Chopsticks
Palillos de mesa
- Date
- c. 1200 BCE · confidence low
- Place
- Anyang (Yinxu), Henan, China
- Credited to
- Shang dynasty China
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A pair of sticks used to bring food to the mouth, used in China since the Shang dynasty (bronze examples at Yinxu). It spread to Korea, Japan and Vietnam and shaped a cuisine cut into bite-sized pieces.
Wooden or bamboo chopsticks would have been used earlier and have not survived; some proposals trace them back millennia earlier without solid evidence. The date reflects the Anyang bronzes.
What it led to
- cuisine cut up before serving in East Asia
- Asian cutlery in adapted forms (kuaizi, hashi, jeotgarak)
- disposable and lacquered chopsticks as craft