Shennong ( 神農 ), variously translated as "Divine Farmer" or "Divine Husbandman", born Jiang Shinian ( 姜石年 ), was a mythological Chinese ruler known as the first Yan Emperor who has become a deity in Chinese and Vietnamese folk religion . He is venerated as a culture hero in China and Vietnam. In Vietnamese, he is referred to as Thần Nông .
41-499: Shennong has at times been counted amongst the Three Sovereigns (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 , but also the use of herbal medicine. Shennong was credited with various inventions: these include the hoe , plow (both leisi ( 耒耜 ) style and
82-456: A Taoist deity, and/or a member of the Three Sovereigns at the beginning of the Chinese dynastic period . Some representations show him as a human with snake-like characteristics, "a leaf-wreathed head growing out of a mountain", "or as a man clothed with animal skins." He is also known as Bao Xi (包牺) and Mi Xi (宓羲). Pangu was said to be the creation god in Chinese mythology . He was
123-647: A tortoise ) that emerged from the Luo River . This arrangement precedes the compilation of the I Ching during the Zhou dynasty . This discovery is said to have been the origin of calligraphy. Fuxi is also credited with the invention of the Guqin musical instrument, though credit for this is also given to Shennong and Yellow Emperor . The Figurists viewed Fuxi as Enoch , the Biblical patriarch. Alexander Catcott ,
164-467: A giant sleeping within an egg of chaos . As he awoke, he stood up and divided the sky and the earth. Pangu then died after standing up, and his body turned into rivers, mountains, plants, animals, and everything else in the world, among which is a powerful being known as Huaxu (華胥). Huaxu gave birth to a twin brother and sister, Fuxi and Nüwa. Fuxi and Nüwa are said to be creatures that have faces of human and bodies of snakes. However, in some myths, Fuxi
205-430: A golden age when "communications between the human order and the divine were central to all life" and where the sages embodied the divine, or aided humans in communicating divine forces. In this period the abdication system was used before Qi of Xia violently seized power and established a hereditary monarchy. Taoist beliefs consisted of parables involving shamanistic themes, as were most ancient stories about
246-632: A prologue for the Records of the Grand Historian ( 史記 ), said his surname was Jiang ( 姜 ), 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, eating hundreds of plants — and even consuming seventy poisons in one day. Shennong also features in
287-469: Is a culture hero in Chinese mythology , credited along with his sister and wife Nüwa with creating humanity and the invention of music, hunting, fishing, domestication, and cooking, as well as the Cangjie system of writing Chinese characters around 2900 BC or 2000 BC. Fuxi was counted as the first mythical emperor of China, "a divine being with a serpent's body" who was miraculously born,
328-416: 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. 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 , did not exist until then. Thus,
369-929: Is associated with certain geographic localities including Shennongjia , in Hubei, where the Calamoideae 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 . Three Exalted Ones: Suiren · Fuxi · Taihao · Nüwa · Zhurong · Shennong · Yandi · Gonggong · Yellow Emperor (Huangdi) Four Perils: Gonggong · Huandou · Gun · Sanmiao · Hundun · Qiongqi · Taowu · Taotie Five Primal Emperors: Yellow Emperor (Huangdi) · Shaohao · Zhuanxu · Ku · Zhi · Yao · Shun Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors According to Chinese mythology and traditional Chinese historiography ,
410-441: 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. As noted above, Shennong
451-622: 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 : 神农本草经 ; traditional Chinese : 神農本草經 ; pinyin : Shénnóng Běncǎo Jīng ; Wade–Giles : Shen-nung Pen-ts'ao Ching ), first compiled some time during the end of the Western Han Dynasty — several thousand years after Shennong might have existed. This work lists
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#1732772860774492-715: Is supposedly the ancestor of the Huaxia people. The Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor was established in Shaanxi to commemorate the ancestry legend. The Three Sovereigns are ascribed various identities in different historical texts, as shown in the table below: The Five Emperors were traditionally thought to have invented "fire, writing and irrigation". Like the Three Sovereigns, they are ascribed different identities depending on historical source, as shown in
533-855: The Earthly Sovereign , the Human Sovereign (in two varieties), and the Yellow Emperor . Groupings of the Five Emperors consist of some combination of the following: the Yellow Emperor, Zhuanxu , Emperor Ku , Emperor Yao , Emperor Shun , Shaohao , Taihao , and the Yan Emperor . The Three Sovereigns, sometimes known as the Three August Ones, were said to be god-kings or demigods who used their magical powers, divine powers, or being in harmony with
