Shennong is a mythical Chinese deity or sage ruler who taught ancient Chinese agriculture, herbal medicine, and other practices. He is credited with identifying hundreds of medicinal and poisonous herbs by personally testing their effects on himself. Shennong is considered an important figure in Chinese mythology, religion, and culture.
Shennong is a mythical Chinese deity or sage ruler who taught ancient Chinese agriculture, herbal medicine, and other practices. He is credited with identifying hundreds of medicinal and poisonous herbs by personally testing their effects on himself. Shennong is considered an important figure in Chinese mythology, religion, and culture.
Shennong is a mythical Chinese deity or sage ruler who taught ancient Chinese agriculture, herbal medicine, and other practices. He is credited with identifying hundreds of medicinal and poisonous herbs by personally testing their effects on himself. Shennong is considered an important figure in Chinese mythology, religion, and culture.
Shennong is a mythical Chinese deity or sage ruler who taught ancient Chinese agriculture, herbal medicine, and other practices. He is credited with identifying hundreds of medicinal and poisonous herbs by personally testing their effects on himself. Shennong is considered an important figure in Chinese mythology, religion, and culture.
as "God Farmer" or "God Peasant", Shennong "Agriculture God"), also known as the Wugushen ( "Five Grains' [or Five Cereals'] God") or also Wuguxiandi ( "First Deity of the Five Grains"), is a deity in Chinese religion, a mythical sage ruler of prehistoric China. Shennong has at times been counted amongst the Three Sovereigns (also known as "Three Kings" or "Three Patrons"), a group of deities or deified kings said to have lived some 4,500 years ago. Shennong has been thought to have taught the ancient Chinese not only their practices of Shennong as depicted in a 1503 painting by Guo Xu agriculture, but also the use of herbal drugs.[1] Chinese name Shennong was credited with various inventions: these include the hoe, plow (both TraditionalChinese leisi style and the plowshare), axe, digging Simplified Chinese wells, agricultural irrigation, preserving stored seeds by using boiled horse urine, the weekly Literal meaning God Farmer, God Peasant farmers market, the Chinese calendar Transcriptions (especially the division into the 24 jieqi or Standard Mandarin solar terms), and to have refined the therapeutic understanding of taking pulse Hanyu Pinyin Shnnng measurements, acupuncture, and moxibustion, WadeGiles Shen2-nung2 and to have instituted the harvest Five Cereals' God, Five Grains' First Deity thanksgiving ceremony (Zhaji Sacrificial Rite, later known as the Laji Rite).[2] Chinese / Transcriptions "Shennong" can also be taken to refer to his people, the Shennong-shi (Chinese: ; Standard Mandarin pinyin: Shnnngsh; literally: "Shennong Hanyu Pinyin Wgshn / Wgxind Clan"). Vietnamese name Vietnamese Thn Nng
Contents Korean name
Hangul 1 Mythology Transcriptions 2 Popular religion Revised Romanization Sinnong 3 Historicity Japanese name 4 Shennong in literature 5 Popular culture Kanji 6 Places Transcriptions 7 Gallery Romanization Shin'n 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 11 External links Mythology In Chinese mythology Shennong, besides having taught humans the use of the plow together with other aspects of basic agriculture, the use of medicinal plants, and having been a god of the burning wind (perhaps in some relationship to the Yan Emperor mythos and/or slash-and-burn agriculture,[3] in which the ash produced by fire fertilizes the fields), was sometimes said to be a progenitor to, or to have had appointed as one of his ministers, Chi You; and like him, they were both ox-headed, sharp-horned, bronze-foreheaded, and iron-skulled.[4] One difference between mythology and science is exemplified in Chinese mythology. Shennong is also thought to be the father of Huang Emperor who did carry on the secrets of medicine,immortality, and making gold.[5]. According to the eighth century AD historian Sima Zhen's commentary to the second century BC Shiji (or, Records of the Grand Historian), Shennong is a kinsman of the Yellow Emperor and is said to be an ancestor, or a patriarch, of the ancient Shennong Yan Emperor is forebears of the Chinese. well known as the first Emperor of Ancient China, who did not only invented the farming tools for his Popular religion people,and but also herbs for treated his people's illness. According to some versions of the myths about Shennong, he depicted in a mural painting from eventually died as a result of his researches into the properties the Han dynasty 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 though his worship as the Medicine King ( Yowng).[6] 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 Map of tribes and tribal unions in deity especially of farmers, rice traders, and practitioners of Ancient China. The tribe of traditional Chinese medicine. Many temples and other places Shennong is in the west. dedicated to his commemoration exist.[7]
Historicity Reliable information on the history of China before the 13th century BC can only come from archaeological evidence, because China's first established written system on a durable medium, the oracle bone script, did not exist until then.[8] Thus the concrete existence of even the Xia dynasty - 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 archaeological sites.[9]
