Gourd is one of the oldest crops in the world. Archaeology in China discovered the gourd and seeds 7,000 years ago at Hemudu site in Yuyao, Zhejiang, which is the earliest gourd found in the world. There are many records of gourd in ancient China, and there are also many names for it. "Hey", "Hey", "Hu", "Gan", "Hulu" and "Pru" all refer to gourd. "Pot" and "Lu" were originally two vessels for holding wine and rice. Because the shape and use of gourd are similar to them, people combine "pot" and "Lu" as the name of this plant. And "gourd" is a vulgar writing, which does not conform to the original intention. However, people are used to writing "gourd" and it goes on. Gourds can be used as containers. It is estimated that it originated in Africa. In today's Mexico, Peru and Thailand, gourds that have been planted for thousands of years are found. In Egypt, gourds were used as funerary objects. Gourd seeds found in Hemudu cultural site have a history of 7000 years. Some scholars suspect that there is a word in Oracle Bone Inscriptions that refers to gourd. China first called gourd "xian", "ai" and "hu". Gourd is mentioned in The Book of Songs and The Analects of Confucius. "Eating melons in July and breaking pots in August" in The Book of Songs is an example.

According to archaeological records, China and Thailand in Asia, Mexico and Peru in South America, and Egypt in Africa have all unearthed gourd fossils in the Stone Age. As early as nearly 10 thousand years ago, cucurbitaceae plants had grown on our ancient land. According to the archaeological discovery of Hemudu primitive social site in Zhejiang Province, our ancestors began to plant gourds more than 7,000 years ago, using gourds as containers for holding water, even earlier than pottery and bronzes. In the later years, people have more and more profound understanding of gourd, and its uses are more and more extensive, such as using it to make musical instruments, as an instrument for raising insects, and even using molds to make various advanced works of art-gourd utensils.

There are different opinions about the name of "gourd": First, there are many varieties of gourd, which is a classification method of the ancients. For example, Lu Dian's "North Asia" thinks: "It grew up in the Tang Dynasty, but it is in the sun, short in the neck and big in the abdomen" and "like a round pot". He means that "fresh", "easy" and "Hu" are the names of three kinds of gourds, and their differences are mainly manifested in their appearance. The roe deer used as a dish is thin and long, like a loofah; That is, the gourd used by farmers as water hyacinth; The pot is an oblate gourd. But the classification of the ancients was not uniform. Li Shizhen's interpretation of the meanings of "Xie" and "Hu" is just the opposite of that of Lu Dian, that is, "Xie" is a flat gourd and "Hu" is a gourd ladle. Cui Bao thinks that Zan, Yi, gourd and gourd are not the differences between species, but the differences between species. He thinks "Zan" is the general name of all gourds, while "Xie", "gourd", "gourd" and "hanging Zan" are all Zan, but they are different in appearance. Second, the ancients thought that the nature and use of gourd were different, so the names were different. Some people think that in terms of its quality, gourd can be divided into sweet and bitter, and the sweet one is called "sweet" and "sweet"; Those who suffer say "baa", "baa" and "Shi Mao Lu Shu Yao Guang". As for "tea wine" and "medicine pot land", they are both named "Compendium of Materia Medica" because of their uses. Third, it is caused by the false homophones used by the ancients. Gourd not only has a long history of cultivation, but also is widely distributed all over the world. From the time recorded in the Book of Songs, China has cultivated gourds for more than 2,000 years. After the Book of Songs, there are more literatures about gourd. According to the statistics of "Ancient and Modern Books Integration" in Qing Dynasty, there are nearly 100 kinds of ancient books (articles) referring to gourd. In these books, some write about the planting method of gourd, some write about the edible, medicinal and daily value of gourd, some praise the poems of gourd, and there are a lot of myths and legends about gourd.