page_title: Shit stick
section_title: Chou or Chū
hierarchical_section_title: Shit stick / Terminology / Chou or Chū
caption_attribution_description: 中文（繁體）‎: 明宣宗行樂圖 投壺。
context_page_description: 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 gānshǐjué/kanshiketsu from the Chan/Zen gōng'àn/kōan in which a monk asked "What is buddha?" and Master Yunmen/Unmon answered "A dry shit stick".
context_section_description: Chinese chóu or Japanese chū 籌 "small stake; stick; chip; tally; counter; token" is used in the "shit stick" terms and chóumù or chūgi 籌木 (with 木 "tree; wood") and cèchóu 廁籌 (with 廁 "toilet").
  Chóu or chū was used to translate the polysemous Buddhist Sanskrit term śalāka or śalākā (Pali salākā).
  śalākā any small stake or stick, rod (for stirring [etc]), twig (smeared with lime for catching birds), rib (of an umbrella), bar (of a cage or window), chip, splinter, splint, pencil (for painting or applying collyrium). 
  (1) a piece of bamboo (borne as a kind of credential by mendicants and marked with their name).
  (2) the quill of a porcupine.
  (3) an oblong quadrangular piece of ivory or bone (used in playing a partic[ular] game).
  (4) a peg, pin, arrow-head, needle, a probe (used in surgery and sometimes taken as the N[ame] of this branch of, surgery), any pointed instrument.
  (5) a sprout, sprig, shoot of any kind.
  (6) a ruler.
  (7) a toothpick or tooth-brush.
  (8) a match or thin piece of wood (used for ignition by friction).
  (9) a bone.
  (10) a finger, toe.
  (11) a porcupine.
  (12) a partic[ular] thorny shrub, Vanguieria Spinosa.
  (13) the Sārikā bird, Turdus Salica.
  (14) N[ame] of a town.
  (15) of a woman.
  — abridged, Monier-Williams 1899)
  In Indian Buddhist contexts, śalākā particularly meant "a piece of wood or bamboo used for counting or voting". Salaka-Grahapaka was the elected "collector of votes" in the Santhagara "general assembly hall used for voting". The Jain cosmological term salakapurusa "illustrious or worthy person" compounds salaka "stick used for voting" and purusa "person".
  Chou 籌 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" (Karlgren 1957: 281). Chóu 籌 "shit stick" was first chronicled around the 3rd century CE. The Jin dynasty (265–420) Yulin 語林 by Pei Qi 裴啟 has stories about the especially ostentatious bathrooms of wealthy merchant Shi Chong 石崇 (249–300) (see Needham 1970:373), including one about Shi mocking the politician Liu Shi 劉寔 (220–310) for being unfamiliar with the perfumed shit sticks offered by two female washroom attendants (Hanyu Da Zidian 1989 8:1272).
  Cèchóu 廁籌 was first recorded in the (c. 659) History of the Northern Dynasties, when Emperor Wenxuan of Northern Qi (r. 550–560) said that getting Yang Yin to serve as Prime Minister was a difficult as making him present shit sticks (Hanyu Da Cidian 1993 3: 1251).
  The Nihon Kokugo Daijiten (2001) defines chūgi 籌木 or chū 籌 as "chips of wood anciently used instead of toilet paper", and cites the earliest recorded usage of chūgi ちうぎ in Ono Ranzan's 小野蘭山 (1847) Jūtei honzō kōmoku keimō 重訂本草綱目啓蒙 "Illuminated Compendium of Materia Medica". Modern Japanese dialect pronunciations of chūgi include chyōi or chūge in Hida (region) and tsū in Iwate Prefecture.
  Translations in English dictionaries of Buddhism include:
  籌 To calculate, devise, plan; a tally. (Soothill and Hodous 1937)
  Chū 籌 śalākā. 1. A small stake or stick. A piece of bamboo used for counting and voting. 2. A thin piece of wood, used for wiping away excrement. (Daitō 1991: 35)
  籌 (Skt. śalāka, śalākā; Pāli salākā). A piece of wood or bamboo used for counting and voting. A tally. To calculate, devise, plan. (Skt. kaṭhikā, vartikā, tūlī, tūli, kalâpa) ... A thin piece of wood used for wiping away excrement. (Muller 2014)
caption: Ming Dynasty Xuande Emperor playing touhu, 15th century.
exif: {}