page_title: Five Grains
section_title: Shennong
hierarchical_section_title: Five Grains / Legendary accounts / Shennong
caption_attribution_description: English: Shennong, the Farmer God, with his plow. Inscription reads: 'The Farmer God taught agriculture based on land use; he opened up the land and planted millet to encourage the myriad people (Birrell, Chinese Mythology, ISBN 0-8018-6183-7, p.48)中文: 神农氏因宜教田，辟土种谷，以振万民
context_page_description: The Five Grains or Cereals are a grouping of five farmed crops 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.
context_section_description: Shennong (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 "Emperor of the Five Grains". Sima Qian's chronology placed him around 2737–2699 BC.
  In the Shennongjia ("Shennong's Ladder") area of Hubei, 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,
  He looked carefully, he examined carefully,
  
  Then he found a seed of millet.
  
  He left it with the Chinese date tree,
  
  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 seed was hiding in grasses.
  
  He left it with the willow tree,
  
  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.
  
  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,
  
  He planted it five times,
  
  Then it produced fruit,
  
  And later tofu was able to be made south of the Huai River.
  
  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 brambles.
  
  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.
caption: Shennong ploughing fields in a mural painting from the Han dynasty.
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