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The Five Grains or Cereals () are a set of five that were important in ancient China. In modern Chinese wǔgǔ refers to rice, wheat, foxtail millet, proso millet and . It is also used as term for all grain crops in general.
Mencius writes that Houji taught the people to cultivate the five grains. Lu Jia in his book Xin Yu attributes the creation of the five grains to the mythological emperor Shennong. Similarly, a version of the Epic of Darkness also attributes Shennong with creating the five grains. The Huangdi Neijing, written by the Yellow Emperor according to Chinese mythology, lists rice, , wheat, soybeans, and proso millet as the "five grains," along with the "five fruits," "five vegetables," and "five livestock." The development of agriculture in China in general has been attributed to various mythological figures, including Houji, Shennong, and the Yellow Emperor.
The traditional Chinese concept of five grains was later assimilated by Chinese and Taoists such as the Tang dynasty-era monk Daoxuan, who combined traditional Chinese and Buddhist classifications of plants and animals in his Ritual of Measuring and Handling Light and Heavy Property in which he lists five categories of grains including those mentioned in Buddhist and Chinese texts.
The term "five grains" has been borrowed into multiple East Asian languages. The term gokoku was first recorded in Japan in the 8th century. The Kojiki (c. 711) defines them as ine, mugi, awa, daizu and azuki, while the Nihon Shoki (720) defines them as rice, barley, foxtail millet, hie and beans.http://www.bestamenity.co.jp/culture/rice/ In modern Japanese usage, the Five Grains are typically defined as rice, barley, foxtail millet, beans and either kibi or Japanese millet.
As the position of emperor was seen as an embodiment of this society, one's behavior towards the Five Grains could take on political meaning: as a protest against the overthrow of the Shang dynasty by the Zhou dynasty, Boyi and Shuqi ostentatiously refused to eat the Five Grains. Such rejections of the grains for political reasons underwent a complex development into the concept of bigu, the esoteric Taoism practice of achieving immortality by avoiding certain foods.
In southern China, the Pengtoushan culture on the Yangtze River () has left rice farming tools at some locations, though not at the type site. The Hemudu culture around Hangzhou Bay south of the Yangtze () certainly cultivated rice. The various people (such as the Baiyue) who succeeded in these areas were later conquered and culturally assimilated by the northern Chinese dynasties during the historical period.
==Gallery==
/ref> A mix of rice with these grains is known as 五穀米.
Holiness
The sense of holiness or sacredness regarding the Five Grains proceeds from their traditional ascription to the saintly rulers credited with creating China's civilization. They were seen not merely as five crops chosen from many options but as the source permitting agrarian society and civilization itself. "Squandering the Five Grains" was seen as a sin worthy of torment in Diyu, the Chinese hell.
Archaeology
In northern China, the Nanzhuangtou culture on the middle Yellow River around Hebei () had grinding tools. The Xinglongwa culture in eastern Inner Mongolia () ate millet, possibly from agriculture. The Dadiwan culture along the upper Yellow River () also ate millet. By the Yangshao culture (), the peoples of the Yellow River were growing millet extensively, along with some barley, rice, and vegetables; wove hemp and silk, which indicates some form of sericulture; but may have been limited to migratory slash and burn farming methods. The Longshan culture () displays more advanced sericulture and definite cities.
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