While a popular legend attributes the dish to the
Yuan Dynasty, the story has little historical backing and the practice of eating thinly sliced meat cooked quickly in boiling broth in a style of resembling today's hot pot — was already established before then. The story claims that at one point during a battle,
Kublai Khan had a sudden craving for stewed mutton. However, the enemy's troops were approaching. To satisfy Kublai Khan's desire, a chef quickly cut off a dozen thin mutton slices and put them in boiling water. He removed them as soon as the lamb changed color and put them into a bowl with salt. Kublai Khan finished the mutton quickly and returned to the battle, which he won. At the victory banquet, Kublai Khan requested that the chef make this lamb dish again and named it shuanyangrou (涮羊肉) or instant-boiled mutton. A notable early account comes from the
Song dynasty book
Shan Jia Qinggong (山家清供) by scholar Lin Hong, who described a similar cooking method both made by himself in his hometown
Quanzhou and also at a banquet in present-day
Hangzhou. Inspired by the sight of the meat swirling in the bubbling broth — which he likened to "waves surging over snowy rivers and winds turning evening clouds" — Lin composed a poem and named the dish Bo Xia Gong (拨霞供). Lin explicitly noted that "mutton can also be used." However, it was only during the Qing Dynasty when multiple written records exist of a dish named shuanyangrou as a popular dish in Beijing. ==Cooking and eating method==