Agriculture (Chinese mythology)

Agriculture is an important theme in Chinese mythology. There are many myths about the invention of agriculture that have been told or written about in China (Yang 2005:70). Chinese mythology refers to those myths found in the historical geographic area of China. This includes myths in Chinese and other languages, as transmitted by Han Chinese as well as other ethnic groups (of which fifty-six are officially recognized by current administration of China). (Yang 2005:4) Many of the myths about agriculture involve its invention by such deities or culture heroes such as Shennong, Houji, Hou Tu, and Shujun: of these Shennong is the most famous, according to Lihui Yang (2005:70). There are also many other myths. Myths related to agriculture include how humans learned the use of fire, cooking, animal husbandry and the use of draft animals, inventions of various agricultural tools and implements, the domestication of various species of plants such as ginger and radishes, the evaluation and uses of various types of soil, irrigation by digging wells, and the invention of farmers markets. Other myths include events which made agriculture possible by destroying an excessive number of suns in the sky or ending the Great Flood.

In the study of historical Chinese culture, many of the stories that have been told regarding characters and events which have been written or told of the distant past have a double tradition: one which tradition which presents a more historicized and one which presents a more mythological version.(Yang 2005:12-13) This is also true in many of the accounts related to the acquisition of agricultural civilization in China.

Shennong is generally credited with having invented basic agriculture, including the plow; although he seems to have originated as a god of the burning wind, which is perhaps a reference to slash-and-burn agriculture, according to Anthony Christie. (1968:90)

Houji was also known as Ji Qi, especially in more historically-oriented contexts. Posthumously, he was better known as Houji, from hou, meaning "prince/deity/spirit", and ji, meaning "agriculture", according to K. C. Wu (1982:234).

A deity of the Earth who figures in various myths (Yang 2005:135-138).

Shujun is a Chinese god of farming and cultivation, also known as Yijun and Shangjun. Alternatively he is a legendary culture hero of ancient times, who was in the family tree of ancient Chinese emperors descended from the Yellow Emperor (Huangdi). Shujun is specially credited with inventing the use of a draft animal of the bovine family to pull a plow to turn the soil prior to planting.

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