Early-Grain Character

The clearest classical sense is wheat chosen because it ripens early. 穱 appears in 《楚辞·招魂》, a poem in Chu Ci, an ancient Chinese poetry collection. Its commentator Wang Yi explains the phrase as early-ripening wheat; the poem places the word in a lavish food list.

The poem's tradition is associated with the Warring States period. That context shows the word in a grain list, but not when this exact written form first appeared. The list includes 稻粢穱麥; another old phrase, 冬稌夏穱, contrasts winter rice with summer early wheat.

Later dictionaries also record wheat grown in a rice field, plus senses such as “small” and “choose”; a separate Mandarin reading refers to non-glutinous millet. The Taiwan Ministry of Education's variant dictionary says the early character dictionary 《说文》 does not contain 穱 and links this form with 穛 and 𥼚.