![Shennong2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Shennong2.jpg)
Shennong (), variously translated as "Divine Farmer" or "Divine Husbandman", born Jiang Shinian (), was a mythological
Chinese ruler known as the first
Yan Emperor
The Yan Emperor () or the Flame Emperor was a legendary ancient Chinese ruler in pre-dynastic times. Modern scholarship has identified the Sheep's Head Mountains (''Yángtóu Shān'') just north of Baoji in Shaanxi Province as his homeland and ...
who has become a deity in
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
and
Vietnamese folk religion
Vietnamese folk religion ( vi, tín ngưỡng dân gian Việt Nam, sometimes just called , Chữ Hán: ) is the ethnic religion of the Vietnamese people. About 86% of the population in Vietnam are associated with this religion.
Vietnamese f ...
. He is venerated as a
culture hero
A culture hero is a mythological hero specific to some group ( cultural, ethnic, religious, etc.) who changes the world through invention or discovery. Although many culture heroes help with the creation of the world, most culture heroes are imp ...
in China and Vietnam. In Vietnamese he is referred to as
Thần Nông.
Shennong has at times been counted amongst the
Three Sovereigns
The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors were two groups of mythological rulers in ancient north China. The Three Sovereigns supposedly lived long before The Five Emperors, who have been assigned dates in a period from 3162 BC to 2070 BC. Today ...
(also known as "Three Kings" or "Three Patrons"), a group of ancient deities or deified kings of prehistoric China. Shennong has been thought to have taught the ancient Chinese not only their practices of
agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...
, but also the use of herbal drugs. Shennong was credited with various inventions: these include the
hoe,
plow
A plough or plow ( US; both ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses, but in modern farms are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden, iron or ...
(both ''leisi'' () style and the
plowshare
In agriculture, a plowshare ( US) or ploughshare ( UK; ) is a component of a plow (or plough). It is the cutting or leading edge of a moldboard which closely follows the coulter (one or more ground-breaking spikes) when plowing.
The plowshar ...
),
axe
An axe ( sometimes ax in American English; see spelling differences) is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood, to harvest timber, as a weapon, and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol. The axe has ma ...
, digging
wells
Wells most commonly refers to:
* Wells, Somerset, a cathedral city in Somerset, England
* Well, an excavation or structure created in the ground
* Wells (name)
Wells may also refer to:
Places Canada
*Wells, British Columbia
England
* Wells ...
, agricultural irrigation, preserving stored seeds by using boiled horse urine, the weekly
farmers market
A farmers' market (or farmers market according to the AP stylebook, also farmer's market in the Cambridge Dictionary) is a physical retail marketplace intended to sell foods directly by farmers to consumers. Farmers' markets may be indoors or ...
, the
Chinese calendar
The traditional Chinese calendar (also known as the Agricultural Calendar 曆; 农历; ''Nónglì''; 'farming calendar' Former Calendar 曆; 旧历; ''Jiùlì'' Traditional Calendar 曆; 老历; ''Lǎolì'', is a lunisolar calendar ...
(especially the division into the 24 ''
jieqi
A solar term is any of twenty-four periods in traditional Chinese calendar, Chinese lunisolar calendars that matches a particular astronomical event or signifies some natural phenomenon. The points are spaced 15° apart along the ecliptic and are ...
'' or solar terms), and to have refined the therapeutic understanding of taking pulse measurements,
acupuncture
Acupuncture is a form of alternative medicine and a component of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in which thin needles are inserted into the body. Acupuncture is a pseudoscience; the theories and practices of TCM are not based on scientifi ...
, and
moxibustion
Moxibustion () is a traditional Chinese medicine therapy which consists of burning dried mugwort ('' wikt:moxa'') on particular points on the body. It plays an important role in the traditional medical systems of China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, ...
, and to have instituted the
harvest thanksgiving ceremony (''zhaji'' sacrificial rite, later known as the ''laji'' rite).
"Shennong" can also be taken to refer to his people, the ''Shennong-shi'' ().
Mythology
In
Chinese mythology
Chinese mythology () is mythology that has been passed down in oral form or recorded in literature in the geographic area now known as Greater China. Chinese mythology includes many varied myths from regional and cultural traditions.
Much of t ...
, Shennong taught humans the use of the plow, aspects of basic agriculture, and the use of medicinal plants. Possibly influenced by the
Yan Emperor
The Yan Emperor () or the Flame Emperor was a legendary ancient Chinese ruler in pre-dynastic times. Modern scholarship has identified the Sheep's Head Mountains (''Yángtóu Shān'') just north of Baoji in Shaanxi Province as his homeland and ...
mythos or the use of
slash-and-burn
Slash-and-burn agriculture is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The downed vegeta ...
agriculture, Shennong was a god of burning wind. He was also sometimes said to be a progenitor to, or to have had as one of his ministers,
Chiyou
Chiyou (蚩尤, ) is a mythological being that appears in East Asian mythology.
