Hou Ji

After the Zhou dynasty, ancient Chinese historians, folklorists, and religious practitioners had a variety of opinions on Hou Ji, including the opinion that he became deified as the god Shennong after his death.

History

Hou Ji's original name was Qi (棄), 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. He later became famous for his luxuriant crops of beans, rice, hemp, gourds, and several kinds of millet and was credited with the introduction of the spring ritual sacrifice of fermented millet beer, roasted sheep, and the herb southernwood.