He is best known for editing the (139 BC) Huainanzi compendium of Daoist, Confucianist, and Legalist teachings and is credited for inventing tofu.
Early texts represent Liu An in three ways: the "author-editor of a respected philosophical symposium", the "bumbling rebel who took his life to avoid arrest", and the successful Daoist adept who transformed into a xian and "rose into the air to escape prosecution for trumped-up charges of treason and flew to eternal life.
Noted for his literary ability, Liu An was reputed to be able to compose an elaborate work of prose between waking and finishing breakfast.
Along with the earlier ShuJing (Classic of History) of the 5th century BC (Warring States era), this book provided further concrete information on geography, including descriptions of the topography of China.
In the Ming dynasty reference work Bencao Gangmu, author Li Shizhen describes the development of bean curd (tofu) but does not mention a particular inventor.
The Chinese Daoists that he recruited used "alchemical" methods to make both soy milk and bean curd, perhaps as a medicine for eternal life.
As the only powerful noble at that time, Liu An could order the (relative) mass-production of such items and spread them around, thus making him famous for soy milk and bean curd.
These traditions date soy milk to the warring states period by the Yan general Yue Yi,[9] These two books are rather recent and the quote in it was only a legend told to bean curd makers orally, without written record.