Who invented tofu? Tell us about its historical background? Please thank you.

There have been many theories about the origin of tofu. There are different opinions in ancient times. One is that tofu existed during the Confucius era, and the other is that tofu originated from Liu An, King of Huainan in the Han Dynasty. The former theory has few supporters, while the latter theory has been circulating for a long time since the Song Dynasty. Huainan King Liu An was the grandson of Liu Bang, the founder of the Western Han Dynasty. He was named King of Huainan in 164 BC, and his capital was located in Shouchun (now Chengguan, Shouxian County, Anhui Province). ), the famous Bagong Mountain is located next to Shouchun City. Liu Anya was fond of Taoism and wanted the art of immortality. She did not hesitate to spend a lot of money to recruit alchemy practitioners. Among the more famous ones were Su Fei, Li Shang, Tian You, Lei Bo, Wu Bo, Jinchang, Mao Bei, and Zuo Hao. Known as "Eight Masters". Accompanied by Liu Anyou and his Eight Dukes, they climbed Beishan Mountain to build furnaces and refine elixirs for longevity. They ground the soybean juice from the clear water of three springs in the mountains: "Pearl", "Daquan" and "Mapao". They also used the soybean juice to cultivate elixir seedlings. Unexpectedly, the alchemy failed, and the soybean juice and salt were brine to form a fragrant, white and tender thing. A brave local farmer took it and ate it. It turned out to be delicious, so he named it "tofu". Beishan was renamed "Bagong Mountain", and Liu An inadvertently became the ancestor of tofu. Since Liu An invented tofu, the vast villages and towns within dozens of miles of Bagong Mountain have become a veritable "hometown of tofu". With tofu, there will naturally be tofu dishes. In the Bagongshan family, let alone ordinary housewives, even a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old child can make several tofu dishes with different flavors, such as tofu mixed with toon, tofu and eggs, tofu mixed with spicy sauce, fried tofu, etc. After the reform and opening up, "tofu restaurants" abounded on the streets of Bagongshan and became famous far and wide. They simmer, boil, pan-fry, deep-fry, or simmer... they show off their skills in silk weaving and carving, which not only attracts locals to come here for fun, but also people from neighboring cities and counties such as Hefei and Bengbu to visit from time to time. During the "Tofu Banquet", even guests from Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other countries and regions often gather at the foot of Bagong Mountain to taste "Shoutao Tofu", "Pipa Tofu" and "Grape Tofu" , "Money Tofu" and more than 400 tofu dishes with lifelike shapes, colorful, delicious and unique flavors. Tofu culture has gradually spread throughout China. Zhuge Ying, a native of Jiankang (now Nanjing) in the Liang Dynasty of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, once wrote 130 volumes of "The Food Classic of the King of Huainan". Jiangsu, which is adjacent to Huainan, is obviously "first come first near the water and the tower" and was first affected by the tofu culture. Until now, Jiangsu people still regard tofu, gluten, mushrooms and bamboo shoots as the four major vegetarian dishes. After the Song and Ming Dynasties, tofu culture became more widely spread, and many literati and celebrities also joined the ranks of disseminators. Su Dongpo, a great writer in the Northern Song Dynasty, was good at eating tofu. When he was the prefect of Hangzhou from the second year of Yuanyou to the fourth year of Wuyou, he made Dongpo tofu himself. Lu You, a poet of the Southern Song Dynasty, also recorded the cooking of tofu dishes in his "Weinan Collected Works". What is even more interesting is a record written by Song Luo, a minister of the Qing Dynasty, about Emperor Kangxi and tofu. When Kangxi visited Suzhou in the south, the emperor's new gifts to ministers were not gold and jade curios, but a humane and rustic tofu dish.