MUZIChinese Matrix
Millets and Other Grains · FFET10400
Xiaomi is husked foxtail millet, cooked as porridge or rice and also eaten toasted.
Millets, sorghum, barley, oats, buckwheat and the other grains eaten as staples.
Xiaomi is the husked grain of foxtail millet, one of the traditional five grains, cooked as porridge or rice. Hebei, Shanxi, and Inner Mongolia are major growing areas. Qinzhouhuang millet from Shanxi is a regional product for which enterprises have received permission to use the geographical indication special mark.
Xiaomi is the husked grain of foxtail millet, Setaria italica, also called guzi or su in Chinese. It is one of the traditional five grains.1,5
An ancient agricultural text devotes a chapter to growing millet and records names and varieties of su. This documents its place in agricultural life, but does not establish when foxtail millet originated.5
Major growing areas include Hebei, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia. Qinzhouhuang millet is a regional product from Shanxi, grown in Qin, Wuxiang, Xiangyuan and Tunliu counties.1,2
The grain can be cooked as porridge or rice. Historical accounts also describe pounding it until white. Toasted millet is eaten in Mongol and Manchu food traditions.1,6
Foxtail millet tolerates drought and has long been a food crop in northern China, with a place in the diet of the Yellow River plains.1
Enterprises received permission to use the geographical indication special mark for Qinzhouhuang millet in 2021 and 2024. These approvals concern a particular regional product and specific enterprises; they do not give all foxtail millet the same geographical indication.3,4
A folk tale from Qin County, Shanxi, says that after a drought, phoenixes brought a divine seed that grew into Qinzhouhuang millet. This is a local tale, not a historical account of millet's origin.
Told in: Qin County, Shanxi.
