Historical Origins of Toothpicks Chapter 1
Toothpicks have served mankind for a long time. Tracing its origins, its emergence may be related to the history of humans being able to grow food and raise domestic animals. Counting together, of course, this is just a conjecture, because no archaeological excavations have been found to prove this. But a toothpick made of gold was unearthed in a tomb of the Eastern Han Dynasty in China. Although this toothpick is indeed a luxury, it can at least show that at least two thousand years ago, China had used toothpicks to stuff themselves. The food-laden teeth act as scavengers.
Evidence of toothpicks has been found in China, but toothpicks are not patented by the Chinese. Many scholars believe that toothpicks were invented by Indians. It is said that in the 6th century BC, when Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, was preaching to his disciples, he often felt a smell coming from his nose. After determining that the smell was caused by breathing in his mouth, the Buddha The ancestor of the family immediately opened a hygiene class for them. The content of the teaching was to tell them, "You can wipe your teeth with tree branches to get rid of bad breath, increase your sense of taste, and get five benefits." This record is not a myth. An eminent monk from the Jin Dynasty in China Faxian's pursuit of Dharma in the Western Regions is recorded in his book "Buddha Kingdom": "The Buddha on the east side of the southern gate of Shazhi Kingdom chewed poplar branches here." Chewing poplar branches means picking teeth. Nowadays, the working people in India still like to brush their teeth with bodhi branches, which seems to have a lot of origin.
The first toothpick in China was introduced to China with the introduction of Buddhism in the early Eastern Han Dynasty. At that time, it was translated as "Yang Zhi" according to the Borai language. "Sui Shu? Zhenla Zhuan" says: "Every time you take a bath, use poplar branches to clean your teeth, and read and recite sutras and mantras. After taking a bath and sprinkling them before eating, after eating, use poplar twigs to clean your teeth and read sutras and mantras." It seems that the use of toothpicks is also very particular, not only after eating. , after daily morning washing, the teeth must be cleaned with poplar branches before chanting sutras. The procedure is very solemn. Shi Naian once wrote in the "Preface to the Water Margin" that "enjoy the meal and chew poplar wood". The "chewing poplar wood" here refers to picking teeth with toothpicks. This is also deeply loved by the Chinese people due to the spread of Buddhism. An evidence of influence.
Regarding the exquisiteness of toothpicks, the famous writer Liang Shiqiu recalled in his book "Ya She Xiao Xiao" written in his later years when he used the toothpicks of Zhimizhai in Peking and wrote: "Zhimizhai The toothpicks are specially made. The first feature is that they are long, about as long as a fountain pen. When held in the hand, one can make a gesture of picking out the brush tube, and they can drill holes everywhere in the large mouth. The second feature is that they are tough. It is made of the best willow branches. It can take care of every corner and corner, and has the beauty of hardness and softness..."
It is very late for Europeans to pick up such a trivial thing to pick their teeth. . At least in the 16th century, if a person walked by with a toothpick in his mouth, people would definitely treat him as a person looking for flowers and asking for help, providing a well-documented excuse for leaving his name in history. Shakespeare has this sentence in his play "Mediocre Man": "Vey would fetch you a toothpick from the farthest reaches of Asia." Overberry, a poet and prose writer who lived at the same time as Shakespeare, wrote in his An article called "The Pretentious Traveler" also wrote: "His use of toothpicks is one of his main behaviors." It can be seen that in the sixteenth century, only those who thought they were well-informed and pretentious There will be a bit of meat stuck in the teeth, and after getting into a grain of rice, you will know that it is faster to pick it out with a toothpick.
Since the power of toothpicks is so great, and it is difficult to find any traces of their origins when conducting research on their origins, many knowledgeable people believe that this exquisite thing must have come from overseas. The introduction of Italy, which had extremely developed trade, spread to various European countries. Think about it again, who can build a bridge between the East and the West? It must be Mr. Marco Polo, who brought toothpicks, a treasure for cleaning human teeth, from China to Italy.
