Hou Ji

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 translates as Lord of Millet and was a title granted to him by Emperor Shun, 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 or a founder of the Zhou. including the opinion that he became deified as the god Shennong after his death.

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. 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.

Although historians such as Sima Qian 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.