Shennong
Shennong (神農), variously translated as "Divine Farmer"[1] 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.
For other uses, see Shennong (disambiguation).
Shennong
神農
Linkui
Jiang Shinian (姜石年)
Linkui
Nüdeng
"Divine Farmer/Husbandman"
Shénnóng
Shénnóng
Shen2-nung2
Sṳ̀n-nùng
Sàhn-nùhng
San4-nung4
Sîn-lông
Thần Nông
神農
신농
神農
Sinnong
Sinnong
神農
Shin'nō
Shin'nō
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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,[1] but also the use of herbal medicine.[2] Shennong was credited with various inventions: these include the hoe,[1] plow[1] (both leisi (耒耜) style and the plowshare), axe, digging wells, agricultural irrigation, preserving stored seeds by using boiled horse urine, trade,[1] commerce,[1] 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 the harvest thanksgiving ceremony (zhaji(蜡祭) sacrificial rite, later known as the laji(腊祭) rite).[3]
"Shennong" can also be taken to refer to his people, the Shennong-shi (Chinese: 神農氏; pinyin: Shénnóngshì; lit. 'Shennong Clan').
Mythology[edit]
In Chinese mythology, Shennong taught humans the use of the plow, aspects of basic agriculture, and the use of cannabis. Possibly influenced by the Yan Emperor mythos or the use of slash-and-burn agriculture,[4] 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).[4]
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.[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 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 the "deified" form[6] of "mythical wise king" Hou Ji[7] who founded the Zhou.[6]
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.[8] In 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."[8]
In literature[edit]
Sima Qian (司馬遷) mentioned that the rulers directly preceding the Yellow Emperor were of the house (or societal group) of Shennong.[9] Sima Zhen, who added 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.[10] Shennong also features in 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.[11] 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.[12][13]
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.[14]
Places[edit]
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.
Shennongding(神農頂): "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.
Shennong tasting plants to test their qualities on himself.
The Shennongxi(神農溪) Bridge near its confluence with the Yangtze River.
Shennong Temple in Tainan, Taiwan — where he is worshiped under the names King Yan(炎帝), God of Five Grains(五穀神), Shennong the Great Emperor, the Ancestor of Farming, Great Emperor of Medicine, God of Earth, and God of Fields.[21]
![Shennong Temple in Tainan, Taiwan — where he is worshiped under the names King Yan(炎帝), God of Five Grains(五穀神), Shennong the Great Emperor, the Ancestor of Farming, Great Emperor of Medicine, God of Earth, and God of Fields.[21]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/%E8%87%BA%E5%8D%97%E8%97%A5%E7%8E%8B%E5%BB%9F%E6%AD%A3%E9%9D%A2.JPG/90px-%E8%87%BA%E5%8D%97%E8%97%A5%E7%8E%8B%E5%BB%9F%E6%AD%A3%E9%9D%A2.JPG)
Shennong as depicted by Tang dynasty (618-907) figure Gan Bozong(甘伯宗), woodcut print in the Lidai mingyi hua xingshi(历代名医畵姓氏)' a preface of an edition of the ming dynasty book bencaomengquan(本草蒙筌) by Chen jiamo(陈嘉谟).
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