Shit stick means "a thin stake or stick used instead of toilet paper" for anal hygiene and was a historical item of material culture introduced through Chinese Buddhism and Japanese Buddhism. A well-known example is in a watà  from the Chan/Zen gà Âng'àn/kà Âan, in which a monk asked "what is buddha?" and Master Yunmen/Unmon answered "a dry shit stick" (gÃÂnshÃÂjué/kanshiketsu, /) .
People have used many different materials in the history of anal hygiene, including leaves, rags, paper, water, sponges, corncobs, and sticks.
According to the historians of Chinese science Joseph Needham and Lu Gwei-djen, <blockquote>In very ancient times, instruments of bamboo, possibly spatulas ([cèchóu] å»Âç±Â, [cèbì] å»Â篦, or [cèjiÃÂn] å»Âç°¡), may have been used with the assistance of water in cleaning the body after defecation. At other times and places, it seems that pieces of earthenware or pottery were so used. Undoubtedly one material which found employment in this respect was waste silk rag.</blockquote>
When monks and missionaries introduced Buddhism into China and Japan, they also brought the Indian custom of using a à ÂalÃÂkà"small stake, stick, or rod" for wiping away excrement. Translators rendered this Sanskrit word into different neologisms such as Chinese cèchóu å»Âç± and Japanese , and the custom of using shit sticks became popular. They had the advantage of being inexpensive, washable, and reusable.
The Chinese invented paper around the 2nd century BCE, and toilet paper no later than the 6th century CE, when Yan Zhitui noted, "Paper on which there are quotations or commentaries from the Five Classics or the names of sages, I dare not use for toilet purposes".
The earliest Japanese flush toilets date from the Nara period (710âÂÂ784), when a drainage system was constructed in the capital at Nara, with squat toilets built over wide wooden conduits that users would straddle. Archaeological excavations in Nara have also found numerous chà «gi wooden sticks used for fecal cleansing. Matsui et al. explain that Japanese archeologists have discovered comparatively few toilets because "the decisive factors in identifying toilets were fly maggots and flat sticks called chà «gi used as a toilet paper," but the preservation of such artifacts requires the environment of a wetland site where organic remains are constantly soaked with groundwater.
Archeologists discovered 2,000-year-old shit sticks in a latrine at Xuanquanzhi æ¬æ³Âç½®, in the town of Dunhuang, Gansu. Xuanquanzhi was a Han dynasty military base and relay station (111 BCE â CE 109) at the eastern end of the Silk Road. Analysis of preserved fecal matter found on cloth covers wrapped around the ends of sticks revealed the remains of roundworm (Ascaris lumbricoides), whipworm (Trichuris trichiura), tapeworm (Taenia solium), and Chinese liver fluke (Clonorchis sinensis).
The Chinese and Japanese lexicons have various words meaning "shit stick". They are divisible into compounds of chóu or chà « ç± "small stake or stick", jué or ketsu æ© "short stake or stick", and other terms.
Chinese chóu or Japanese chà « "small stake; stick; chip; tally; counter; token" is used in the "shit stick" terms and chóumù or chà «gi ç±Âæ¨ (with "tree; wood") and cèchóu å»Âç± (with "toilet").
Chóu or chà « was used to translate the polysemous Buddhist Sanskrit term à ÂalÃÂka or à ÂalÃÂkà().
In Indian Buddhist contexts, Ã ÂalÃÂkÃÂ meant "a piece of wood or bamboo used for counting or voting." The salÃÂkÃÂgrahapÃÂka was the elected "collector of votes" in the santhÃÂgÃÂra, or general assembly hall used for voting. The Jain cosmological term salÃÂkÃÂpurusa "illustrious or worthy person" compounds salaka "stick used for voting" and purusa "person".
Chou ç± originally meant "arrow used in tóuhú (ancient drinking game decided by the number of arrows thrown into a pot)" or "tally stick (used in counting)", and by extension came to mean "plan; prepare; collect". Chóu ç± "shit stick" was first chronicled around the 3rd century CE. The Jin dynasty (266âÂÂ420) Yulin èªÂæ by Pei Qi 裴å has stories about the ostentatious bathrooms of wealthy merchant Shi Chong ç³崠(249âÂÂ300), including one about Shi mocking the politician Liu Shi Ã¥ÂÂ寠(220âÂÂ310) for being unfamiliar with the perfumed shit sticks offered by two female restroom attendants.
Cèchóu å»Âç± was first recorded in the () History of the Northern Dynasties, when Emperor Wenxuan of Northern Qi (r. 550âÂÂ560) said that getting Yang Yin to serve as Prime Minister was as difficult as making him present shit sticks.
The Nihon Kokugo Daijiten (2001) defines or as "chips of wood anciently used instead of toilet paper", and cites the earliest recorded usage of chà «gi ã¡ãÂÂã in Ono Ranzan's å°ÂéÂÂèÂÂå±± (1847) . Modern Japanese dialect pronunciations of chà «gi include chyà Âi or chà «ge in Hida (region) and tsà « in Iwate Prefecture.
Translations in English dictionaries of Buddhism include:
Chinese jué or Japanese ketsu "short wooden stake; stick; peg; post" is compounded with shi or shà(written with å°¸ "body" and ç±³ "rice") "shit; excrement; dung" into Japanese shiketsu or Chinese shÃÂjué å±Âæ© "shit stick".
