Let's refer to it.

Chopsticks and knives and forks reflect the hidden scientific principles of cultural differences between China and the West.

When it comes to chopsticks, everyone is familiar with it. Every day, a pair of chopsticks is convenient and practical in hand. Besides soup, you can sweep the whole table. Many Chinese people who are used to chopsticks don't think much of foreigners' knives and forks. Just to eat a meal, they need a long row of knives, forks and spoons. It's really troublesome to start with both hands when you accidentally encounter a large piece of food. Every time I think of this place, I can't help but feel a lot of pride. Maybe you can't guess, in fact, these two simple sticks are very knowledgeable.

　? The origin of chopsticks can be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty, and its name is related to folk taboos in the south of the Yangtze River.

Speaking of the history of serving human diet, chopsticks can be regarded as the ancestors of knives and forks. In ancient times, our ancestors ate food mainly by grasping with their hands. Since "the apes parted from each other", people have found that it is more delicious to cook food when it is cooked. In the pre-Qin era, people generally didn't use chopsticks to eat. According to the records in the Book of Rites, it was speculated that people sent rice into their mouths by hand. Later, because it was impossible for people to barbecue food directly by hand, they needed tools such as bamboo sticks to place and turn the food, and cooked the soup of meat and vegetables in the cooker, and they also used them to eat. Over time, wise ancestors gradually learned to use bamboo sticks to hold it, which was the earliest prototype of chopsticks.

Chopsticks were called chopsticks in ancient times. The origin of chopsticks can be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty. The Book of Rites, Xunzi and Historical Records all mentioned chopsticks. In Han Feizi, Zhou Wang, who is famous for his extravagance, was especially mentioned, and he used "Xiangzhu" to eat. Professor You Xiuling of Zhejiang University believes that the difference between eating tools chopsticks and knives and forks in the East and the West has something to do with the environment, and chopsticks should originate in places with bamboo. The Eastern Han Dynasty and Xu Shen's "Shuo Wen Jie Zi" said: "From the bamboo sound." It just verifies such a conclusion.

However, the Notes says, "Those who have vegetables in the soup should be removed, and those who have no vegetables need not be removed." From the point of view of word formation, "from wood" is considered by some scholars to be wooden chopsticks. It is possible to recall that there are many trees in the north and many bamboos in the south of China, and the ancestors used local materials, and bamboo and wood have become the most primitive raw materials for chopsticks in China. Research shows that chopsticks were not widely used until after the Han Dynasty. Later, "chopsticks" evolved into "chopsticks", which was related to the folk customs of ancient Jiangnan water towns in China. Folk people don't say "live" when sailing, but boatmen can't live without chopsticks when eating. They are homonyms and simply changed to "fast". Later, in order to distinguish them from the often said "fast", bamboo heads were added.

Knife and fork appeared because they adapted to the eating habits of Europeans. It and chopsticks influenced the different life concepts of the East and the West.

Knife and fork appeared much later than chopsticks. According to Professor You Xiuling's research, the original origin of knives and forks was related to the living habits of ancient European nomads. They immediately lived with knives and often cooked the meat and cut it to eat. Later, after moving towards settled life, animal husbandry dominated Europe, and bread and the like were non-staple foods, which were directly taken by hand. The staple food is beef and mutton, which is cut with a knife and sent to the import. After settling in the city, knives and forks enter the family kitchen, so you don't have to take them with you. It is not difficult to see that knives and chopsticks, as the main tableware in the west today, have very different identities. They can be used for slaughtering, dissecting and cutting the meat of cattle and sheep, and can also be used as tableware when cooked and eaten.

Around the 5th century, in order to improve the eating posture, Europeans used double-pointed forks. It's unsightly to send food into the mouth with a knife, but it's more elegant to send it into the mouth with a fork to hold the meat. Forks are strictly tableware, but the weakness of forks is that they can't be cut in front with a knife, so both are indispensable. It was not until the end of 2117 that the British upper class began to use three-pointed forks, and it was not until 2118 that there were four-pointed forks. So westerners use knives and forks for only four or five hundred years.

Knife, fork and chopsticks not only bring about differences in eating habits, but also affect the life concept of people in the East and the West. Professor You Xiuling believes that the knife and fork will inevitably lead to the sharing system, and chopsticks will definitely match the family members sitting around the table and eating together. From the very beginning, the west divided itself into two parts, which led to the idea and habit that westerners pay attention to independence and their children will enter the world independently when they grow up. The dining system brought by chopsticks highlights the family unit where the old and the young sit together, thus giving orientals a relatively solid family concept.

Although we can't simply correspond the formation of different traditions with the differences of tableware, there is no doubt that they have adapted to and contributed to this differentiation. Chopsticks are a symbol of cultural tradition. Chinese people go to the United States and Europe, and they still use chopsticks. The culture is deeply rooted, while foreigners learn to use chopsticks in China, and they still have to pick up knives and forks when they return to their own countries.

Who is more advanced with chopsticks, knives and forks? There are different opinions, but each has its own wisdom.

Chopsticks are characterized by "changeless and changeable". It's amazing that the flat, long and short, hard and soft chopsticks can all be picked up in one clip. This has always made China people proud and regarded it as a symbol of progress.

However, some scholars have recently reflected that: "From the perspective of real anthropological development science, chopsticks are an extremely primitive and natural tool. When most people first learn to use tools, they know how to use a few branches instead of holding food by hand. Does not contain any complicated technology. Europeans took the lead in evolution, replacing branches with stone knives, then developing into metal knives and finally developing forks. And on this basis, developed a cumbersome western etiquette. Knife and fork is the most direct reflection of European industrial civilization and rational spirit. Doing it yourself, with strong independence, emphasizing reasoning and analysis, is more conducive to exercising thinking ability. Chinese people with chopsticks, on the other hand, eat ready-made, so they don't have to think about it. They are round and ambiguous, and they like to hold vague concepts in everything. Therefore, their thinking ability is not developed and the industrial revolution failed. "

This kind of voice is really inspiring, but the so-called idea of taking the lead in evolution is unscientific, and it is far-fetched to generalize knives and forks as industrial civilization and rational spirit. However, one thing needs to be affirmed. Compared with the simplicity of chopsticks, there are many kinds of knives and forks, which belong to special tools. However, this kind of "specialty" is often ignored by Chinese people because of its "ingenuity". Back to the dining table, perhaps we can handle the stewed soybean trotters with ease. Once we meet the steak, I'm afraid the chopsticks will feel ashamed. Knife and fork then show their professional expertise.

Different people have different opinions. It is difficult to draw a conclusion about the relationship between chopsticks, knives and forks and the way of thinking. However, there is a scientific basis for saying that using chopsticks is more conducive to exercising thinking ability. Scientists have put forward a research result on chopsticks from the physiological point of view, and concluded that when eating with chopsticks, more than 31 joints and more than 51 muscles of the human body should be affected, thus stimulating the activities of the brain nervous system and making people move flexibly and think quickly. There is no doubt that scientific principles are hidden in chopsticks.

Dr. Li Zhengdao, a famous physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, also made a very incisive statement when interviewed by a Japanese reporter: "The Chinese nation is an excellent nation, and China people used chopsticks as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Such simple two things, however, use the lever principle in physics wonderfully. Chopsticks are an extension of human fingers. They can do almost everything that fingers can do, and they are not afraid of high temperature and cold. That's brilliant! "