Shit stick

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, In very ancient times, instruments of bamboo, possibly spatulas ([cèchóu] 廁籌, [cèbì] 廁篦, or [cèjiǎn] 廁簡), may have been used with the assistance of water in cleaning the body after defecation.

[1]When monks and missionaries introduced Buddhism into China and Japan, they also brought the Indian custom of using a śalākā "small stake, stick, or rod" for wiping away excrement.

Translators rendered this Sanskrit word into different neologisms such as Chinese cèchóu 廁籌 and Japanese chūgi (籌木), and the custom of using shit sticks became popular.

Xuanquanzhi was a Han dynasty military base and relay station (111 BCE – 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).

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).

[14] 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: Chinese jué or Japanese ketsu 橛 "short wooden stake; stick; peg; post" is compounded with shi or shǐ 屎 (written with 尸 "body" and 米 "rice") "shit; excrement; dung" into Japanese shiketsu or Chinese shǐjué 屎橛 "shit stick".

internet slang kuso) and hera 箆 "spatula; scoop" are native Japanese kun'yomi pronunciations of these kanji (which would be read funhei 糞箆 in Sino-Japanese).

[14] Chinese cèjiǎn 廁簡 or 厕简 "toilet stick" is a synonym of cèchóu 廁籌 (above) using the word jiǎn 簡 "bamboo and wooden slips used for writing; letter; select; choose; simple; brief".

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".

[28] Owing to the ambiguities of Classical Chinese, the word gānshǐjué or kanshiketsu 乾屎橛 can be parsed as "dried shit-stick" or "dried-shit stick".

[27] The master, taking the high seat in the hall, said, "On your lump of red flesh is a true man without rank who is always going in and out of the face of every one of you.