A general term for food crops. "Five Grains" is spoken in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. "The Analects of Confucius": "The four bodies are not diligent, and the grains are not divided." But there are different explanations. One is millet, millet, wheat and rice. Speaking of millet, millet, wheat, millet, marijuana. The main difference between these two statements is whether there is rice or hemp. The reason for the inconsistency was that there were more than five kinds of crops at that time, as evidenced by the existence of the theory of "100 grains", "6 grains" and "9 grains", and the varieties of crops were different from place to place. The popularity of the theory of "five grains" is obviously caused by the influence of five elements. Therefore, generally speaking, grain refers to several major food crops.
Although the concept of five grains has a history of more than two thousand years, the status of these crops in the national food supply has changed from time to time. Millet, millet and other crops in the five grains have the characteristics of drought tolerance, barren tolerance and short growth period, so they occupy a particularly important position in the original cultivation of dry land in the north. In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the characteristics of "keeping old is easy to do" were discovered, and together with millet, it became an indispensable food for people at that time. At the same time, it is found that lodging wheat (winter wheat) can be planted in late autumn and early spring, which can solve the problem of green and yellow. In addition, the invention of the stone mill at this time greatly improved the palatability of wheat from grain to pasta, which attracted widespread attention and developed into one of the main grain crops, comparable to millet. In the Confucian classic Spring and Autumn Annals, it is not a book, but if the crops fail, it is a book. It can be seen that saints attach the most importance to wheat and grains among grains. Agronomists Zhao Guo and Fan Sheng Zhi in the Western Han Dynasty devoted themselves to popularizing wheat planting in Guanzhong area. The increase of Guanzhong population in Han Dynasty was closely related to the development of wheat planting. Until the Tang and Song Dynasties, the population in the north was more than that in the south. But after the Tang and Song Dynasties, the situation changed. The population growth of China is mainly concentrated in the southeast, that is, the land of Chu and Yue, which has been called "vast territory and sparsely populated" since Qin and Han Dynasties. In the Song Dynasty, the population of the south surpassed that of the north, estimated at 6: 4. Since then, the population density in the south is much higher than that in the north. The population increase in southern China is closely related to rice production. Rice is very suitable for planting in the southern region with abundant rainfall, but at first it was inconspicuous and even excluded from grain. However, it came from behind. After the Tang and Song Dynasties, the status of rice in the national grain supply was increasing. According to the estimation of Ming Dynasty and Song Dynasty, the grain supply at that time was mainly rice, while rice, wheat, millet and other grain crops accounted for only three tenths, which had been relegated to a secondary position. Soybean and hemp have withdrawn from the category of food crops and are only used as vegetables. However, when some crops withdrew from the ranks of food crops, some crops joined the ranks of food crops. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, corn, sweet potato and potato were introduced into China one after another, which became an important part of the main food crops in modern China. What is grain?
"Valley" is a simplified word for "valley", which originally refers to the grain with shell; Like rice, millet (millet, that is, millet) and millet (also known as yellow rice), there are shells outside, so they are called valleys. The sound of the word Gu comes from the sound of shells.
The earliest record of the word "five grains" can be found in the Analects of Confucius. According to the Analects of Confucius, more than 2,400 years ago, Confucius took his students on a long journey, and Luz fell behind. He met an old farmer with a bamboo basket and a stick, and asked him, "Have you seen Master?" The old farmer said, "Who is the master if you don't work on all fours?"
Dear reader, can you distinguish between grains?
Grains refer to five kinds of grains. Books earlier than The Analects of Confucius, such as The Book of Songs and The Classic, have only "100 grains" but no "five grains". From 100 to 5 grains, did the variety of food crops decrease? That's not true. At the beginning, people often gave several different varieties of a crop a proper name one by one, so there were many lists. Moreover, the word "hundred" here is only used to refer to many meanings, and there is no real one hundred. The appearance of the word "five grains" shows that people have a clear concept of classification, and also reflects that there were five main food crops at that time.
When the word "five grains" was first coined, it was not recorded what it meant. The earliest explanation we can see now was written by Han people. There are two main explanations of Han people and their descendants: one is rice, millet, millet, wheat and glutinous rice (that is, soybeans); Another way of saying it is marijuana, millet, millet, wheat and glutinous rice. The difference between these two statements is that there is rice without hemp and there is hemp without rice. Although hemp seed is edible, it is mainly used for textile. Grain refers to grain, and the former statement does not include hemp in grain, which is more reasonable. On the other hand, the economic and cultural center at that time was in the north, rice was a southern crop, and cultivation in the north was limited, so there might be hemp in the grain without rice. The crops mentioned in Historical Records, a book written by a historian, are wheat, millet, millet and hemp, which belong to the latter statement. Probably for these reasons, Han people and people after Han people have two different interpretations of grain.
