Zao Jun - The Kitchen God - - Project Gutenberg eText 15250

The Five Grains or Cereals () are a grouping (or set of groupings) of five

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used ...

crop A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydropon ...

s that were all important in ancient China. Sometimes the crops themselves were regarded as sacred; other times, their cultivation was regarded as a sacred boon from a mythological or supernatural source. More generally, ''wǔgǔ'' can be employed in Chinese as a synecdoche referring to ''all'' grains or staple crops of which the end produce is of a granular nature. The identity of the five grains has varied over time, with different authors identifying different grains or even categories of grains.

Holiness

The sense of holiness or sacredness regarding the Five Grains proceeds from their traditional ascription to the saintly rulers credited with creating China's civilization. They were seen not merely as five crops chosen from many options but as the source permitting

agrarian society An agrarian society, or agricultural society, is any community whose economy is based on producing and maintaining crops and farmland. Another way to define an agrarian society is by seeing how much of a nation's total production is in agriculture ...

and

civilization A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system). ...

itself. "Squandering the Five Grains" was seen as a sin worthy of torment in ''

Diyu Diyu () is the realm of the dead or "hell" in Chinese mythology. It is loosely based on a combination of the Buddhist concept of Naraka, traditional Chinese beliefs about the afterlife, and a variety of popular expansions and reinterpretations o ...

'', the Chinese hell. As the position of

emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

was seen as an embodiment of this society, one's behavior towards the Five Grains could take on political meaning: as a protest against the overthrow of the

Shang Dynasty The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and ...

by the Zhou,

Boyi and Shuqi Boyi (, ) and Shuqi (, ) were two Dongyi brothers from Guzhu, a Dongyi state (諸侯國) under Shang Dynasty. According to tradition, they lived at the time of the transition between the Shang dynasty and the Zhou dynasty (approximately 1046 BCE). ...

ostentatiously refused to eat the Five Grains. Such rejections of the grains for political reasons underwent a complex development into the concept of '' bigu'', the esoteric

Taoist Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the '' Tao ...

practice of achieving

immortality Immortality is the concept of eternal life. Some modern species may possess biological immortality. Some scientists, futurists, and philosophers have theorized about the immortality of the human body, with some suggesting that human immorta ...

by avoiding certain foods.

Legendary accounts

By the time of written records, the development of agriculture in China had become greatly mythologized. There were various traditions regarding which of the early Chinese leaders introduced the Five Grains:

Shennong

Shennong Shennong (), variously translated as "Divine Farmer" or "Divine Husbandman", born Jiang Shinian (), was a mythological Chinese ruler known as the first Yan Emperor who has become a deity in Chinese and Vietnamese folk religion. He is vene ...

(神農) (lit. "Divine Farmer") was a Chinese culture hero credited with the development of agriculture. He was often conflated with Yandi (the "Flaming Emperor") and is also sometimes described as the ''Wugu Xiandi'' or "Divine Emperor of the Five Grains". Sima Qian's chronology placed him around 2737–2699 BC. In the

Shennongjia Shennongjia Forestry District () is a county-level administrative unit (a "forestry district") in northwestern Hubei province, People's Republic of China, directly subordinated to the provincial government. It occupies in western Hubei, and, as of ...

("Shennong's Ladder") area of

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The ...

, an oral epic poem titled the ''Hei'anzhuan'' ("Story of Chaos") describes Shennong finding the seeds of the Five Grains:

Shennong climbed onto
Mount Yangtou Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, C ...
,
He looked carefully, he examined carefully,
Then he found a seed of millet.
He left it with the
Chinese date tree Jujube (), sometimes jujuba, known by the scientific name ''Ziziphus jujuba'' and also called red date, Chinese date, and Chinese jujube, is a species in the genus '' Ziziphus'' in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae. Description It is a sma ...
,
And he went to open up a wasteland.
He planted the seed eight times,
Then it produced fruit.
And from then on humans were able to eat millet.
He sought for the rice seed on
Mount Daliang The Daliang Mountains () are in the southern part of the province of Sichuan in China. The Daliang rises above the left bank of the Jinsha (Upper Yangtze) River, opposite the Wulian Feng in Yunnan Province. This part of the Jinsha River is th ...
,
The seed was hiding in grasses.
He left it with the
willow tree Willows are a genus of trees. Willow Tree may refer to: Places * Willow Tree, New South Wales, a village in Australia * Willow Tree railway station, in Australia * Willow Tree (LIRR station), a railway station in New York Entertainment * "Wil ...
,
And he went to open up a paddy field.
He planted the seed seven times,
Then it produced fruit.
And from then on humans were able to eat rice.
He sought for the adzuki bean seed,
And left it with the
plum tree A plum is a fruit of some species in ''Prunus'' subg. ''Prunus'.'' Dried plums are called prunes. History Plums may have been one of the first fruits domesticated by humans. Three of the most abundantly cultivated species are not found i ...
.
He planted it one time.
The adzuki bean was so easy to plant
and was able to grow in infertile fields.
The soybean was produced on Mount Weishi,
So it was difficult for Shennong to get its seeds.
He left one seed of it with a
peach tree The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others (the glossy-skinned, non-f ...
,
He planted it five times,
Then it produced fruit,
And later
tofu Tofu (), also known as bean curd in English, is a food prepared by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness; it can be ''silken'', ''soft'', ''firm'', ''extra firm'' or ''super f ...
was able to be made south of the
Huai River The Huai River (), formerly romanized as the Hwai, is a major river in China. It is located about midway between the Yellow River and Yangtze, the two longest rivers and largest drainage basins in China, and like them runs from west to ea ...
.
Barley and wheat were produced on Mount Zhushi,
Shennong was pleased that he got two seeds of them.
He left them with a peach tree,
And he planted them twelve times,
Then later people were able to eat pastry food.
He sought the sesame seed on Mount Wuzhi,
He left the seed with
bramble A bramble is any rough, tangled, prickly shrub, usually in the genus ''Rubus'', which grows blackberries, raspberries, or dewberries. "Bramble" is also used to describe other prickly shrubs, such as roses (''Rosa'' species). The fruits inclu ...
s.
He planted it one time.
Then later people were able to fry dishes in sesame oil.
Shennong planted the five grains and they all survived,
Because they were helped by the six species of trees.

Huangdi

Huangdi (lit. "Yellow Emperor"), placed 2699–2588 BC by Sima Qian, was also credited in ancient texts as the first teacher of cultivation to his subjects.戴逸, 龔書鐸. 002(2003) 中國通史. 史前夏商西周. Intelligence press. . p 33.

Houji

Houji Hou Ji (or Houji; ) was a legendary Chinese culture hero credited with introducing millet to humanity during the time of the Xia dynasty.. Millet was the original staple grain of northern China, prior to the introduction of wheat. His name translat ...

(lit. "Lord Millet") is sometimes credited with the original provision of millet from heaven to mankind and sometimes credited with its exemplary cultivation.''China Culture''.
Hou Ji
". Lord Millet was a title bestowed upon this figure by King Tang, founder of the

Shang dynasty The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and ...

, and may have been an early position in the Chinese government. He was later worshipped as one of the patron gods of abundant harvests, like Lai Cho.

Archaeology

In northern China, the Nanzhuangtou culture on the middle

Yellow River The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the sixth-longest river system in the world at the estimated length of . Originating in the Bayan Ha ...

around

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and 0 ...

(–7700 BC) had grinding tools. The

Xinglongwa culture The Xinglongwa culture () ( 6200– 5400 BC) was a Neolithic culture in northeastern China, found mainly around the Inner Mongolia-Liaoning border at the Liao River basin. Xinglongwa pottery was primarily cylindrical and baked at low temperatures ...

in eastern

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

(–5400 BC) ate millet, possibly from

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

. The

Dadiwan culture The Dadiwan culture (c. 7900–7200 BP) was a Neolithic culture located primarily in the eastern portion of Gansu and Shaanxi provinces in modern China. The culture takes its name from the deepest cultural layer found during the original excavat ...

along the upper Yellow River (–5400 BC) also ate millet. By the

Yangshao culture The Yangshao culture (仰韶文化, pinyin: Yǎngsháo wénhuà) was a Neolithic culture that existed extensively along the middle reaches of the Yellow River in China from around 5000 BC to 3000 BC. The culture is named after the Yangsh ...

(–3000 BC), the peoples of the Yellow River were growing millet extensively, along with some

barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley p ...

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

, and vegetables; wove hemp and

silk Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the ...

, which indicates some form of

sericulture Sericulture, or silk farming, is the cultivation of silkworms to produce silk. Although there are several commercial species of silkworms, '' Bombyx mori'' (the caterpillar of the domestic silkmoth) is the most widely used and intensively stud ...

; but may have been limited to migratory

slash and burn Slash-and-burn agriculture is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The downed veget ...

farming methods. The

Longshan culture The Longshan (or Lung-shan) culture, also sometimes referred to as the Black Pottery Culture, was a late Neolithic culture in the middle and lower Yellow River valley areas of northern China from about 3000 to 1900 BC. The first archaeological fi ...