Individual
According to the Song dynasty history book ''Lushi (book), Lushi'', Chiyou's surname was Jiang (surname 姜), Jiang (), and he was a descendant of Flame E ...
(and like him, was
ox-headed, sharp-horned, bronze-foreheaded, and iron-skulled).
Shennong is also thought to be the father of the
Huang Emperor () who carried on the secrets of medicine, immortality, and making gold. According to the eighth century AD historian
Sima Zhen
Sima Zhen (; 679–732), courtesy name Zizheng (Tzu-cheng; 子正), was a Tang dynasty Chinese historian born in what is now Jiaozuo, Henan.
Sima Zhen was one of the most important commentators on the ''Shiji
''Records of the Grand Histo ...
's commentary to the second century BC
Shiji
''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese hist ...
(or, ''Records of the Grand Historian''), Shennong is a kinsman of the
Yellow Emperor
The Yellow Emperor, also known as the Yellow Thearch or by his Chinese name Huangdi (), is a deity ('' shen'') in Chinese religion, one of the legendary Chinese sovereigns and culture heroes included among the mytho-historical Three Soverei ...
and is said to be an
ancestor
An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder or a forebear, is a parent or (recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from whom ...
, or a
patriarch
The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and in certai ...
, of the ancient forebears of the Chinese.
In literature
Sima Qian
Sima Qian (; ; ) was a Chinese historian of the early Han dynasty (206AD220). He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his ''Records of the Grand Historian'', a general history of China covering more than two thousand years b ...
() mentioned that the rulers directly preceding the
Yellow Emperor
The Yellow Emperor, also known as the Yellow Thearch or by his Chinese name Huangdi (), is a deity ('' shen'') in Chinese religion, one of the legendary Chinese sovereigns and culture heroes included among the mytho-historical Three Soverei ...
were of the house (or societal group) of Shennong.
Sima Zhen
Sima Zhen (; 679–732), courtesy name Zizheng (Tzu-cheng; 子正), was a Tang dynasty Chinese historian born in what is now Jiaozuo, Henan.
Sima Zhen was one of the most important commentators on the ''Shiji
''Records of the Grand Histo ...
, who added a prologue for the ''
Records of the Grand Historian
''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese hist ...
'' (), said his surname was
Jiang (), and proceeded to list his successors. An older and more famous reference is in the ''
Huainanzi
The ''Huainanzi'' is an ancient Chinese text that consists of a collection of essays that resulted from a series of scholarly debates held at the court of Liu An, Prince of Huainan, sometime before 139. The ''Huainanzi'' blends Daoist, Confuci ...
''; it tells how, prior to Shennong, people were sickly, wanting, starved and diseased; but he then taught them agriculture, which he himself had researched, eating hundreds of plants — and even consuming seventy poisons in one day. Shennong also features in the book popularly known in English as ''
I Ching
The ''I Ching'' or ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zho ...
''. Here, he is referenced as coming to power after the end of the house (or reign) of
Paoxi
Fuxi or Fu Hsi (伏羲 ~ 伏犧 ~ 伏戲) is a culture hero in Chinese legend and Chinese mythology, mythology, credited along with his sister and wife Nüwa with List of protoplasts, creating humanity and the invention of music, hunting, fishin ...
(
Fu Xi
Fuxi or Fu Hsi (伏羲 ~ 伏犧 ~ 伏戲) is a culture hero in Chinese legend and mythology, credited along with his sister and wife Nüwa with creating humanity and the invention of music, hunting, fishing, domestication, and cooking as well ...
), also inventing a bent-wood plow, a cut-wood rake, teaching these skills to others, and establishing a noonday market. Another reference is in the ''
Lüshi Chunqiu
The ''Lüshi Chunqiu'', also known in English as ''Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals'', is an encyclopedic Chinese classic text compiled around 239 BC under the patronage of the Qin Dynasty Chancellor Lü Buwei. In the evaluation of Michae ...
'', mentioning some violence with regard to the rise of the Shennong house, and that their power lasted seventeen generations.
The ''
Shénnóng Běn Cǎo Jīng'' is a book on agriculture and medicinal plants, attributed to Shennong. Research suggests that it is a compilation of oral traditions, written between about 200 and 250 AD.