Taken together, there are six main crops: rice, millet, millet, wheat, millet and hemp. There are four articles devoted to agriculture in the famous book Lu Chunqiu (written in the third century BC) in the Warring States period, among which the article Shenshi talks about the advantages and disadvantages of planting crops, such as millet, rice, hemp, rice and wheat. A grain is a millet. These six crops are exactly the same as the six mentioned above. These six crops are also mentioned in Lu Chunqiu.
Obviously, the crops at that time were mainly rice, millet, millet, wheat, rice and hemp. The so-called grain refers to these crops, or five of these six crops. However, with the development of social economy and agricultural production, the concept of five grains is constantly evolving. Now the so-called grain is actually just a general term for food crops, or refers to food crops in general.
Second, the origin of grains
The six crops mentioned above were cultivated in our country in distant ancient times.
When humans haven't planted crops, they rely on fishing, hunting and collecting the tuberous roots, tender stems and leaves, seeds and fruits of wild plants. When they can't collect food, they store some food to eat. Dry gramineous grains are the easiest to preserve. The grains scattered near the residence germinate and grow the plants they need. People gradually observed how these plants grew, and over time, they planted them themselves. Agriculture was thus established.
Agriculture in China originated in the Neolithic Age (about eight or nine thousand years ago, when people were able to make more exquisite stone tools), and this grain was the first crop planted.
Millet (Millet) is native to China. The common green bristlegrass is its wild species, which can be found everywhere in China. Millet grains and shells dating from 6000 to 7000 years ago have been found in Neolithic sites such as Jingcun in Wanquan County, banpo village in xi 'an, Miaodigou in Shanxian County, Henan Province, which shows that millet has existed in China since the beginning of farming.
Xiaomi is also native to China. 193 1 year, the ears and shells of millet were found in the Neolithic site in Jingcun, Wanquan County, Shanxi Province, which has been 6000 to 7000 years, indicating that millet was also planted in the primitive agricultural era in China.
Wheat is a general term for barley and wheat, but it is usually referred to as wheat for short. There are different opinions about the origin of barley and wheat. In the oldest literature in China, it is just commonly known as wheat, and then the term barley appeared. It was not until the late Western Han Dynasty that the word "wheat" appeared in Fan Sheng Zhi. Therefore, some Japanese scholars believe that the wheat in ancient books in China before the early Western Han Dynasty completely refers to barley, and wheat was introduced from the west after Zhang Qian arrived in the Western Regions (2nd century BC). This statement is incorrect. 1955, many wheat seeds were found in the site of the Western Zhou Dynasty (1 1 century to 770 BC) in Diaoyutai, Bobo County, Anhui Province, which strongly proved that wheat was cultivated in China a long time ago.
Rice is also native to China, and there are wild species of rice in Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Taiwan Province and other provinces. Recently, a considerable number of rice grains and straw were unearthed from Hemudu Neolithic site in Yuyao County, Zhejiang Province, about 7000 years ago. In addition, there are Xishan Park in Wuxi, Jiangsu, Caoxie Mountain in Wuxian, Shuitianfan in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, Qianshanyang in Xing Wu, Dachendun in Feidong, Anhui, Qujialing in Jingshan, Shijiahe in Tianmen, Yingtai in Hongshan, Wuchang, Yingpanli in Qingjiang, Dong Zhang in Fuqing, Fujian, Maba in Shi Xia, Qujiang in Guangdong and Xigaoya in Luoyang, Henan. It shows that the vast area south of the Yangtze River in China has developed to the stage of widespread rice cultivation as early as four or five thousand years to six or seven thousand years ago, and rice cultivation has also been carried out in the north.
Soybean is a special product of China, and wild soybeans are distributed in the north and south of China. At present, soybeans planted all over the world are directly or indirectly imported from China. Soybean nouns in Russian, English, German, French and other western languages are transliteration of the word "rudder". Soybean is not easy to preserve underground. Although it was not unearthed as early as millet and rice, it is certain that it was cultivated in the Neolithic Age.
(marijuana)
The so-called hemp in ancient China generally refers to marijuana. Hemp is an important fiber crop and edible crop in Neolithic Age. Neolithic pottery has linen woven patterns, and spindles, spinning wheels, bone needles and shuttles have been unearthed. The seeds unearthed from Dahe village in Zhengzhou are most like hemp seeds, which have been around for six or seven thousand years. In the south, the hemp fabric unearthed in Qianshanyang, Xing Wu County, Zhejiang Province was identified as ramie cloth, which was about four or five thousand years ago. This shows that hemp fiber has been widely used by our ancestors. In the Neolithic period, hemp was planted in the north and ramie was probably planted in the south.
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(1) carbonized soybeans were unearthed at the Da Mudantun site in Ning 'an County, Heilongjiang Province. Although its age is relatively late (more than 2000 years ago), its development stage still belongs to the Neolithic Age.