The correct pronunciation of cowpea is jiāng dòu.

In the Chinese dictionary, the word "cowpea" for cowpea has only one standard pinyin jiāng, and its meaning is an annual herbaceous plant whose fruit is a cylindrical long pod, which is an ordinary vegetable.

The "Great Song Dynasty Rebuilds Guangyun" written in the first year of Dazhong Xiangfu (1008) by Emperor Zhenzong of the Northern Song Dynasty contains the word "豇", which is pronounced "jiang", specifically referring to the beans of this plant. The "Cihui" of the Ming Dynasty said that this character can also be read as "Gang". In some dialects, such as Shanghainese, this pronunciation is still maintained, so the pronunciation of gāng also has historical inheritance.

But today’s standard Chinese is Mandarin. Now, regardless of dialect pronunciation, the standard pronunciation is 豇(jiāng) beans, and this is the only pronunciation.

History

The history of eating cowpeas in China can be traced back to before the Song Dynasty. Many people believe that cowpeas originated in my country. Data from the "Plant Intelligence" platform of the State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, show that the ancient rhyme book "Guangyun" contains the word "豇". This book was originally written in 601 and has been lost. After reconstruction, There is a revised edition by Lu Pengnian and others in the Song Dynasty.

There are records of cowpea in various books such as "Illustrations and Materia Medica" of the Northern Song Dynasty, "Materia Medica for Famine Relief" written by Zhu Ji in the Ming Dynasty, "Compilation of Convenient Pictures" and "Compendium of Materia Medica", which shows that it has been widely cultivated in the Ming Dynasty. And eat cowpeas. In historical records, the climate in the Yellow River Basin was warmer, and my country may be one of the origins of cowpea.