RELATED TOPIC:
The Book of Songs and China's Literary Tradition

RELATED TOPIC:
The Han Dynasty Codification

RELATED TOPIC:
"The Great Preface" and Five Notions about Poetry

RELATED TOPIC:
Individual Voices in the Book of Songs

Stephen Owen :: It's a story of how the Zhou people were born from the millet god, and the mother, whose name is Jiang Yuan, probably Jiang, the first parent, does the ritual sacrifices and strangely enough steps in the toe print of the god. And by stepping in the toe print of the god, she becomes pregnant, and the poem goes through all the phases and finally, her son is born, whose name is Lord Millet or Houji.

And Houji invents farming and becomes the ancestor of the Zhou people.

Excerpt from "Foundation of the Zhou," from the Book of Songs

... Then in reverence, then in awe
She gave birth, she nurtured
And this was Houji.
Indeed, she had fulfilled her months,
And her first-born came like a lamb
With no bursting or rending,
With no hurt or harm.
To make manifest His magic power
God on high gave her ease.
So blessed were her sacrifice and prayer
That easily she bore her child. ...
He planted large beans;
His beans grew fat and tall.
His paddy-lines were close set,
His hemp and wheat grew thick,
His young gourds teemed.
Truly Houji's husbandry
Followed the way that had been shown.

** The Book of Songs is also known as the Book of Poetry, the Classic of Poetry, and sometimes the Book of Odes. These are all possible translations of the Chinese title, Shi jing [Shih-ching in Wade-Giles romanization].