What does grain mean?

In ancient times, there were many different views and disputes about the five grains referred to in Chinese traditional culture. There are mainly two kinds: one refers to rice, millet (shǔ), millet (j ǔ), wheat and glutinous rice (sh ū); The other refers to hemp, millet (shǔ), millet (j ǔ), wheat and yam (sh ǔ). The difference between them is that the former has rice without hemp, while the latter has hemp without rice. The ancient economic and cultural center was in the Yellow River valley, and the main rice producing area was in the south, while the rice planting in the north was limited, so there was no rice in the original "five grains". But personally, I am keen on the former, on the grounds that cereals are always eaten, and "rice" is more suitable. Hemp is mainly used to weave linen clothes and imitate linen in China traditional culture. Therefore, five grains should refer to: rice, millet (shǔ), millet (j ǔ), wheat and glutinous rice (shū).

Everyone is familiar with rice and flour and rice. In traditional culture, rice is the staple food in southern China. It's the meal we eat every day. It's easy to understand, so I won't go into details here. Millet (shǔ): coarse grains, shelled millet, that is, yellow rice, the seeds are sticky after being cooked, which can be used to make wine and cakes. Because it is not conducive to digestion and the improvement of people's living standards, millet is basically not used as a staple food now. Jiì: Coarse grains, up to 100 grains long, so the emperor regarded Jiì as the god of grains, which was an ancient grain crop in China, which is what we usually call sorghum. Sorghum is now mostly used for brewing wine and raising livestock, and is rarely used as a staple food.

Sorghum seeds after hulling of red sorghum

Wheat, flour and rice are well understood by everyone, which is commonly referred to as wheat, especially in the northern part of China, where pasta is the main food. I want to emphasize that there are many varieties of wheat, including wheat, barley, oats, rye and so on. Wheat is used as flour, rice and staple food, especially wheat.

Shū, here I define it as coarse grains or complementary food. It is a general term in traditional grain culture, and the original intention of glutinous rice is to look like beans. In other words, fennel is a general term for beans, such as soybeans, golden beans and broad beans. Here, I understand soybeans. The reason is that tofu is a unique ingredient in China's food culture with a far-reaching history, and tofu is only a by-product of soybean. Soybean has many by-products, such as bean sprouts, soybean milk and tofu. Soybeans are easier to understand than soybeans.