The famous term gÃÂnshÃÂjué or kanshiketsu ä¹¾å±Âæ© "dry shit stick", modified with gÃÂn or kan "dry, dried; hollow", occurs in a famous Chan gà Âng'àn or Zen kà Âan recorded in The Gateless Gate (see below).
Definitions in English dictionaries of Buddhism include:
Chinese bì ç® "fine-tooth comb; spatula" or Japanese hera "spatula; scoop" is compounded into Chinese cèbì å»Âç® "toilet spatula" and Japanese or . While most Japanese "shit stick" words have Sino-Japanese on'yomi readings, such as chà «gi from chóumù ç±Âæ¨, both kuso "shit; crap" (cf. internet slang kuso) and hera "spatula; scoop" are native Japanese kun'yomi pronunciations of these kanji (which would be read funhei ç³Âç® in Sino-Japanese).
Chinese cebi å»Âç® "toilet spatula" is first recorded in Buddhabhadra's (c. 419) Mohe sengqi lü æ©訶å§ç¥Âå¾ translation of the MahÃÂsÃÂá¹Âghika version Vinaya Pitaka monastic rules; the toilet etiquette section (æÂÂå¨ÂÃ¥ÂÂæ³Âä¹Âä¸Â) says inside toilets should have privacy partitions, with cebi shit-sticks placed at the side.
Chinese cèjiÃÂn å»Âç°¡ or Ã¥ÂÂç® "toilet stick" is a synonym of cèchóu å»Âç± (above) using the word jiÃÂn "bamboo and wooden slips used for writing; letter; select; choose; simple; brief". CèjiÃÂn was first recorded in the (c. 1105) Book of Southern Tang "Biographies of Buddhists" section. During the time of Queen Zhou the Elder (r. 961âÂÂ964), a monk used a sharpened toilet stick to remove a tumor. Jabamukhi salaka (also from Sanskrit à ÂalÃÂkÃÂ) was "a curved needle (used in traditional Indian cataract surgery)".
The English language has some shit(e) stick lexical parallels to these Asian language terms. The Oxford English Dictionary (s.v. shit, shite n.) quotes two early shit-stick examples: "a hard chuffe, a shite-sticks" (1598) and "a shite-sticks, a shite-rags, that is to say, a miserable pinch-pennie" (1659); and (s.v. poop n.<sup>2</sup>) defines poop-stick as "a fool, ineffectual person", with the earliest usage in 1930. Shit-sticks is metaphorically parallel to shit-rags. In modern usage, Atcheson L. Hench suggests calling someone a shit-stick may combine the ideas of shit and stick-in-the-mud.
The lexicographer Eric Partridge lists three slang terms.
Words meaning "shit stick" are associated with the Chan/Zen school of Buddhism. Victor Mair explains that most great masters in this school "did not directly state what they wanted to say, but used a conclusive shout or a knock on the head with a rod, or yet spoke such words as 'dry shit stick' that are situated somewhere between comprehensibility and incomprehensibility in order to make a suggestion that would enable their students to partake of enlightenment".
The Gateless Gate is the Song dynasty Chan master Wumen Huikai's (c. 1228) compilation of 48 kà Âans. Case 21 is titled Yunmen (kan)shiketsu é²éÂÂ(ä¹¾)å±Âæ©Â" "Master Yunmen's (Dried) Shit Stick", referring to the Tang dynasty Chan master Yunmen Wenyan (c. 862âÂÂ949 CE).
Aitken explains "dried shitstick" as "a soft stick that was used the way our ancestors used a corncob in their outhouses". Jack Kerouac paraphrased "The Buddha is a dried piece of turd".
Owing to the ambiguities of Classical Chinese, the word gÃÂnshÃÂjué or kanshiketsu ä¹¾å±Âæ© can be parsed as "dried shit-stick" or "dried-shit stick". English translations include:
Sekida and Grimstone note: "Kanshiketsu. A shiketsu, or 'shit-stick' (kan, dry; shi, shit; ketsu, stick), was used in old times instead of toilet paper. It is at once both private and polluted. But in samadhi there is no private or public, no pure or polluted."
The LÃÂnjì lù or Rinzai roku è¨æ¿Âé "Record of Linji" contains the compiled sayings of the Tang dynasty Chan master Linji Yixuan or Rinzai Gigen (d. 866 CE). In one famous example of so-called dharma combat, Linji uses the word ganshijue as an epithet, comparable to "You shithead!".
In an editorial note, Kirchner says Ruth Fuller Sasaki originally translated Chinese ganshijue ä¹¾å±Âæ© as "shit-wiping stick", saying that the term literally means a "cleaning-off-dung-stick", a smooth stick of bamboo used in place of toilet paper, with ä¹¾ being the verb "to clean". However, Sasaki changed this to "dried piece of shit", following the interpretation of Iriya Yoshitaka, an authority on Tang-dynasty slang, that it means "stick-shaped piece of dung". A comparable usage occurs in the record of Song dynasty Chan master Dahui Zonggao, Dahui Pujue Chanshi yulu 大栧æ®覺禪師èªÂéÂÂ, where the two characters å±Â麼 form a noun-compound: "I say to [such stupid monks], 'You're biting on the dung-sticks of others. YouâÂÂre not even good dogs!'." Sasaki's other collaborator, Yanagida Seizan, interprets the term ä¹¾å±Âæ© to mean "useless dung stick", explaining that ä¹¾ does not have its usual meaning of "dry", but is synonymous with the homophonous é "useless".
ThÃÂch Nhất Hạnh comments,
Footnotes