Current location - Music Encyclopedia - Today in History - Who wants to refine the elixir of life and make tofu by mistake?
Who wants to refine the elixir of life and make tofu by mistake?
Liu An (BC 179-BC 122), the royal family of the Western Han Dynasty, was the king of Huainan. Chang Lu, grandson of Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang and son of Huainan Wang Li.

Liu An was a thinker and writer in the Western Han Dynasty. The Biography of Li Sao written by him is the earliest work that China praised Qu Yuan and Li Sao. He invited ten thousand people to write Lie Hong, also known as Huai Nan Zi, which is an epoch-making academic masterpiece in the history of China's thought. Liu An is the first practitioner in the world who tried to take off in a hot air balloon, and also the founder of China Tofu.

Liu An invented tofu, but it was unintentional. In BC 164, Liu An was the king of Huainan, with Shouchun as its capital (now the chengguan of Shouxian County, Anhui Province). Liu An has been thinking about how to live forever. He spared no expense in recruiting thousands of alchemists to talk about immortals and write about alchemy on today's Bagong Mountain. They used clear spring water in the mountains to grind out bean juice, and then cultivated Danmiao with bean juice. Unexpectedly, the elixir was not refined. Instead, bean juice reacts with gypsum and salt to form a fresh and smooth stuff, which is the embryonic form of tofu. Someone dares to try some. It's delicious. After Liu An heard this, he tried repeatedly with the alchemists and finally solidified the soybean milk into a piece. They gave this thing a nice name-soybean milk, which was later renamed "tofu".

Since then, tofu has been widely circulated among the people. Liu An also inadvertently became the ancestor of tofu. After Liu An invented tofu, the villages and towns around Bagong Mountain began to make tofu, which was not only eaten by themselves, but also sold to foreigners, becoming a veritable "hometown of tofu". In addition, the scene of making tofu on the stone reliefs unearthed in the ruins of Han tombs in modern times also proves that this view is also true.