Fear not, this does not contain real insects. Its name comes from a dish in a play called The Injustice to Dou E, written by Guan Hanqing (1225-1302), one of the 'four great playwrights of the Yuan dynasty'.
In the play, Dou E's father, a scholar, is off to Beijing for his imperial examinations. Before he leaves, he sends his daughter, Dou E, to the Cai family, to whom he owes money, to be a servant and later to marry the Cai family's son. Soon after the wedding her husband dies, leaving her to take care of her elderly mother-in-law, who soon falls ill.
Dou E has no money nor the means to earn an income. After she asks the butcher a couple of times for an advance, he refuses to give her any more meat until she pays him. Dou E begs him until the butcher gives her a small sliver of pork.
She goes home to create something tasty for her mother-in-law with the tiny scrap of pork. As she looks around her kitchen, she spies some vermicelli left over from Lunar New Year. She soaks the vermicelli and minces the pork as finely as she can. She dices up spring onion and ginger. She then fries the pork, spring onion and ginger in a wok until the mixture is fragrant, then adds the vermicelli. The scent excites her poor mother-in-law, but when she sees flecks of slightly charred pork in the vermicelli, her failing eyesight makes her think they are ants.
Dou E reassures her that it is just pork, so the old lady begins to eat it. She loves it so much that she wants to give it a special name. Deciding the vermicelli looked like trees, she calls it 'ants climbing a tree'.
The popularity of the play meant this dish spread all across China, and soon chefs all over the country were serving versions of the dish.
