Now we say that eating tofu mainly refers to stealing and flirting, implying sexual harassment. At first, it mainly refers to the sexual harassment of men against women. Later, women flirt with men, which is also called eating tofu.

Then how is tofu, an "innocent and pure" food, linked to molestation and sexual harassment?

First, let's review the origin of tofu:

According to legend, Liu An, the king of Huainan in the Western Han Dynasty, believed in Taoist immortality, so he recruited people from all over the world to refine Dan medicine. They used clear spring water in the mountains to grind bean juice, and then used it to cultivate Dan Miao. They accidentally put gypsum into the bean juice once. After a while, the bean juice actually condensed into a white and soft solid. Someone boldly tasted it and found it very delicious, so they gave it to the king of Huainan. Liu An was full of praise after eating it, so he ordered the making of this kind of food, and tofu was invented in this way.

This statement was first seen in Zhu Xi, who once wrote a poem about tofu: planting peas is rare, and the exhausted heart is rotten; If I had known the technique of Huai Wang, I would have gained the spring cloth. And self-note: handed down tofu originated from Huainan Wang; Because of Zhu Xi's influence, the saying that the king of Huainan made tofu has been circulated since the Song Dynasty.

Interestingly, Zhu Xi himself doesn't eat tofu, which is said to be because he used to make tofu and was unreasonable. Liang Zhangju's "Notes on Returning to the Field" in Qing Dynasty recorded that Zhuzi once made tofu, using beans, water, miscellaneous materials and other raw materials. As a result, it was found that the weight of tofu made was greater than the weight of raw materials, so it was "unreasonable, so it was not eaten". This is really a serious old man!

But for the Western Han Dynasty, I prefer to put it another way: Tofu originated in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties for two reasons:

First, there was no record of tofu before the Tang Dynasty, and it gradually appeared after the Song Dynasty. The earliest one was the Qing Yi Lu written by Tao Gu in the Five Dynasties and the Early Song Dynasty, which recorded an anecdote of an honest official, saying that he was diligent in loving the people and was very austere. He never ate meat and replaced it with tofu.

Therefore, it can be speculated that tofu may have originated in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties.

Secondly, it is not a tradition in China to take rotten characters as the name of food. Because rot in ancient China means rot, putrefaction and putrefaction as punishment, it is hard to imagine that the ancients would associate such an intention with food. Therefore, in the Song Dynasty, some scholars renamed tofu as fermented milk to avoid corruption (in the old saying, beans were fermented milk).

How did the name tofu come from? The more likely explanation is that the pronunciation of tofu comes from nonsense. During the Sixteen Kingdoms period, a number of Hu people's regimes were established in the north, and there was a great ethnic integration. During this period, Hu people's dietary customs transformed this Han tradition. In the Tang Dynasty, nobles loved Hu food, saying, "Noble people used to eat Hu food, and all the men and women were dressed in Hu clothes"; The graceful Hu Ji and the grape wine in the western regions are more popular in Chang' an; In addition, the tall tables and chairs that we are familiar with gradually became popular in the Tang Dynasty, which can really be described as "Hu Feng spread to the south".

Hu people like to eat dairy products, and this habit was also inherited by Sui and Tang Dynasties. However, ordinary people are unable to enjoy such advanced food, so it is a choice to use dairy technology and choose soybeans to make tofu similar to dairy products. There is a kind of dairy product called milk rot in Hu food. Based on this naming method, the newly made food is called tofu. As a kind of table food for the lower class people, tofu gradually became popular, and it began to spread to the upper class scholar-officials in the Ming Dynasty.

So how is such a food with the name of harmony associated with sexual harassment?

The first jump: eating tofu rice-refers to funeral banquet.

At first, eating tofu meant eating tofu rice.

Most people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, especially in rural areas, believe in Buddhism. Therefore, after someone dies, monks are often invited to chant Buddhist scriptures and turn over the dead. At the same time, old people who believe in Buddhism are also invited to chant Buddhist scriptures and fold gold ingots. Therefore, the funeral home will prepare some vegetarian dishes such as green vegetables and tofu to entertain these people. At the same time, pure white and soft tofu symbolizes the noble character of being "innocent, simple but elegant, happy and happy", so the last tofu dish symbolizes the clean life of the deceased; Even if the deceased did something bad before his death, it was served with clear tofu, and tofu like braised tofu was not allowed on the table, otherwise it would be disrespectful to the deceased.

Because there must be tofu on the funeral table, and in order to avoid the saying of funeral, everyone uses tofu rice to refer to eating funeral banquets.

The second jump: eat tofu rice-take advantage.

During the funeral, someone must carry coffins and dig graves, so people often need help. These people can often eat tofu rice for free in their host's house after finishing their work. However, since ancient times, most of the poor people in China, more than 90% of them are on the verge of barely eating, so every time someone goes to eat tofu rice, eating tofu rice slowly means taking advantage, and later it is called eating tofu for short.

The third jump: eating tofu-taking advantage of women.

This proverb later spread to Shanghai, which was gradually developed, and extended from taking advantage to joking. Probably in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, the well-known meaning of molesting women began to appear.

Because the sound of "bean" in Shanghai dialect is the same as "tease", "rot" is the same as "woman" and "tease woman" can be homophonic as "tofu", so eating tofu has the meaning of making fun of women and taking advantage of them.

Similar to Hong Kong dialect, there is a saying that tofu is eaten. "Tofu" means "teasing women", which means making fun of women in terms of appearance and figure. There is a saying in Loudi, Hunan that "beating" is homophonic with "taking", "bean" is homophonic with "stealing" and "rot is homophonic with" husband or wife ",so" eating tofu "means" taking a husband/wife ",that is, adultery or cheating.