574-500: The Tao to improve the lives of their people. Because of their lofty virtue, they lived to a great age and ruled over a period of great peace. The Sovereigns have elements in common with xian from the Taoist pantheon, such as the Human Sovereign 's cloud-chariot and their supernatural abilities. Upon his death, the Yellow Emperor was "said to have become" a xian . The Yellow Emperor
615-535: The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors ( Chinese : 三皇五帝 ; pinyin : Sān huáng wǔ dì ) were a series of sage Chinese emperors, and the first Emperors of China . Today, they are considered culture heroes , but they were widely worshipped as divine "ancestral spirits" in ancient times. According to received history, the period they existed in preceded the Xia dynasty , although they were thought to exist in later periods to an extent in incorporeal forms that aided
656-508: The Yan Emperor mythos or the use of slash-and-burn 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 (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 ( 黃帝 ) who carried on the secrets of medicine, immortality, and making gold. According to
697-828: The calendar and Chinese script are also credited to the kings. After their era, Yu the Great founded the Xia dynasty , traditionally considered the first dynasty in Chinese historiography . Three Exalted Ones: Suiren · Fuxi · Taihao · Nüwa · Zhurong · Shennong · Yandi · Gonggong · Yellow Emperor (Huangdi) Four Perils: Gonggong · Huandou · Gun · Sanmiao · Hundun · Qiongqi · Taowu · Taotie Five Primal Emperors: Yellow Emperor (Huangdi) · Shaohao · Zhuanxu · Ku · Zhi · Yao · Shun Paoxi Model humanity: Main philosophical traditions: Ritual traditions: Devotional traditions: Salvation churches and sects : Confucian churches and sects: Fuxi or Fu Hsi (伏羲)
738-485: The harvest thanksgiving ceremony ( zhaji (蜡祭) sacrificial rite, later known as the laji (腊祭) rite). "Shennong" can also be taken to refer to his people, the Shennong-shi ( Chinese : 神農 氏 ; pinyin : Shénnóngshì ; lit. 'Shennong Clan'). In Chinese mythology , Shennong taught humans the use of the plow, aspects of basic agriculture, and the use of cannabis . Possibly influenced by
779-425: The plowshare ), axe , digging wells , agricultural irrigation, preserving stored seeds by using boiled horse urine (to ward off the borers), trade , commerce, money , the weekly farmers market , the Chinese calendar (especially the division into the 24 jieqi or solar terms), and to have refined the therapeutic understanding of taking pulse measurements, acupuncture , and moxibustion , and to have instituted
820-579: The "deified" form of "mythical wise king" Hou Ji who founded the Zhou. As an alternative to this view, Shennong was also thought of in the era of the Hundred Schools of Thought as a culture hero rather than a god, but one with a supernatural digestive system who ate a specimen of every single plant that existed in the time of the Hundred Schools to find which ones were edible by humans. In
861-543: The Chinese people, especially with the stories of Nüwa existing as a spirit in the Shang dynasty and Shennong being identified as the godly form of Hou Ji and a founder of the Zhou dynasty . In myth, the Three Sovereigns were demigods who used their abilities to help create mankind and impart to them essential skills and knowledge. The Five Emperors were exemplary sages who possessed great moral character, and were from
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#1732772860774902-553: The Sovereigns Fuxi , Nüwa , and Shennong . There are six to seven known variations on which people constitute the Three Sovereigns and the Five Emperors, depending on the source. Many of the known sources were written in much later dynasties. Groupings of the Three Sovereigns consist of some combination of the following: Fuxi , Nüwa , Shennong , Suiren , Zhu Rong , Gonggong , the Heavenly Sovereign ,
943-587: The Three Sovereigns in the early patriarchal society in China ( c. 2600 BC), based on the myth about Fuxi establishing marriage ritual in his tribe. The creation of human beings was a symbolic story of having a larger family structure that included the figure of a father. On one of the columns of the Fuxi Temple in Gansu Province, the following couplet describes Fuxi's importance: "Among
984-527: The ages before the I Ching . In other versions of the story, he is credited to the writing of some of the I Ching itself. His divination powers are attributed to his reading of the He Map (or the Yellow River Map ). According to this tradition, Fuxi had the arrangement of the trigrams of the I Ching revealed to him in the markings on the back of a mythical dragon horse (sometimes said to be
1025-643: The book 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. Another reference is in the Lüshi Chunqiu , mentioning some violence with regard to the rise of the Shennong house, and that their power lasted seventeen generations. The Shénnóng Běn Cǎo Jīng
1066-658: 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. However, Shennong, both the individual and the clan, are very important in Chinese cultural history , especially in regards to mythology and popular culture . Indeed, Shennong figures extensively in historical literature . Model humanity: Main philosophical traditions: Ritual traditions: Devotional traditions: Salvation churches and sects : Confucian churches and sects: According to some versions of
