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Three Legends about the Origin of Chopsticks
2016-11-08
It’s said that using chopsticks often will help people exercise brains.When many foreign friends are trying to use chopsticks,they often can’t do it pretty well.It always seems very difficult.But this won’t stop their praises on chopsticks.Chopstick is a great invention,but when and by who were chopsticks invented?Following are three interesting legends.
Legend one: Yu the Great was the inventor.
In the ancient time that Shun was the leader,flood inundated and did very bad influence to people’s life.So he ordered Yu to treat the trouble of flood.Yu passed his house for three times,but time urged him to deal with the flood to keep going even without taking one step in his house.Once,he was cooking meat on a island,but the boiled meat was too hot to hold with hands.With the trouble of flood bothering,he was upset to finish eating and get back to work.Suddenly,he came out an excellent idea.He chopped down two branches and took the meat out.After blowing several times with his mouth,the temperature of meat went down pretty soon.This measure proved very effective,so the villagers gradually imitated his behavior.And this method gradually spread and chopsticks gradually developed as a tool for eating.
Legend two:Daji invented chopsticks.
The empire of Shang Dynasty was King Zhou who was a violent person.He buried himself in things like playing and eating but not managing the country.And he was very picky on eating.He always complained that the dishes were too cold or too hot.Due to this reason,many cookers lost their lives.Daji,his concubine,felt the dish was too hot once.But the time of King Zhou for eating couldn’t be delayed.Then an idea suddenly occurred to her that she took the hair clasp from her hair and picked up the foods for King Zhou to eat.Fortunately,King Zhou thought it was a pleasure to eat foods in this way.So he ordered some craftsmen to make two long jade hairpins for Daji to feed himself.And then the method spread widely and got maintained.
Legend three:chopsticks were created by Jiang Ziya.
Jiang Ziya was a strange man who used straight fishhook to go fishing.He was very poor and for this,his wife had the thought to kill him and marry another person.Someday,Jiang Ziya went back home with nothing in his hands as usual.But his wife suddenly became especially more gentle than usually.She asked him whether he was hungry and let him go to eat some cooked meat.As Jiang Ziya was about to catch the meat with his hands,a bird from outside the window suddenly flew and pecked his hand.So he wondered why did the bird do that.Was the bird trying to stop him from eating the meat?He tried to catch the meat again and the bird did the same actions.Suddenly he realized that the bird has wisdom.Then he pretended to catch the bird and followed it to a bamboo lying on a slope without anyone around.The bird magically spoke to him that:”Jiang Ziya,you can’t eat the meat with your hands.If you wanna pick up the meat,the tool is below my feet”.So Jiang Ziya dropped two branches of bamboo and came back home.Seeing him back,his wife asked him to eat again.He picked the meat with the two sticks.But suddenly some smoke came out.He couldn’t help wondering if the meat was toxic.Meanwhile,he delivered the meat to his wife’s mouth.But his wife knew the bad thing she had done.She was afraid and went out in a hurry.
After this accident,Jiang Ziya ate foods with the sticks given by the magic bird.And this thing spread to the ears of the villagers.And gradually using chopsticks became a tradition.
No matter who created chopsticks,we later generations need to appreciate the great invention.With the ancient ones’ splendid wisdom,we now have convenient tools to use.We have to admit that chopsticks have really brought a lot of convenience to our daily life.