Houji

Lord Millet

Ancestor of the Zhou, raised by Yao as minister of agriculture and later worshipped as a grain god.

Houji, whose name means Lord Millet, is the ancestor of the Zhou people and the patron god of grain. Abandoned as an infant, he was saved by animals and grew up loving to plant hemp and beans; as Yao’s minister of agriculture he taught the people to sow the five grains. Zhou kings traced their mandate to his miraculous birth and his gift of farming.