Is “Conception by footprint and teaching agriculture” true?
According to the "Records of the Grand Historian, Annals of Zhou, Part One": "姜原出野,见巨人迹,心忻然说,欲践之,践之而身动如孕者。居期而生子,以为不祥,弃之隘巷……初欲弃之,因名曰弃。" Both the "Records of the Grand Historian" and the "Book of Songs, Major Court Hymns, Birth of the People" record that Jiang Yuan stepped on a giant's footprint and gave birth to Qi, who later became an official in charge of agriculture, teaching the people to farm, and was revered as Houji. The novel follows this mythological account of the ancestor's official history.
The ancestors of the Zhou people, as recorded in both official history and folk legends, include the story of conception by stepping on a giant's footprint and teaching agriculture.
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