[1] It is a regular utensil in Chinese cuisine used for liquids, especially soups, or loose solid food.

During the Spring and Autumn period a rounder form appeared, and lacquer spoons are also found, becoming popular in the Han dynasty.

The spoon was more useful for eating because the most common food grain in North China was millet, which was made into a congee, or gruel.

[3] The spoon was gradually undermined as the most common eating utensil starting in the Han, roughly the 1st century A.D., when wheat began to be more widely grown.

Early-ripening rice, which was introduced from Vietnam at this time, was even easier to eat with chopsticks, since it cooked into clumps.