However, Shennong, both the individual and the clan, are very important, in the history of culture especially in regards to mythology and popular culture. Indeed, Shennong figures extensively in historical literature. Shennong in literature Sima Qian mentions that the rulers directly preceding the Yellow Emperor were of the house (or societal group) of Shennong.[10] Sima Zhen, who added a prologue for the Shiji, said his surname was Jiang (), and proceeded to list his successors. An older and more famous reference is in the Huainanzi; it tells how, prior to Shennong, people were sickly, wanting, starved and diseased; but he then taught them agriculture, which he himself had researched, Communal worship of Shennong at the eating hundreds of plants and even consuming seventy Great Temple of Yandi Shennong ( poisons in one day. [11] Shennong also features in the book ) in Suizhou, Hubei. popularly known in English as I Ching. Here, he is referenced as coming to power after the end of the house (or reign) of Paoxi (Fu Xi), also inventing a bent-wood plow, a cut-wood rake, teaching these skills to others, and establishing a noonday market.[12] Another reference is in the Lshi Chunqiu, mentioning some violence with regard to the rise of the Shennong house, and that their power lasted seventeen generations.[13][14]
The Shnnng Bn Co Jng 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.[15]
Popular culture As noted above, Shennong is said in the Huainanzi to have tasted hundreds of herbs to test their medical value. The most well-known work attributed to Shennong is The Divine Farmer's Herb- Root Classic (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Shnnng Bnco Jng; WadeGiles: Shen2-nung2 Pen3-ts'ao3 Ching1), first compiled some time during the end of the Western Han Dynasty 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, and includes 365 medicines derived from minerals, plants, and animals. Shennong is credited with identifying hundreds of medical (and poisonous) herbs by personally testing their properties, which was crucial to the development of traditional Chinese medicine. Legend holds that Shennong had a transparent body, and thus could see the effects of different plants and herbs on himself. Tea, which acts as an antidote against the poisonous effects of some seventy herbs, is also said to have been his discovery. 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.[16] Shennong is venerated as the Father of Chinese medicine. He is also believed to have introduced the technique of acupuncture.
Shennong is said to have played a part in the creation of the guqin, together with Fuxi and the Yellow Emperor. Scholarly works mention that the paternal family of famous Song Dynasty General Yue Fei traced their origins back to Shennong.[17]
Places Shennong is associated with certain geographic localities including Shennongjia, 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. Gallery
Shennongding: A picture of Shennong tasting The Shennongxi
"Shennong's peak", Shennong bencao plants to test their Bridge near its associated with the jing (Shennong's qualities on himself. confluence with the story that Shennong Root and Herbal Yangtze River. had a ladder which Classic): a classic he used to climb up work on plants and and down the their uses, named in mountain, and which attribution to later turned into the Shennong. local forest.
Shennong Temple in Shennong (Shinn in
Taiwan where he Japanese) tasting is worshiped under herbs to discover the names King Yan, their qualities; a God of Five Grains, distinctive, iconic Shennong the Great pose often used in Emperor, the depictions of Ancestor of Farming, Shennong; in this Great Emperor of case from a 19th- Medicine, God of century Japanese Earth, and God of painting. Fields.[18]
See also Yan Huang Zisun Shennong Stream Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors Yan Emperor Yellow Emperor Notes 1. Christie, 87 2. Yang, 190-199 3. Christie, 90 4. Christie, 90 5. Christie, text caption 116 and picture of ivory statue 117 6. Yang, 195 7. Yang, 198-199 8. Bagley, Robert. "Shang Archaeology." in The Cambridge History of Ancient China. Michael Loewe and Edward Shaughnessy, ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. 9. Liu, L. & Xiu, H., "Rethinking Erlitou: legend, history and Chinese archaeology", Antiquity, 81:314 (2007) pp. 886901. 10. Wu, 53, referring to Shiji, Chapter One. 11. Wu, 45, referencing Huainanzi, xiuwu xun 12. Wu, 54, referencing I Ching, xici, II, chapter 2 13. Wu, 54, lisulan, 4, yongmin. 14. Christie, 141 15. Unschuld, 17. 16. Jane Reynolds; Phil Gates; Gaden Robinson (1994). 365 Days of Nature and Discovery. New York: Harry N. Adams. p.44. ISBN0-8109-3876-6. 17. Kaplan, Edward Harold (1970). Yueh Fei and the founding of the Southern Sung (PhD Thesis). University of Iowa. OCLC63868015 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/63868015). 18. Yang, 199
References Christie, Anthony (1975). Chinese Mythology. London: Hamlyn. ISBN0600006379. Forbes, Andrew; Henley, David (2011). China's Ancient Tea Horse Road. Congoscenti. Wu, K. C. (1981). The Chinese Heritage. New York: Crown. ISBN051754475X. Unschuld, Paul U. (1986). Medicine in China: A history of Pharmaceutics. Berkeley: Univ. of California Pr. ISBN9780520050259. Yang, Lihui; An, Deming; Turner, Jessica Anderson (2005). Handbook of Chinese mythology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN9780195332636.
External links Statue of Shennong in ZhuZhou (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glSlm80ZYxo) Variants on the nng character. (https://web.archive.org/web/20081219144345/http://140.11 1.1.40:80/yitia/fra/fra04111.htm) "Shen Nong and Tea" article from The Tea Site. (https://web.archive.org/web/201107162156 55/http://the-tea-site.com/shen-nong.php)
Shennong Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors
Regnal titles
Precededby Emperor of China Succeededby
Fuxi c. 2737 BC c. 2698 BC Yellow Emperor
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