In ancient China, chopsticks signified far more than tools that take food to the mouth, they also signified status and rules, “can” and “can’t”. During the Northern Song Dynasty, an official named Tang Su once had dinner with the emperor. He was not well informed in noble table etiquette and so laid down his chopsticks horizontally on the table before the emperor did. As a result, he was expatriated to a frontier area for penal servitude. In ancient eating etiquette, there were over a dozen taboos concerning chopsticks. For example, they could not be placed vertically into a dish, as this was the way of making sacrifices to the dead. Diners could not tap or push a dish with chopsticks, nor use a chopstick as a fork by poking it into a piece of food. When taking food, they could not go from their chopsticks during a meal; they would place them lengthways on a chopstick holder or on the plate, or spoon on their right hand side. Many of these chopstick taboos are valid to this day and accepted as a norm in today’s table etiquette.