as soup, rice, hot dishes, etc. were served in porcelain bowls.

Their mission consisted of 22 men, 12 of whom were German, nine were Russian, and the rest were Dutch. This shows that the use of chopsticks spread far and wide, basically covering all parts of Europe.

The author is Zhang Yanfei, Zhejiang University.

Liu Xian /Editor    Zhang Liyu, Yang Lin /Translator

Yang Xinhua /Chief Editor    Ren Qiang /Coordinator

Liu Li /Reviewer

Zhang Weiwei /Copyeditor    Tan Yujie /Image Editor

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