Tang (pinyin: gēng) is a Chinese character (commonly used word), which is the first-class universal standard of Chinese. The oldest form of this word is Xiao Zhuan in Shuo Wen Jie Zi. What is the ancient font? (Li, steamer) and mutton (lamb). The original meaning of "soup" should be "juicy food made of mutton", which is extended to all kinds of juicy meat or vegetables. After the Middle Ages, "soup" expanded from juicy food to thick soup.

The original meaning of "soup" should mean "a juicy food made of meat" The so-called meat with juice is different from modern soup, but the barbecue has a small amount of juice. "Soup" is a kind of food with meat, but it is not necessarily just sheep. Sheep represent all kinds of livestock. Mutton represented by "mutton" is the most tender and delicious mutton, which represents delicacy, indicating that soup was also one of the delicacies in ancient times.

Later, the ancients used fruits or vegetables to make a juicy food, also called "soup", which did not necessarily refer to the cooking of meat and vegetables. Even if there is no meat, it is delicious. In the Ming Dynasty, Yang Shen's "Ancient and Modern Proverbs" said: "The butcher eats the soup of Huo, and the lathe maker does many things." It is known that the soup cooked with epimedium has no meat and is vegetarian. There are also lotus seed soup and tremella soup, which are delicious vegetarian snacks made of juice boiled from lotus seeds and tremella. There are soups, such as chestnut soup and egg soup, which are all solid foods and are far from the original meaning of the word "soup".