During the reign of Yao the land of China gradually recovered from its droughts and floods and the people began to live normal lives. It was at this time that one of the founders of the Chinese way of life, Houji, was born.
Houji's mother's name was Jiangyuan but noone knew who his father was. One day Jiangyuan was returning home along the path beside the river when she saw a line of giant footprints which both frightened and intrigued her. She fitted her own small feet into the first print and walked a little way along, jumping from print to print. Little did she know that by treading in these footprints she had conceived a child but in time the boy Houji was born.
As Houji had no father, his mother's family were afraid of a scandal and as soon as the child was born they snatched him from Jiangyuan's arms and threw him in a narrow lane where cattle and sheep were driven regularly expecting that in no time he would be trampled to death. Instead the cattle and sheep not only walked carefully round him, they also suckled him with their milk so that he thrived. When the family saw this they took him back again and abandoned him in a deep forest. Again they were unsuccessful. Woodmen coming to cut wood found the child and brought him back, thinking he had been lost accidentally. Finally, in desperation, they exposed him on the frozen river, but the birds flew down and covered him with their wings to keep him warm.
Certain now that this was no ordinary child, the family rescued him and restored him to his mother.
Houji was an extraordinary child. While he was still very young he learned to pick and sort wild grain and edible beans of every variety. He plucked them from the wilderness and cultivated them near his home so that they grew large and succulent and fed the people well. He also began to make simple agricultural implements such as hoes. Eventually the emperor himself heard of Houj's work and invited him to become a minister of the state so that he could spread his knowledge of grains and agriculture to all the people of China. Even after Houji 's death he continued to improve the crops. The land where he was buried became exceptionally fertile and yielded the grains he had domesticated in greater quantities than anywhere else in China.