China is the hometown of soybeans. China has cultivated soybeans for 5,000 years. It is also the first country to develop and produce soy products.

 

From the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period, soybeans (that is, lotus root) was used as the main food. Farmers sang it more than once: "The Central Plains, the people pick it. The people pick the rice, the basket of the valley. July cooking sunflower and silence". The ancients not only took soybeans as a staple food, but also gradually developed tofu, simmering, making sauce, raw bean sprouts, pressing oil ... and making other soy products, which is a great contribution to humanity. Only the usual tofu product has hit the world so far!

 

The tofu originated from Liu An, the king of Huainan in the Han Dynasty. Huainan King Liu An, the grandson of the Han ancestor Liu Bang, the son of Huai Nan Li Wang Liu Chang, was named Huainan King, and he lived for 42 years. There are thousands of people in Liu An's alchemy.

 

Hongbao way. Among its guests, Su Fe, Li Shang, Tian You, Jin Chang, and Zuo Wu are the eight most famous, known as "Hachiko." Pugong accompany Liu An to seek the elixir of eternal life in Beishan, Shouchun City, and Liu An waited in the alchemy to use soy milk in gypsum and chemically changed tofu. There are many accounts of Liu An's invention of tofu in the classics. There are as many as forty to fifty books about Liu An's invention of tofu. The main points are summarized as follows:

 

"Ciyuan" records: "Take beans as its method. Production method, water immersion and refining, dross removal, frying the lake with salt and marinade, it is collected in the kettle, and there is gypsum collected in the tank. According to legend, it is Liu Ansuo of the Han and Huainan kings. Made. "

 

Song Song Zhu Xi, "Thirteen Poems on Liu Xiuye's Vegetables and Food": "Soy beans and seedlings are thin and exhausted. I knew Huainan surgery and got a cloth."

 

This is the earliest record in the existing literature to mention tofu as "Huainanshu".

 

Yun Yuan Wu Rui's "Daily Materia Medica" cloud: "The method of tofu begins with Liu An, the king of Huainan Han Dynasty". Ming Ye Ziqi's "Zao Zhuo Zi · Zhi Zhi Pian" cloud: "Tofu begins in Han Dynasty,

 

Huai Nan King Liu Anzhi also. "

 

"Tofu Poetry" written by the Ming Dynasty poet Su Bingheng said: "The best Huainan technique is passed, and the skin fades to see the essence. One round of grinding high-end agar solution, one hundred boiling soup rolls snowflakes. There is a shadow on the eaves of the earthen jar. The jade is flawless. Who knows it is mostly in the monks and Taoists. "

 

Lu Ming · Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica · Tanibe · Tofu" cloud: "The method of tofu begins with Liu An, the king of Huainan Han Dynasty".

 

Lu Ming · Chen Jiru's "Integrated Series · Smashing Records" cloud: "Tofu, made by Liu An, the king of Huainan".

 

Lu Ming Luo Xin's "Wu Yuan" contains: "Liu An started tofu."

 

The Qing Dynasty Wang Ji's "The Original Things" stated that ancient books in the Western Han Dynasty had "Liu An made tofu". It belongs to historical letter and can be totally relied on.

 

In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Fang Yizhi's "Physical Nature" cloud: "Dou thinks rot, passed down from Huainan King."

 

Ancient historical site is the archeological basis of tofu culture. During the Second Tofu Culture Festival in China, the "International Tofu Culture Symposium" was held in Shou County, Gucheng. Experts and scholars at the meeting were invited to visit the Shou County Museum. I saw the water mill in the tomb of Zhuang team unearthed in Wafang Village, Chayu Township, Shou County in April 1965. Judging from the unearthed cultural relics, the time and place where tofu was invented in the Han Dynasty is certain.

 

Huainan King Liu An invented tofu. Over the next two thousand years, tofu production gradually spread throughout China. Working people in various places have continued to improve according to regional characteristics, and finally formed a Chinese tofu culture. The two sides of the strait are light soybean curd cuisines and promote national culture. The first Chinese tofu culture festival was held in Beijing and Taipei on September 15, 1990, and the birthday of the tofu inventor Huainan Wang Liu An was confirmed on September 5. The Tofu Culture Festival holds a grand commemorative event every year.