Hou Ji
Hou Ji | |
|---|---|
 Hou ji | |
| Other names | Qi |
| Children | Buzhu |
| Parent(s) | Emperor Ku Jiang Yuan |
Hou Ji (or Houji;
After the Zhou dynasty, ancient Chinese historians, folklorists, and religious practitioners had a variety of opinions on Hou Ji,[6] including the opinion that he became deified as the god Shennong after his death.[5]
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.[7][8] 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.[9]
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.
Legacy
Houji was also claimed as an ancestor of the
Although historians such as
See also
References
- ^ a b "Hou Ji", China culture, 2008-02-01.
- ^ Shiji, "Annals of the Five Emperors" quote: "舜曰：「棄，黎民始饑，汝后稷播時百穀。」translation: "[Emperor] Shun said, 'Qi, the black-haired people begin to be famished. Do you, Prince Millet, sow in their seasons the various kinds of grain.'"
- ^ Shiji "Annals of Zhou" quote: "帝舜曰：「棄，黎民始饑，爾后稷播時百穀。」"
- ^ The Book of Chinese Poetry: Being the Collection of Ballads, Sagas, Hymns, and Other Pieces Known as the Shih Ching; Or, Classic of Poetry. K. Paul, Trench, Trübner. 1891. pp. 9–.
- ^ a b Asim, Ina (2007). "Keynotes 2". University of Oregon. Retrieved 2023-07-18.
- ISBN 978-0-7607-8379-5.
- ^ a b Encyclopædia Britannica. "Hou Ji".
- ^ Shijing, "Sheng Min (Birth of (Our) People)"
- ^ China Knowledge. "Diku".
- ^ Shiji "Annals of Zhou" quote: "后稷卒，子不窋立。不窋末年，夏后氏政衰，去稷不務，不窋以失其官而犇戎狄之間。"
- ^ Roberts. Chinese Mythology A to Z, 2nd Ed, p.70. 2009.
Bibliography
- ISBN 978-1400829941.
- Kleeman, Terry F. (1998). Great Perfection: Religion and Ethnicity in a Chinese Millennial Kingdom. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0824818008.
- ISBN 0-517-54475X.
- Yang, Lihui, et al. (2005). Handbook of Chinese Mythology. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-533263-6
External links
Media related to Hou Ji at Wikimedia Commons- Shijing III.2.1. – "Birth of Our People".
