Hou Ji (or Houji; ) was a legendary Chinese
culture hero
A culture hero is a mythological hero specific to some group ( cultural, ethnic, religious, etc.) who changes the world through invention or discovery. Although many culture heroes help with the creation of the world, most culture heroes are imp ...
credited with introducing
millet
Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most species generally referred to as millets belong to the tribe Paniceae, but some millets al ...
to humanity during the time of the
Xia dynasty.
[.] Millet was the original
staple grain
A staple food, food staple, or simply a staple, is a food that is eaten often and in such quantities that it constitutes a dominant portion of a standard diet for a given person or group of people, supplying a large fraction of energy needs an ...
of
northern China
Northern China () and Southern China () are two approximate regions within China. The exact boundary between these two regions is not precisely defined and only serve to depict where there appears to be regional differences between the climate ...
, prior to the introduction of wheat. His name translates as Lord of Millet and was a title granted to him by
Emperor Shun
Emperor Shun () was a legendary leader of ancient China, regarded by some sources as one of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors being the last of the Five Emperors. Tradition holds that he lived sometime between 2294 and 2184 BC. Tradition a ...
, according to
Records of the Grand Historian. Houji was credited with developing the philosophy of
Agriculturalism and with service during the
Great Flood in the reign of
Yao; he was also claimed as an ancestor of the
Ji clan that became the ruling family of the
Zhou dynasty.
History
Hou Ji's original name was Qi (), meaning "abandoned".
Two separate versions of his origin were common. In one version of
Chinese mythology, he was said to have been
supernaturally conceived when his mother
Jiang Yuan, a previously barren wife of the
Emperor Ku, stepped into a footprint left by
Shangdi, the supreme sky god of the early
Chinese pantheon.
['' Encyclopædia Britannica''. "Hou Ji".]['' Shijing'']
"Sheng Min (Birth of (Our) People)"
/ref> Another account simply make him one of Ku's four sons, each prophesied to father a family of emperors over China. This origin allowed his descendants to claim a lineage from the Yellow Emperor as well.
He was held to have been repeatedly abandoned by his mother, but saved each time in the street, by draft animals; in the forest, by woodcutters; on the ice, by a great bird.
Legacy
Houji was also claimed as an ancestor of the Zhou royal family and honored in their '' Book of Songs'': the ''Sheng Min'' ("Birth of Our People") is counted as one of the work's Great Hymns.Sima Qian
Sima Qian (; ; ) was a Chinese historian of the early Han dynasty (206AD220). He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his ''Records of the Grand Historian'', a general history of China covering more than two thousand years b ...
took a more rationalist approach to his life, making him a natural son of Emperor Ku and a regular official of the Xia court, Houji was honored not just as a culture hero but also as a patron god of abundant harvests.[Roberts. ''Chinese Mythology A to Z'', 2nd Ed, p.70. 2009.]
See also
* Ancestry of the Zhou dynasty
* The Five Cereals
The Five Grains or Cereals () are a grouping (or set of groupings) of five farmed crops that were all important in ancient China. Sometimes the crops themselves were regarded as sacred; other times, their cultivation was regarded as a sacred bo ...
of China
* Shennong
* '' Shijing''
* Shujun
References
Bibliography
*
*
* Wu, K. C. (1982). ''The Chinese Heritage''. New York: Crown Publishers. .
*Yang, Lihui, ''et al.'' (2005). ''Handbook of Chinese Mythology''. New York: Oxford University Press.
External links
*{{Commonscatinline
''Shijing'' III.2.1.
– "Birth of Our People".
Agriculturalism
Chinese gods
Chinese poetry allusions
Food deities
Harvest gods
History of ancient China