中国餐具文化筷子Chopsticks, the culture of Chinese tableware

筷子在中国有三千多年的历史了，最早记录筷子的文字《韩非子.喻老》有记录：“昔者纣为象箸而箕子怖。”这是中国商朝官员记录的，筷子在中国古代叫箕子。这句话裏蕴含了商朝因筷子而没落的故事。

商朝的纣王喜欢上了一副象牙筷子，有了象牙筷子就看不起了陶土制作的餐具食盘，换成了犀牛角做的盘子和玉石做的杯子，盘中的食物也由普通食物换成了昂贵的珍希食物，吃饭时的穿著也更华丽，餐厅由普通房屋变成豪华楼阁。纣王就只顾享乐，不理国家事。纣王这种生活过了几年后，最后亡国了。

The chopsticks have been in the Chinese history for 3000 years. The earliest record it has with the chopsticks is from Hanfeizi Yulao, ‘emperor Zhou made a pair of chopsticks using an elephant’s teeth. Its son felt scared.’It’s recorded by an officer in the Shang Dynasty. The Chopsticks are called zhuzi in the ancient history.The book implies that Shang Dynasty faded out from history due to the reason Emperor Zhou was misbehaving.

In his Shang Dynasty, emperor Zhou felt in love with a pair of elephant teeth chopsticks. He started to dislikE the traditional clay-made tablewares and acquired more tablewares made with rare materials such as rhinoceros corns and jade. The food served on the dish changed from the normal food to the expensive, rare foods. Even clothes on dinner were more luxurious. The dining room changed from normal size to a mansion. Emperor Zhou only enjoyed his fun but didn’t take care of any of the country’s business. After a couple of years, Shang Dynasty terminated.