Historicity
![Huang Di](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Huang_Di.png)
Reliable information on the history of China before the 13th century BC can come only from archaeological evidence because China's first established written system on a durable medium, the
oracle bone script
Oracle bone script () is an ancient form of Chinese characters that were engraved on oracle bonesanimal bones or Turtle shell#Plastron, turtle plastrons used in pyromancy, pyromantic divination. Oracle bone script was used in the late 2nd millen ...
, did not exist until then. Thus, the concrete existence of even the
Xia dynasty
The Xia dynasty () is the first dynasty in traditional Chinese historiography. According to tradition, the Xia dynasty was established by the legendary Yu the Great, after Shun, the last of the Five Emperors, gave the throne to him. In tradi ...
, said to be the successor to Shennong, is yet to be proven, despite efforts by Chinese archaeologists to link that dynasty with Bronze Age
Erlitou
The Erlitou culture was an early Bronze Age urban society and archaeological culture that existed in the Yellow River valley from approximately 1900 to 1500 BC. A 2007 study of radiocarbon dating proposed a narrower date range of 1750 to 1530 B ...
archaeological sites.
However, Shennong, both the individual and the clan, are very important in Chinese
cultural history
Cultural history combines the approaches of anthropology and history to examine popular cultural traditions and cultural interpretations of historical experience. It examines the records and narrative descriptions of past matter, encompassing the ...
, especially in regards to
mythology
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...
and
popular culture
Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...
. Indeed, Shennong figures extensively in
historical literature.
Popular religion
According to some versions of the myths about Shennong, he eventually died as a result of his researches into the properties of plants by experimenting upon his own body, after, in one of his tests, he ate the yellow flower of a weed that caused his intestines to rupture before he had time to swallow his antidotal tea: having thus given his life for humanity, he has since received special honor through his worship as the Medicine King ( ''Yàowáng''). The sacrifice of cows or oxen to Shennong in his various manifestations is never at all appropriate; instead pigs and sheep are acceptable. Fireworks and incense may also be used, especially at the appearance of his statue on his birthday, lunar April 26, according to popular tradition. Under his various names, Shennong is the patron deity of farmers, rice traders, and practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine. Many temples and other places dedicated to his commemoration exist.
Popular culture
![Worship at the Great Temple of Shennong-Yandi in Suizhou, Hubei](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Worship_at_the_Great_Temple_of_Shennong-Yandi_in_Suizhou%2C_Hubei.jpg)
As noted above, Shennong is said in the ''Huainanzi'' to have tasted hundreds of
herb
In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...
s to test their medical value. The most well-known work attributed to Shennong is ''
The Divine Farmer's Herb-Root Classic'' (), first compiled some time during the end of the
Western Han Dynasty
The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by th ...
— several thousand years after Shennong might have existed. This work lists the various medicinal herbs, such as ''
lingzhi'', that were discovered by Shennong and given grade and rarity ratings. It is considered to be the earliest Chinese
pharmacopoeia
A pharmacopoeia, pharmacopeia, or pharmacopoea (from the obsolete typography ''pharmacopœia'', meaning "drug-making"), in its modern technical sense, is a book containing directions for the identification of compound medicines, and published by ...
, and includes 365 medicines derived from minerals, plants, and animals. Shennong is credited with identifying hundreds of medical (and poisonous)
herb
In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...
s by personally testing their properties, which was crucial to the development of
traditional Chinese medicine
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logical mechanism of action ...
. Legend holds that Shennong had a transparent body, and thus could see the effects of different plants and herbs on himself. He is also said to have discovered
tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and northe ...
, which he found it to be acting as an antidote against the poisonous effects of some seventy herbs he tested on his body. Shennong first tasted it, traditionally in ca. 2437 BC, from tea leaves on burning tea twigs, after they were carried up from the fire by the hot air, landing in his cauldron of boiling water. Shennong is venerated as the Father of Chinese medicine. He is also believed to have introduced the technique of
acupuncture
Acupuncture is a form of alternative medicine and a component of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in which thin needles are inserted into the body. Acupuncture is a pseudoscience; the theories and practices of TCM are not based on scientifi ...
.
Shennong is said to have played a part in the creation of the
guqin
The ''guqin'' (; ) is a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument. It has been played since ancient times, and has traditionally been favoured by scholars and literati as an instrument of great subtlety and refinement, as highlighted b ...
, together with
Fuxi
Fuxi or Fu Hsi (伏羲 ~ 伏犧 ~ 伏戲) is a culture hero in Chinese legend and mythology, credited along with his sister and wife Nüwa with creating humanity and the invention of music, hunting, fishing, domestication, and cooking as well ...
and the
Yellow Emperor
The Yellow Emperor, also known as the Yellow Thearch or by his Chinese name Huangdi (), is a deity ('' shen'') in Chinese religion, one of the legendary Chinese sovereigns and culture heroes included among the mytho-historical Three Soverei ...