(–2000 BC) displays more advanced sericulture and definite cities. In southern China, the

Pengtoushan culture The Pengtoushan culture was a Neolithic culture located around the central Yangtze River region in northwestern Hunan province, China. It dates to around 7500–6100 BC, and was roughly contemporaneous with the Peiligang culture to the north. It i ...

on the

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest list of rivers of Asia, river in Asia, the list of rivers by length, third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in th ...

(–6100 BC) has left rice farming tools at some locations, though not at the

type site In archaeology, a type site is the site used to define a particular archaeological culture or other typological unit, which is often named after it. For example, discoveries at La Tène and Hallstatt led scholars to divide the European Iron A ...

. The

Hemudu culture The Hemudu culture (5500 BC to 3300 BC) was a Neolithic culture that flourished just south of the Hangzhou Bay in Jiangnan in modern Yuyao, Zhejiang, China. The culture may be divided into early and late phases, before and after 4000 BC respec ...

around

Hangzhou Bay Hangzhou Bay, or the Bay of Hangzhou (), is a funnel-shaped inlet of the East China Sea, bordered by the province of Zhejiang and the municipality of Shanghai, which lies north of the Bay. The Bay extends from the East China Sea to its head ...

south of the Yangtze (–4500 BC) certainly cultivated rice. The various people (such as hundred viet tribal union) who succeeded in these areas were later conquered and culturally assimilated by the northern Chinese dynasties during the historical period.

Lists

There are various versions of which five crops (or even broad categories of crops) are meant by this list. The Five Grains traditionally date back to the ''

Shennong Ben Cao Jing ''Shennong Bencaojing'' (also ''Classic of the Materia Medica'' or ''Shen-nong's Herbal Classics'' and ''Shen-nung Pen-tsao Ching''; ) is a Chinese book on agriculture and medicinal plants, traditionally attributed to Shennong. Researchers belie ...

'', reputed to be a record of an oral tradition first delivered by Shennong himself. The

Classic of Rites The ''Book of Rites'', also known as the ''Liji'', is a collection of texts describing the social forms, administration, and ceremonial rites of the Zhou dynasty as they were understood in the Warring States and the early Han periods. The ''Book ...

compiled by

Confucius Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or commonly zh, s=, p=Kǒngzǐ, labels=no; – ) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. C ...

in the 6th and 5th centuries BC lists

soybean The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean, which has numerous uses. Traditional unfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, from which tofu a ...

s (菽),

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

(麥), broomcorn (黍),

foxtail millet Foxtail millet, scientific name ''Setaria italica'' (synonym ''Panicum italicum'' L.), is an annual grass grown for human food. It is the second-most widely planted species of millet, and the most grown millet species in Asia. The oldest evide ...

(稷) and

(稻). Another version replaces rice with hemp (麻). The ''Hei'anzhuan'' cited above lists millet, rice, the adzuki bean, the soybean,

and wheat together, and sesame as the "five" grains. The Tang-era

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

master Daoxuan's ''Ritual of Measuring and Handling Light and Heavy Property'' (, ''Liangchu Qingzhong Yi'') instead lists five categories: "house" grain (), "loose" grain (), "horn" grain (), "beard" grain (), and "cart" grain ().Chen Huaiyu.
A Buddhist Classification of Animals and Plants in Early Tang China
'. 2005. Huilin ()'s ''Pronunciation and Meaning of All Scriptures'' (, ''

Yiqiejing Yinyi (Huilin) The (c. 807) ''Yiqiejing yinyi'' 一切經音義 "Pronunciation and Meaning in the Complete Buddhist Canon" was compiled by the Tang dynasty lexicographer monk Huilin 慧琳 as an expanded revision of the original (c. 649) ''Yiqiejing yinyi'' com ...

'') cites Yang Chengtian ()'s ''Assembly of Characters'' (, '' Zitong'') as describing similar categories: suigu, sangu, jiaogu, qigu, and shugu. One modern Chinese dictionary notes other candidates including sesame,

oats The oat (''Avena sativa''), sometimes called the common oat, is a species of cereal grain grown for its seed, which is known by the same name (usually in the plural, unlike other cereals and pseudocereals). While oats are suitable for human co ...

, and

peas The pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the flowering plant species ''Pisum sativum''. Each pod contains several peas, which can be green or yellow. Botanically, pea pods are fruit, since they contain seeds and d ...

