There are many stories about the origin of tofu. In ancient times, there were different opinions. One said that there was tofu in Confucius' time, and the other said that tofu began in Liu An, the king of southern Han Dynasty. There are not many supporters of the former statement, and the latter statement has been circulating for a long time since the Song Dynasty. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhu Xi wrote in his poem "Tofu": "When you plant peas, you are exhausted and your heart is rotten. If you know Huainan, you will get a spring cloth." And self-note "handed down tofu is originally the king of Huainan" (3); Yang Wanli, a contemporary of Zhu Xi, wrote an article entitled "Douluzi Rouzhuan" (4), subtitled "Tofu", which also mentioned that tofu existed in Han Dynasty. There are many people who hold this view afterwards. For example, Li Shizhen also thinks that "the method of tofu began with Liu An, the king of Huainan, Han Dynasty" (5). There is a sentence in Ming Yeziqi's "Mu Mu Zi" that "tofu began with the skill of the king of Huainan", and Ming Luoqi's "Wuyuan" also says that there is a record of "Liu An making tofu" in the ancient books of the Western Han Dynasty. It can be said that since the Song and Ming Dynasties, people have always believed that the invention of tofu began in the Western Han Dynasty. Strangely, however, the existing documents of Han and Tang Dynasties, such as Huai Nan Zi, Qi Min Yao Shu, and even various literary works, have no record that tofu and tofu originated from Liu An, the king of Huai Nan (6). Therefore, many scholars have questioned the theory of tofu's "Beginning of Han Dynasty" and put forward some different views, such as the theory of "Beginning of Tang Dynasty" by Japanese scholar Shinoda Tong (7) and the theory of "Beginning of Five Dynasties" by Yuan Hanqing (8). At present, the earliest recorded document about tofu is Qing Yi Lu written by Tao Gu in the Five Dynasties (93~ 97 AD), in which the article "Slaughtering Sheep" in Guanzhimen says: "The time was Qingyang (now Qingyang County, Anhui Province), and it was clean and diligent, and the meat was not given. There were several tofu in the Japanese market, and it was a local people. Tao Gu was a native of Xinping (now southern Anhui Province) in the Five Dynasties. He was an official in Jin, Han, Zhou and the early Northern Song Dynasty in the Five Dynasties, and he was a pawn in the Northern Song Dynasty. According to what he recorded, it can be explained that at least in Huainan area in the Five Dynasties, tofu was already a daily food for the public, and its production technology seemed quite mature. Since the Song Dynasty, there have been many records about tofu. Song. Kouzong's "Materia Medica" contains: "Raw soybeans can be rotted and eaten"; Su Shi's "Things feel the same": "Fried tofu with soybean oil is delicious"; Southern Song Dynasty. Lu You's Notes on the Old Learning Temple: "Jiaxing people … open tofu soup shops" and so on. Based on this, many scholars have limited the origin of tofu to the late Tang and Five Dynasties (9), which is no different in academic circles. But there is still no conclusion about when tofu originated. From 1959 to 196, archaeologists excavated two Han tombs in Dahuting, Mi County, Henan Province. The tombs were the sites of the late Eastern Han Dynasty (around the second century AD), and there were scenes of tofu production on the stone relief in the tombs (1). After on-the-spot investigation and research by experts, it is excluded that the picture reflects the scene of brewing wine or making sauce and vinegar, but only making tofu (11). Therefore, the time of the origin of tofu was determined as the Han Dynasty, and the legend of Liu An making tofu did not seem to be completely empty (12). As for the origin of tofu, few people have ever mentioned it, because the time of origin has not yet been determined. According to the available data, there are three places involved in the origin of tofu. One is Bagong Mountain, which is now in Shouxian County, Huainan, Anhui Province; The second is to fight the tiger pavilion, which is now in the county of Zhengzhou, Henan Province; The third is Qingyang, now Qingyang, Anhui. At present, it seems that the origin points to Bagong Mountain. Bagong Mountain is located in the southern suburb of Huainan City, near the foot of the water in the north of Shouxian County, and the Huaibei Plain is at the foot of the mountain. It has always been rich in soybeans. There are many springs containing various minerals on the mountain. The soybean milk is ground with this spring water, and the pulp is uniform, and the tofu is white, delicate and delicious. The unique conditions provided a material basis for the invention of tofu. Of course, where the origin is, further evidence is needed. At present, there is no conclusion as to why tofu was created by people. In the Song Dynasty, Su Dongpo wrote the poem "Tofu", "In ancient times, the poor were born out of ingenuity, and it was naive to collect fakes." It is believed that this kind of "chaotic and naive" bean products are made by poor people. Mr. Yuan Hanqing, a famous chemist in China, pointed out: "The founders of tofu are farmers, and they got this beautiful food in the long-term practice of cooking beans and grinding them." (13) Credit the invention and creation of tofu to farmers. Mr. Li Zhihuan put forward that "the method of making tofu is closely related to Taoist alchemy" (14), arguing that Taoist alchemy used soybean milk to cultivate Dan Miao and inadvertently invented tofu. The legend of Liu An, the king of Huainan, making tofu is the most recorded in the literature, which has something to do with Liu An's cultivation of alchemy. It is more pertinent to say that although many inventions come from the wisdom of the masses, people always want to find a recognized figure as the original author to worship. Such examples are not uncommon in ancient times.
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