Five Grains

The Five Grains or Cereals (Chinese: t 五穀, s 五谷, p Wǔ Gǔ) are a grouping (or set of groupings) of 5 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.