PLANTS MENTIONED IN CLASSICAL WORKS. 137 
CHAPTER Il. sais 
ee 
PLANTS MENTIONED IN THE Swi xive, THE Suv Kuve, 
THE J xi, THE Cuov 41 AND OTHER 
CHINESE CLAssiCAL Works. 
I.— Cereals. 
835.—The Bbarices: a ku (written also 2h) for Cereals 
or Grain, is frequently met with in the classical and other 
ancient Chinese writings. The Shuo wen explains it :— 
generic term for the hundred (ée., all sorts of) grains. 
Whilst Western nations understand by cereals exclusively 
certain gramineous plants cultivated for their edible grains, 
which constitute the chief food of man and beast, the early 
Uhinese writers extend the me: aning of the character hu to 
‘Some other cultivated plants, as beans, hemp, etc. They 
variously distinguish five, six or nine kinds of grain. 
The term Fi # wu ku or five kinds of grain seems to_ 
refer to the oldest classification of grain. It is attributed 
to the Emperor Suen xunc. The ancient commentators 
enumerated these five kinds as follows :— 
1.—#8 tuo, Rice. 
2. FE mai, comprising Wheat and Barley. 
3. —~§® tsi, Panicum miliaceum, the common Millet. 
4.—ZE shu, Panicum miliaceum, glutinous variety. 
5.—¥ shu, the Soy bean, Soju hispida. 
Some commentators have ¥% liang, Setaria italica, instead 
tsi, others ‘substitute Si ma, hemp, nny sativa, for — 
he rice, 