Modern ritual and culinary usage

Assortments of five grains continue to be used in ritual contexts, as in the Southern Min custom of creating a

stove to cook ''Chui Zhao Fan'', a meal for the

Kitchen God The Kitchen deity – also known as the Stove God, named Zao Jun, Zao Shen, Zao kimjah, Cokimjah or Zhang Lang – is the most important of a plethora of Chinese domestic gods that protect the hearth and family. The Kitchen God is recognized in C ...

in which five dry seeds are placed into a slot in the chimney of the stove.Javewu.multiply.com.
80
". Casual worshippers may simply use any five beans (e.g., of different colors) instead of any particular set of grains.

Chinese cuisine Chinese cuisine encompasses the numerous cuisines originating from China, as well as overseas cuisines created by the Chinese diaspora. Because of the Chinese diaspora and historical power of the country, Chinese cuisine has influenced many o ...

is not known for any single recipe using all five grains, so there is no grain equivalent of

five-spice powder Five-spice powder () is a spice mixture of five or more spices used predominantly in almost all branches of Chinese cuisine. It is also used in Hawaiian cuisine and Vietnamese cuisine. The five flavors of the spices (sweet, bitter, sour, sa ...

or "eight treasure rice" (八寶飯, ''babaofan''). Many, perhaps most, Chinese cooking employs the grains in some fashion, though:

, congee,

noodles Noodles are a type of food made from unleavened dough which is either rolled flat and cut, stretched, or extruded, into long strips or strings. Noodles are a staple food in many cultures (for example, Chinese noodles, Filipino noodles, Ind ...

spring roll Spring rolls are rolled appetizers or dim sum commonly found in Chinese and other Southeast Asian cuisines. The kind of wrapper, fillings, and cooking technique used, as well as the name, vary considerably within this large area, depending o ...

s, breads,

tofu Tofu (), also known as bean curd in English, is a food prepared by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness; it can be ''silken'', ''soft'', ''firm'', ''extra firm'' or ''super f ...

wonton A wonton () is a type of Chinese dumpling commonly found across regional styles of Chinese cuisine. It is also spelled wantan or wuntun in transliteration from Cantonese () and wenden from Shanghainese (). There are many different styles o ...

s and other dumplings as dishes; sweet bean paste as fillings; glutinous rice as a wrapping, for example in

zongzi ''Zongzi'' (; ), ''rouzong'' () or simply ''zong'' (Cantonese Jyutping: ''zung2'') is a traditional Chinese rice dish made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo leaves (generally of the species ''Indocalamus t ...

and

soy milk Soy milk (simplified Chinese: 豆浆; traditional Chinese: 豆漿) also known as soya milk or soymilk, is a plant-based drink produced by soaking and grinding soybeans, boiling the mixture, and filtering out remaining particulates. It is a sta ...

s and beverages; soy sauces and

sesame oil Sesame oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from sesame seeds. The oil is one of the earliest-known crop-based oils. Worldwide mass modern production is limited due to the inefficient manual harvesting process required to extract the oil. ...

s; and fermentation starters for use in

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

s, rice wines, and native liquors like ''

baijiu ''Baijiu'' (), also known as ''shaojiu'' (/), is a colorless Chinese liquor typically coming in between 35% and 60% alcohol by volume (ABV). Each type of baijiu uses its own type of ''qū'' for fermentation to create a distinct and charact ...

''.

Gallery

Some of the characteristics of the concept of ''wugu'' are granularity and diversity, as the images below may help to show: Image:Panicum miliaceum0.jpg,

Broomcorn millet ''Panicum miliaceum'' is a grain crop with many common names, including proso millet, broomcorn millet, common millet, hog millet, Kashfi millet, red millet, and white millet. Archaeobotanical evidence suggests millet was first domesticated abou ...

head Image:Wheatberries.jpg,

Wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

grains Image:Foxtailmillet.jpg,

Foxtail millet Foxtail millet, scientific name ''Setaria italica'' (synonym ''Panicum italicum'' L.), is an annual grass grown for human food. It is the second-most widely planted species of millet, and the most grown millet species in Asia. The oldest evide ...

head Image:Rice diversity.jpg,

Rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

grains Image:Soybeanvarieties.jpg, Soybeans Image:Hempseed.jpg,

Hempseed Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a botanical class of ''Cannabis sativa'' cultivars grown specifically for industrial or medicinal use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest growing plants ...

Image:Sorghum bicolor subsp. bicolor seeds.jpg, Sorghum grains

Notes

References

* Alan Davidson, Tom Jaine, The Oxford companion to food, p. 305, article on "five grains of China" *Yang, Lihui, ''et al.'' (2005). ''Handbook of Chinese Mythology''. New York: Oxford University Press. {{Chinese mythology Agriculture in China