Houji Teaches Farming

The Millet Lord

Zhou ancestor Houji taught the people to sow the five grains and was enfeoffed at Tai.

Abandoned as a child, the future Houji was saved by animals and grew up with an instinct for plants, planting beans and hemp that flourished. As Yao’s minister of agriculture he taught the people to sow the five grains, and the Zhou clan claimed descent from him. The Odes praise him as the one who turned wild grass into the harvest that feeds the world.