Tofu: How a Han-Dynasty Accident Fed a Continent

It is soft, pale and nearly tasteless on its own — yet it absorbs any flavour you give it and feeds more people than almost any other food. Tofu (豆腐, dòufu), or bean curd, is one of China's quietest gifts to the world. The legend says it was born from a mistake.

The Alchemist's Happy Accident

The story centres on Liu An, Prince of Huainan (179–122 BC), a Han-dynasty nobleman obsessed with Taoist alchemy and the search for an elixir of immortality. On Bagong Mountain in present-day Anhui, he and his scholars brewed soybean milk as a base for their "pill." When mineral-rich spring water (gypsum) or brine accidentally met the soy milk, it curdled into a white, jelly-like mass. The prince's mother, who could not chew whole beans, ate it and felt better. Tofu was born.

"The method of tofu began with Liu An, Prince of Huainan, in the former Han." — Li Shizhen, Compendium of Materia Medica (Ming dynasty)

The Song poet Zhu Xi wrote that "the world says tofu was originally the art of the Prince of Huainan." Hard archaeological proof came in 1959, when a Han-dynasty tomb at Dahuting (Xinmi, Henan) yielded a mural showing tofu production — pinning the food to the Han era. In 2014 the traditional tofu-making technique joined China's fourth national intangible cultural heritage list.

From Soy Milk to Block

The process has two stages. First, make the milk: soak soybeans, grind with water, boil, strain out the pulp. Then coagulate: add a coagulant — gypsum (calcium sulfate), nigari (bittern, magnesium chloride), or modern gluconolactone — and the proteins lock into curds. Press out the whey and you get textures from silken to extra-firm. The film that forms on top is dried into tofu skin (腐竹/豆腐皮).

Why It Conquered Asia

Tofu is about 95%+ digestible and a complete plant protein — the "plant meat." Buddhism carried it across East Asia: Japanese monks brought it in the Nara period (710–794), where it became central to temple vegetarian cuisine (shōjin ryōri); in Korea it is dubu. In China it spans a universe of dishes — the savoury northern doufunao (tofu "brains") against the sweet southern doufuhua ("tofu flowers"); braised hongshao tofu; mapo tofu; and the love-it-or-hate-it stinky tofu (臭豆腐).

• Nutrition: high-quality protein, calcium, magnesium, no cholesterol.
• Caution: its purines mean gout sufferers should moderate intake.
• Culture: Huainan still holds a Tofu Festival each September 15, Liu An's traditional birthday.

A Global Superfood

Benjamin Franklin wrote about "tau-fu" in 1770; the 1975 Book of Tofu introduced it to Western health-food kitchens; the 2020 pandemic sent tofu sales surging as people sought affordable protein. From a Han prince's failed potion to the fridge of a vegan in Berlin, tofu's journey is one of the longest in food history — and far from over.

Sources

• People's Daily (Henan) — "舞钢热豆腐" (Han tomb mural, Liu An legend)
• Popular Science China (kepuchina.cn) — "豆腐" (making, Zhu Xi, Li Shizhen)
• China Daily — "Enamored of the curd" (tofu culture and regional dishes)