Evaluate the impact of superstitions on the development of chopsticks in China

BY MAYA HU, YEAR 10, 2021

As the most common utensils on the Chinese dinner table, Chinese chopsticks have developed over thousands of years to its form in the present day. During this long period of development, superstitions had a large impact in shaping the current chopsticks, including its shape, length, and various practices and traditions related to it. However, towards the future, the focus on resolving environmental concerns will largely impact the development of chopsticks rather than superstitions. The influence of these two factors, together with the complication of the Chinese civilisation and the knowledge of collective learning, chopsticks have evolved to its current form with more forms to come.

Shortly after the invention of chopsticks, superstitions had a clear and major impact on the development of chopsticks in Ancient China. The spreading of the usage of chopsticks across Ancient China was a key stage of chopsticks’ development. When chopsticks were first created, most Chinese people only used it for cooking and reaching into pots of hot oil and water.1 On the dinner table, sharp utensils such as forks and knives were used. The gradual but significant shift from cooking to eating with chopsticks occurred with the courtesy of Confucius, an influential politician and philosopher in Ancient China. According to Stephanie Butler from History.com, Confucius believed that “sharp utensils at the dinner table would remind eaters of the slaughterhouse”, and that “knives’ sharp points evoked violence and warfare”. Due to his popularity and the people’s desire for peace, this idea of Confucius spread across Ancient China, and eventually everyone started to use chopsticks instead of forks and knives at the dinner table.2 These are clear evidence that superstitions affected the development of chopsticks as it influenced Confucius, later all Chinese people to change their usage of chopsticks, marking the significant development stage of chopsticks in the ancient times, which continues into modern day. Furthermore, the shape and length of traditional Chinese chopsticks was determined by superstitions as well. Confucius’ idea also influenced the shape of chopsticks to be blunt, rather than having sharp ends like those in other Asian cultures.3 Additionally, out of the two ends of each chopstick, one is circular, and one is rectangular. This symbolises the Ancient Chinese’s belief that “the sky is circular, and the ground is rectangular”.4 Traditional and authentic Chinese chopsticks are strictly 7.6 inches long, symbolising the seven emotions and six senses that humans are believed to have.5 These numerous links of chopsticks’ characteristics to superstitions demonstrate the large impact superstitions had on the development of chopsticks in the early periods. The long-lasting impact of superstitions on the development of chopsticks was made possible by the powerful idea of collective learning, where ideas and practices of Chinese people in relation to the usage of chopsticks were passed down through generations by a variety form of texts.

As the Chinese civilisation continued to develop and become more complex, so did the names and rules behind the usage of chopsticks. The change in name for chopsticks throughout history was another important aspect of the development of chopsticks, and once again cultural superstitions largely impacted this.6 According to extracts from The Book of Rites, in the Ming dynasty the name “kuai-zi (快字)” for chopsticks was formed, literally meaning “fast”. This version of the name was developed because the previous version of zhu (箸) is “a homophone to stay and decay, seen as a bad connotation (to) the fisherman of the central-Chinese region”.7 This shows that superstitions impacted the way people named chopsticks, in doing so hoping that it would “bring good fortune”8 . The changing of names purely because of superstitions beliefs highlights the high importance they have in the Chinese civilisation, and in the development of chopsticks. The change in name of chopsticks reflects the complication of the Chinese civilisation throughout its thousands of years of history. In addition, superstitions have since the ancient times, leading into today, influenced the way Chinese people use chopsticks, which is another aspect of the development of chopsticks. There are many taboos related to using chopsticks, and these are largely linked to superstitions.

History and Culture

For example, one prominent taboo in the Chinese culture is to stick chopsticks vertically right up into rice or other foods.9 The reason behind this taboo is again, superstition believes. In Chinese culture, sticks like chopsticks are “stuck into rice on an altar at funerals and burned to worship the dead”10, hence sticking chopsticks vertically into rice at the dinner table is seen as a curse that would bring bad luck.11 This strict rule regarding the usage of chopsticks obeyed by most Chinese people proves the importance of superstitions in the Chinese culture and on the development of chopsticks. Hence, superstitions to a great extent impacted the development of chopsticks in China.

As the Chinese civilisation leaps into the future threshold, superstitions continue to play a crucial role in traditional practices related to chopsticks, however, further development of chopsticks are and will be heavily dependent on the environmental issues around the globe. As Ancient Chinese historian Sima Qian stated in his book Historical Records, “the use of ivory to make chopsticks for the wealthy”,12 this conveys that materials from living animals such as ivory were used to make chopsticks for the upper social class. In the present days, the material of chopsticks varies and ranges from bamboo and plastic to stainless steel and silver, sometimes even gold. Like it has always been, the material of chopsticks determines social status of the person using it and/or the meaning behind it if given as a gift. However, as Chinese people advance into the future, the material of chopsticks used by the public would need to develop in a way which aims to respond to the ever-growing sustainability focus. The Chinese government has imposed restrictions including a “5 per cent tax on disposable chopsticks”13. This is one of the many evidence that illustrate the future of chopsticks’ development, which will be mainly focused on resolving the global environmental crisis. Consequently, chopsticks will be forced to become more sustainable to maintain planet Earth; for example, manufactures will need to develop chopsticks with more sustainable materials. Some have even proposed the shift from disposable chopsticks to forks and knives, however, according to Audra Ang from The Guardian, forks and knives “don’t have the same rich traditions and legacy of elegance and delicacy”.14 It would be wrong to argue against this statement, because within the Chinese culture, chopsticks are just as important as tea and rice, and its possible disappearance would mean great loss to the Chinese people and their culture. Therefore, despite the Chinese cultural superstitions’ continued presence and impact in the development of chopsticks, the more important factor will be environmental concerns and the appropriate actions taken to resolves these, although these might come as cost for the Chinese culture.

Thus, superstitions impacted the development of chopsticks in China to a large extent, having influenced the characteristics of chopsticks and the practices related; yet the future of chopsticks’ development will be hugely impacted by the current environmental issues, which will cause the transition to chopsticks made from more sustainable materials or even the shift away from using chopsticks, but its negative consequences must be noted.

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FOOTNOTES

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6. Olivia Ma, Maya Hu, Christy Xue, “LBH of Chopsticks” (Unpublished paper, Pymble Ladies’ College, 2021) 7. Dai Sheng, Book of Rites: Little Dai Li Ji (Western Han, c. 8AD) 8. Dai sheng, Book of Rites: Little Dai Li Ji 9. “Jake Leary”, Edodyssey, accessed September 1st 2021, 10. “Jake Leary”, Edodyssey 11. Popular Science China, “How much do you know about chopsticks”, accessed Sept 4, 2021, http://www.xinhuanet.com/ science/2019-06/13/c_138132582.htm 12. Baidu.com, “Kuai Zi (Chopsticks)”, accessed September 6th 2021, https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%AD%B7%E5%AD%90/249194 13. “Quartz”, China is stripping its forests to make 80 billion pairs of disposable chopsticks a year, accessed 21 Aug 2021, https://qz.com/62367/china-is-stripping-its-forests-to-make-80billion-pairs-of-disposable-chopsticks-a-year/ 14. Audra Ang, “Dispose of chopsticks and China loses part of its identity”, The Guardian, March 19, 2013