Houji

Houji (Chinese: 后稷, p. Hòujì) 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 posthumous name bestowed on him by King Tang, the first of the Shang dynasty. 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

Houji's original name was Qi (棄, lit. "the Abandoned One").

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 descendents to claim a lineage from the Yellow Emperor as well. The Jiang clan that mothered Houji are possibly related to the Qiang, a group of people believed to have been of Tibeto-Burman origins. The American scholar Christopher I. Beckwith has however recently argued for an Indo-European origin for the Jiang clan.