中国是红曲的发源地。关于红曲的起源年代和发源地至今存在多种观点。以新发现的史料，对红曲起源相关问题进行再研考，澄清了过去一些错误的认识，否定了唐朝之前已有红曲的说法。同时，证明了福建省古田县的红曲发源于唐朝开元二十八年（公元740年）之前，是至今所报道且可查证的有关红曲起源时间最早的记载。以此推断古田是红曲的发源地。

China is regarded as the birthplace of red yeast rice (RYR). However, various opinions concerning the place where RYR originated and time when RYR invented exist. Upon newly-discovered documented files, current opinion saying “RYR was invented before Tang Dynasty” was proven to be invalid. Meanwhile, RYR in Gutian county Fujian province was verified to be manufactured before 28th year of Kaiyuan in the Tang Dynasty (AD 740) with rich historical data. Based on the fact dating back to the farthest times among those records reported nowadays, a conclusion was accordingly deduced that Gutian was the birthplace of RYR.