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Historical Origins
The culture of vegetarian food has a long history in China, which can trace back to Western Han Dynasty. According to legend, bean curd was invented by Liu An, the king of Huainan Place, which laid the foundation for the development of vegetarian food. Bean curd is the important raw material in vegetarian food. It also contains high-quality protein. According to textual research, eleven varieties of vegetarian food were listed in one character of a book introducing agriculture production technology written in Northern Wei Dynasty. The earliest recipes of vegetarian food were found in the book. Emperor Liang Wudi in Southern Dynasty worshiped Buddhism. He was a vegetarian and proposed vegetarian food, which promoted the development of Chinese vegetarian culture. According to the records of the ancient books, there were vegetarian shops for specially managing vegetable dishes in Bianjing City in Northern Song Dynasty and Lin’an City in Southern Song Dynasty. The cookery of “vegetable dishes cooked as meat dishes” was firstly recorded in one cooking book written in Southern Song Dynasty, such as “fried vegetarian fish” and “steamed vegetarian chicken”. More than one hundred varieties of dishes were recorded in the cooking book. Most of them were vegetarian meal, including flowers and plants, medicines, fruits and bean products. 20 kinds of vegetarian dishes cooked by using vegetables and fruits were recorded in the book “Recipes of Vegetable Dishes” written by Chen Dasou in Song Dynasty. Vegetarian food culture was flourishing in the three Dynasties of Yuan, Ming and Qing. Vegetarian dishes were recorded in many documents. About two hundred vegetarian dishes were recorded in the cooking book “Introduction of Vegetarian Food” written by Xue Baochen in the last years of Qing Dynasty.
Chinese vegetarian food had ever been abroad in history. “Chinese Communications History” written by Japanese scholar had recorded: Monk Yin Yuan in the last years of Ming Dynasty had ever been Japan and passed on the Chinese cooking skill, including “total vegetarian dishes cookery”.