Shit stick  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" (lit. 乾屎橛 "dry shit stick") from the Chan/Zen "gōng'àn"/"kōan" in which a monk asked "What is buddha?" and Master Yunmen/Unmon answered "A dry shit stick". People have used many different materials in the history of anal cleansing, 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. 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. (Needham 1970: 373)  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 a number of different neologisms such as Chinese "cèchóu" 廁籌 and Japanese "chūgi" 籌木, and the custom of using shit sticks became popular. They had advantages 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" (tr. Needham 1986: 123). The earliest Japanese flush toilets date from the Nara period (710–784), when a drainage system was constructed in the capital at Nara, with squat toilets built over 10–15 cm wide wooden conduits that users would straddle.