One year before New Year's Eve, Tujia people were cooking a reunion dinner in full swing, and the Tujia mountain village was suddenly invaded by the army. Although some people who escaped into the caves in the mountains escaped from the tiger's mouth, they suffered from the cold.

Fortunately, an elderly man brought out a large piece of cooked pork in a hurry, so everyone got a small piece of meat to survive the New Year.

After the war subsided, in order to remember the lesson of this bloody event, every Tujia family steamed several pieces of cooked meat during the Chinese New Year to prevent similar disasters from happening again. Since then, Nianrou has entered the Tujia people's Spring Festival menu.