Japan used toothpicks slightly later than China. During the Tang Dynasty, there was a strong trend of Japanese studying in China. They not only brought back Chinese political and cultural ideas, but also brought back that little toothpick. In this way, toothpicks traveled across the ocean in the pockets of Japanese monks and overseas students, heading east to the land of fuso. So far, toothpicks in Chinese are no longer called "yangzhi", but the Japanese love it very much and still use it today.
When toothpicks were first introduced to Japan, they were popular among the upper class among nobles and monks. It was not until the late Edo period, that is, the early 19th century, that ordinary people in Edo used this kind of thing. Clean your teeth.
Although toothpicks have not been used for a long time compared to the previous ones, their love for them is unparalleled, with consumption reaching about 70 billion each year. That is to say, if these small toothpicks are connected one by one, the length can reach 420 kilometers, which is equivalent to circling the earth more than 100 times. The Japanese used to use willow, peach and mulberry trees to make toothpicks. After World War II, due to mechanized operations, white birch wood from Hokkaido was used as raw material.
Although toothpicks are small, the manufacturing standards are very strict. First, the wooden skewers about 30 cm long must be placed on the cutting machine, and then neatly cut into standard sizes of only 6 cm, and finally used The processing machine sharpens one end and engraves the pattern on the other, and a small toothpick is born.
In recent years, due to the needs of market competition, toothpicks have also changed their stereotyped appearance in the past, with "popular toothpicks" painted with colors, and "fortune-telling toothpicks" that are like drawing lots in front of an elephant. , "flavored toothpicks" of various flavors are added to the front end of the toothpick. In addition, there are also "triangular toothpicks" that can remove food residue from teeth and massage gums, etc. It can be said that there are endless types and innovative functions. It seems that the small toothpick market hides unlimited business opportunities and creativity. . The Historical Origin of Toothpicks Chapter 2
Toothpicks are also called "tooth picks" and so on. They are wooden skewers, bamboo skewers, corn or plastic rods and plastic dental floss that are sharpened at one or both ends. Some also use certain Special bones of some animals such as ivory or fish, wooden or bamboo sticks used to remove tartar or debris between teeth, and toothpicks made of synthetic materials (such as Swiss Army Knife), which are an important oral hygiene tool. It has a history of over 2000 years.
The toothpick is an important oral hygiene tool. Due to its small size, the material is usually made of wood or bamboo, and it is also easy to be reduced to ashes. Therefore, its status is low and it has not been used historically. Indeed, little evidence remains of the invention of the toothpick. Fortunately, Chinese archaeologists unearthed toothpicks made of gold, which were probably made in the late Han Dynasty. Although this kind of gold toothpick belongs to a small number of royal families and is not owned by ordinary people, it still proves that toothpicks existed in China in the 3rd century AD.
For a long time, people have had the misconception that chopsticks and toothpicks are both Chinese inventions. Because most people think that Chinese people have always been particular about their diet. In China, which has a developed food culture, since someone invented a practical product such as chopsticks, it is natural that the toothpick, a related product, was also invented at the same time. But this is not the case.
In fact, this kind of disposable thing originated from India. Some people think that it may be related to the hygiene taught by Buddha Sakyamuni to his disciples. Toothpicks and toothbrushes were both called "poplar sticks" in the early days and originated in India.
Legend has it that when Buddha Sakyamuni was preaching to his disciples, he found that the disciples around him had bad breath when they spoke, so Sakyamuni taught them another lesson on hygiene. class. He said: "If you brush your teeth with branches, you can get rid of bad breath, increase taste, and get the five benefits." Sakyamuni was promoting Buddhism under the Bodhi tree at that time, and taught his disciples how to eliminate bad breath. To this day, the working people in India still brush and pick their teeth with branches or wood chips in the morning, which may be related to this legend. It can be deduced that as early as two thousand years ago, Indians knew how to use branches or wood chips as toothbrushes to clean their mouths. Later, the Indian secret of using branches to eliminate bad breath was introduced to China with visiting Buddhist monks. Therefore, they used local materials and mostly used willow as toothbrush tools, so when translated from Indian to Chinese, they wrote "poplar branch". Modern Chinese no longer uses the word "Yangzhi", but only Japan still uses this ancient word.