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the five grain crops important to China

The Five Grains or Cereals are a grouping (or set of groupings) 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.

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. 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, 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 Taoist practice of achieving immortality by avoiding certain foods.

By the time of written records, the development of agriculture in China had become greatly mythologized. There were various traditions regarding which of the early Chinese leaders introduced the Five Grains:

Huangdi (lit. "Yellow Emperor"), placed 2699–2588 BC by Sima Qian, was also credited in ancient texts as the first teacher of cultivation to his subjects.

Houji (lit. "Lord Millet") is sometimes credited with the original provision of millet from heaven to mankind and sometimes credited with its exemplary cultivation. Lord Millet was a title bestowed upon this figure by King Tang, founder of the Shang dynasty, and may have been an early position in the Chinese government.

In northern China, the Nanzhuangtou culture on the middle Yellow River around Hebei (c. no – c. 8500–7700 BC) had grinding tools. The Xinglongwa culture in eastern Inner Mongolia (c. no – c. 6200–5400 BC) ate millet, possibly from agriculture. The Dadiwan culture along the upper Yellow River (c. no – c. 5800–5400 BC) also ate millet. By the Yangshao culture (c. no – c. 5000–3000 BC), 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 (c. no – c. 3000–2000 BC) displays more advanced sericulture and definite cities. In southern China, the Pengtoushan culture on the Yangtze River (c. no – c. 7500–6100 BC) has left rice farming tools at some locations, though not at the type site. The Hemudu culture around Hangzhou Bay south of the Yangtze (c. no – c. 5000–4500 BC) certainly cultivated rice. The various people (such as hundred viet tribal union) who succeeded in these areas were later conquered and culturally assimilated by the northern Chinese dynasties during the historical period.

There are various versions of which five crops (or even broad categories of crops) are meant by this list. The Five Grains traditionally date back to the Shennong Ben Cao Jing, reputed to be a record of an oral tradition first delivered by Shennong himself. The Classic of Rites compiled by Confucius in the 6th and 5th centuries BC lists soybeans (菽), wheat (麥), proso millet/broomcorn (黍), foxtail millet (稷) and rice (稻). Another version replaces rice with hemp (麻). The Hei'anzhuan cited above lists millet, rice, the adzuki bean, the soybean, barley and wheat together, and sesame as the "five" grains. The Tang era Buddhist master Daoxuan's Ritual of Measuring and Handling Light and Heavy Property (量處輕重儀, Liangchu Qingzhong Yi) instead lists five categories: "house" grain (房穀), "loose" grain (散穀), "horn" grain (角穀), "beard" grain (芒穀), and "cart" grain (輿穀). Huilin (慧琳)'s Pronunciation and Meaning of All Scriptures (一切經音義, Yiqiejing Yinyi (Huilin)) cites Yang Chengtian (陽承天)'s Assembly of Characters (字統, Zitong) as describing similar categories: suigu, sangu, jiaogu, qigu, and shugu. Casual worshippers may simply use any five beans (e. g., of different colors) instead of any particular set of grains. Chinese cuisine is not known for any single recipe using all five grains, so there is no grain equivalent of five spice powder or "eight treasure rice" (八寶飯, babaofan). Many, perhaps most, Chinese cooking employs the grains in some fashion, though: rice, congee, noodles, spring rolls, breads, tofu, wontons and other dumplings as dishes; sweet bean paste as fillings; glutinous rice as a wrapping, for example in zongzis; rice and soy milks and beverages; soy sauces and sesame oils; and fermentation starters for use in beers, rice wines, and native liquors like baijiu.