It has to be said that many costume drama screenwriters lack the most basic historical common sense. For example, in a popular Chu-Han costume drama, there was such a thing as dried tofu. The inventor of tofu was Liu An, the king of Huainan in the Western Han Dynasty, who was also the grandson of Liu Bang. The background described in the TV series is the end of Qin, at this time Liu Bang is still a bachelor who is the chief of the pavilion, and Liu An has not yet been born!
Liu An, grandson of Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao, and son of Liu Chang, the Prince of Li of Huainan. According to historical records, Liu An initially enfeoffed Fuling Hou and Emperor Wen was enfeoffed as the King of Huainan in the sixteenth year. Good books, drums and pianos, recruited thousands of guests and magicians, and wrote "Inner Books" and "Outer Books". There are also 8 volumes of "Novella", the art of huangbai of the gods and immortals, and more than 200,000 words, and the author of "The Tale of Leaving the Troubles", dedicated to Emperor Wu. However, he eventually committed suicide because of the treason.
Speaking of Liu An's invention of tofu, it is not to improve people's livelihood, but an inadvertent move to insert willows.
It is said that Liu An was crowned queen of Huainan and has been living in his fiefdom of Shouchun. Princes like this generally have habits that are different from ordinary people, and Liu An is no exception. Liu An's greatest passion is Taoism. He spent most of his life studying the Dao Fa, dreaming about how to live forever.
In order to achieve this goal, Liu An spent the income of the annual fiefdom on recruiting alchemists. This group of alchemists summoned by Liu An gathered on Mount Bagong and studied the Dan Dao all day long. The alchemists took the natural water from the mountains to grind the bean juice, and then used the bean juice to cultivate "Dan miao". However, the elixir was not refined, but instead a fresh and tender food was refined after the chemical reaction of bean juice and gypsum: tofu.
In history, whenever there is a food, there must always be "the first person to eat crab", I don't know which alchemist who is not afraid of death ate this alchemy product, found that it tasted good, so he let the tofu spread. After Liu An ate the tofu offered by the alchemists, he felt that the taste was quite delicious, so he let the alchemists continue to study and improve the recipe.
Of course, this earliest tofu is not called "tofu", but "milk".
The reason why tofu can spread among the people is also thanks to the fact that there is no dragon liver and phoenix marrow in its formula, whether it is bean juice or plaster, it is easy for the people to obtain. Because the method is simple and the taste is delicious, it didn't take long for tofu to spread among the people. Liu An, the founder of the unintentional willow shading, has become the originator of the tofu line.
The book "Japanese Use of Grass" mentions that "the method of tofu began with Liu An, the king of Hanhuai", and the same statement appears in the "Compendium of Materia Medica". In addition, the murals on grinding tofu were also excavated in the tombs after the Han Dynasty, so the claim that Liu An is the originator of tofu is quite credible. The King of Huainan invented delicious snacks, which made Bagongshan the famous tofu town.
The local people made tofu into the Mingtang, not only ate it themselves, but also sold it to other places, which in turn derived a tofu culture. Friends who are familiar with Japan know that tofu is also an indispensable part of the Japanese food culture, thanks to the tang dynasty monk Jian Zhen. In the twelfth year of Tianbao, Jian Zhen dongdu took the recipe of tofu to the Japanese islands along the way.
To this day, some Japanese tofu packaging is also printed with "Tang Chuan tofu dried Yellow Barberry Mountain Imperial Huainan Hall System", which shows that the Japanese also regard "Tang Tofu" as authentic. The Song Dynasty celebrities were vassals of elegance, so tofu also became an elegant food. When Su Shi was the prefect of Hangzhou, he personally grinded tofu and made a tender "Dongpo tofu".
In his own food travelogue, Lu You has included many cooking methods of tofu dishes. Tofu is a food that has been integrated into the food culture of successive dynasties and dynasties, without a sense of abruptness. Even the emperors of the Qing Dynasty, there was no shortage of gourmets who liked to eat tofu, and it is said that when Kangxi toured the south, he often gave tofu dishes to his ministers.
When it comes to northern tofu, Shanxi people have a lot of say. It can be said that Shanxi tofu can become a representative work of northern tofu. After all, whether tofu is delicious or not is directly related to raw materials, jindi has been the origin of high-quality soybeans since ancient times, so the local tofu is quite famous. Everyone loves to eat tofu, but making tofu is not an easy task.
There is an old saying that goes, bitter is not bitter, punch the boat to grind tofu. Only the Shanxi people who have engraved the spirit of hard-working into their bones can make tofu a classic. Qiao Guifa, Cao Sanxi, and Wang Shi, the three representative figures of Jinshang, accumulated original funds by grinding tofu in their early years. In particular, Cao Sanxi also made his own tofu into a well-known brand and became the imperial meal in the Qing Palace.
Qianlong, like his father, was also a tofu "enthusiast", and he could not eat without tofu for a day. It is said that once the imperial dining room changed the cook, Qianlong Ye did not eat tofu, so he ordered "add a mutton bean slice soup". In addition, Empress Dowager Cixi also loved Caojia tofu for ten minutes, and it is said that once Cixi wanted to eat Caojia tofu, she specially ordered Cao's descendants to go to Beijing to grind tofu, and then let the imperial chef cook with squid, sea cucumber, ham, shredded chicken, shiitake mushrooms and other ingredients to feast on it.
Although he was praised by Cixi, the Cao clan was worried and uneasy in their hearts, and always felt that the government could not last long under the control of the empress. Therefore, every time the Cao family eats tofu in the future, it will be filled with utensils made of paper to remind the clan not to forget state affairs.
Resources:
【"Japanese Herbs", "Compendium of Materia Medica"】