[[Houji|Hou Ji]]'s original name was [[Houji|Qi]] ([[Houji|棄]]), meaning "abandoned". Two separate versions of his origin were common. In one version of Chinese mythology, he was said to have been supernaturally conceived when his mother [[Jiang, Yuan|Jiang Yuan]], a previously barren wife of the [[Ku|Emperor Ku]], stepped into a footprint left by [[Shangdi]], the supreme sky god of the early Chinese pantheon. Another account simply make him one of [[Ku]]'s four sons, each prophesied to father a family of emperors over [[China]]. This origin allowed his descendants to claim a lineage from the [[Yellow Emperor]] as well.