1107-463: 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. He is also said to have discovered tea , 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
1148-410: 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 forebears of the Chinese. After the Zhou dynasty , Shennong was thought to have existed within it by some "ancient Chinese historians" and religious practitioners as
1189-511: 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 . 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. Shennong
1230-424: The following three sentences: 能覆前而不能覆後 They could only know/trace their offsprings but not their progenitors (promiscuous without family concept), 臥之言去言去 They slept whenever they wanted (non-circadian without concept of time), 起之吁吁 When awoke, they started yue-ing (repeating/using a single sound to express emotions or communicate without language).] When hungry, they searched for food; when satisfied, they threw away
1271-519: The latter being his courtesy or formal name. According to legend, the goddess of the Luo River , Mifei , was the daughter of Fuxi. Additionally, some versions of the legend state that she is Fuxi's consort. She drowned in the Luo River while crossing it and became the spirit of the Luo River. According to the Classic of Mountains and Seas , Fuxi and Nüwa were the original humans who lived on
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1312-455: The matriarchal society ( c. 2600 BC) as early Chinese developed language skill while Fuxi and Nüwa were leaders in the early patriarchal society ( c. 2600 BC) while Chinese began the marriage rituals. A divinity Taihao ( 太皞 , "The Great Bright One") appears, vaguely, in sources before the Han dynasty , independent from Fuxi. Later, Fuxi is identified with Taihao,
1353-416: The mythological Kunlun Mountain (today's Huashan). One day they set up two separated piles of fire, and the fire eventually became one. Under the fire, they decided to become husband and wife. Fuxi and Nüwa used clay to create offspring, and with the divine power they made the clay figures come alive. These clay figures were the earliest human beings. Fuxi and Nüwa were usually recognized by Chinese as two of
1394-562: 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 ( 藥王 Yàowáng ). The sacrifice of cows or oxen to Shennong in his various manifestations
1435-416: The remnants. They devoured their food hide and hair, drank the blood, and clad themselves in skins and rushes. Then came Fu Xi and looked upward and contemplated the images in the heavens, and looked downward and contemplated the occurrences on earth. He united man and wife, regulated the five stages of change, and laid down the laws of humanity. He devised the eight trigrams , in order to gain mastery over
1476-505: The table below: There is the legend of the Four Clans (四氏) who took part in creating the world, Youchao -shi (有巢氏), Suiren -shi (燧人氏), Fu Xi -shi (伏羲氏), and Shennong -shi (神農氏). These Sovereigns and Emperors are said to have helped introduce the use of fire, taught people how to build houses, and invented farming. The Yellow Emperor's wife is credited with the invention of silk culture . The discovery of medicine and invention of
1517-427: The third century BCE, during times of political crisis and expansionism and wars among Chinese kingdoms, Shennong received new myths about his status as an ideal prehistoric ruler who valued laborers and farmers and "ruled without ministers, laws or punishments." Sima Qian ( 司馬遷 ) mentioned that the rulers directly preceding the Yellow Emperor were of the house (or societal group) of Shennong. Sima Zhen , who added
1558-480: The three primogenitors of Huaxia civilization, Fu Xi in Huaiyang Country ranks first." During the time of his predecessor Nüwa , society was matriarchal. 古之時未有三綱、六紀，民人但知其母，不知其父，能覆前而不能覆後，臥之言去言去，起之吁吁，饑即求食，飽即棄余，茹毛飲血而衣皮葦。於是伏羲仰觀象於天，俯察法於地，因夫婦正五行，始定人道，畫八卦以治下。 In the beginning there was as yet no moral ( Sangang ) or social order. Men knew their mothers only, not their fathers. [Missing translation of
1599-408: The various medicinal herbs, such as lingzhi ,and marijuana 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
1640-453: The world. Fuxi taught his subjects to cook and various methods of hunting and fishing, including fishing with nets and hunting with weapons made of bone, wood, or bamboo. He instituted the basic family structure, as well as marriage, and offered the first open-air sacrifices to heaven. A stone tablet, dated AD 160, shows Fuxi with Nüwa. Traditionally, Fuxi is considered the originator of the methods of divination that were passed down through
1681-474: Was held to be the creator, not Pangu, who worked alone and not with Nüwa. Fuxi was known as the "original god", and he was said to have been born in the lower-middle reaches of the Yellow River in a place called Chengji (成紀) (possibly modern Lantian , Shaanxi province, or Tianshui , Gansu province). A possible historical interpretation of the myth is that Huaxu (Fuxi's mother) was a leader during