Its creation can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty and the dish is considered to be a prominent strand of Min cuisine.

Its name is instead derived from the appearance of the dish in which the red and curled fried pieces of pork resemble the skin of the lychee fruit.

[citation needed] The origin of the dish is attributed to a legend involving Mei, a royal consort of the Xuanzong Emperor of the Jiang clan.

[5] It is believed that the chef employed by Mei, Jiang (Chinese: 老蒋头; pinyin: lǎo jiǎng tóu), devised a recipe to cook meat so that it resembled those lychees.

Mei was later killed in the Anshi Rebellion, and the chef was believed to have escaped and fled back to Fujian, bringing the dish with him.