. Scholarly works mention that the
paternal
A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fathe ...
family of famous
Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
General
Yue Fei
Yue Fei ( zh, t=岳飛; March 24, 1103 – January 28, 1142), courtesy name Pengju (), was a Chinese military general who lived during the Song dynasty, Southern Song dynasty and a national hero of China, known for leading Southern Song force ...
traced their origins back to Shennong.
Places
Shennong is associated with certain geographic localities including
Shennongjia
Shennongjia Forestry District () is a county-level administrative unit (a "forestry district") in northwestern Hubei province, People's Republic of China, directly subordinated to the provincial government. It occupies in western Hubei, and, as of ...
, in Hubei, where the rattan ladder which he used to climb the local mountain range is supposed to have transformed into a vast forest. The
Shennong Stream flows from here into the
Yangtze River
The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest list of rivers of Asia, river in Asia, the list of rivers by length, third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in th ...
.
Gallery
File:Chinese god Shen Nun, Painting by Nobukata.jpg, ''Shennong'' holding tea leaves, by Hasegawa Nobukata, early 17th century, Japan.
File:Shennongding.jpg, Shennongding: "Shennong's peak", associated with the story that Shennong had a ladder which he used to climb up and down the mountain, and which later turned into the local forest.
File:Shennong3.jpg, Shennong tasting plants to test their qualities on himself.
File:20100316-18 Yangtze River Cruise-Shennongxi Bridge.JPG, The Shennongxi Bridge near its confluence with the Yangtze River.
File:臺南藥王廟正面.JPG, Shennong Temple in Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
— where he is worshiped under the names King Yan, God of Five Grains
The Five Grains or Cereals () are a grouping (or set of groupings) of five farmed crops that were all important in ancient China. Sometimes the crops themselves were regarded as sacred; other times, their cultivation was regarded as a sacred boo ...
, Shennong the Great Emperor, the Ancestor of Farming, Great Emperor of Medicine, God of Earth, and God of Fields.
File:Shinno (Shennong) derivative.jpg, Shennong (''Shinnō'' in Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
) tasting herbs to discover their qualities; a distinctive, iconic pose often used in depictions of Shennong; in this case from a 19th-century Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
ese painting.
File:Chinese woodcut, Famous medical figures; Shen Nong Wellcome L0039313.jpg, Shennong as depicted by Gan Bozong, woodcut print, Tang dynasty (618-907)
See also
*
Yan Huang Zisun
Yan Huang Zisun () is a term that represents the Chinese people and refers to an ethnocultural identity based on a common ancestry associated with a mythological origin.
This term is connected to Yan Emperor, Yandi (炎帝) and Yellow Emperor, ...
*
Phou Ningthou
Phou Ningthou is a deity in Meitei mythology and religion (Sanamahism) of Ancient Kangleipak (Antique Manipur). He is the God and the divine male personification of the agriculture, crops, fertility, grains, harvesting, paddy, rice and wealt ...
*
Shennong Stream
*
Shilin Shennong Temple
The Shilin Shennong Temple () is a Chinese temple dedicated to Shennong Dadi and it is located in Shilin District, Taipei, Taiwan.
History
The temple was originally constructed as Fude Shrine for Tudigong in 1709 in Shulin Village. In 1741, th ...
, Taiwan
*
Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors
The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors were two groups of mythological rulers in ancient north China. The Three Sovereigns supposedly lived long before The Five Emperors, who have been assigned dates in a period from 3162 BC to 2070 BC. Today ...
*
Yan Emperor
The Yan Emperor () or the Flame Emperor was a legendary ancient Chinese ruler in pre-dynastic times. Modern scholarship has identified the Sheep's Head Mountains (''Yángtóu Shān'') just north of Baoji in Shaanxi Province as his homeland and ...
*
Yellow Emperor
The Yellow Emperor, also known as the Yellow Thearch or by his Chinese name Huangdi (), is a deity ('' shen'') in Chinese religion, one of the legendary Chinese sovereigns and culture heroes included among the mytho-historical Three Soverei ...
References
Citations
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Statue of Shennong in ZhuZhou"Shen Nong and Tea" article from The Tea Site.
{{Authority control
Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors
Agriculturalism
Chinese gods
Guqin players
History of ancient China
Health gods
Fire gods
Deities in Chinese folk religion
Vietnamese folk religion
Deified Chinese people