According to local people from the Guangdong province,[1] prior to the Battle of Yamen, the last emperor of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Bing, and his regime's remnants, sought shelter in a monastery at Chaozhou.

The monastery's monks served an impromptu vegetarian soup made of sweet potato leaves, edible mushrooms, vegetable broth and lard.

Although the Chinese since the Ming dynasty commonly use sweet potato leaves, other varieties include amaranth, spinach, ipomoea aquatica and other leafy greens; and alternative broths such as beef or chicken.

[5][6][7] Other ingredients are often added such as beaten eggs,[8] shredded dry cured ham, tofu, cellophane noodles, etc.

Guangdong Province's restaurants routinely decorate the soup in a taijitu diagram.