Shennong

Shennong or Shen Nong (Work Card: 神農 c.s. : 神农 Pinyin : Shénnóng) is a civilizing hero of the Chinese Mythologie, one of the Majestic three. One lends to him the invention of the Houe, the Araire and the field, the culture of five basic food (also allotted to Huangdi), the discovery of the The and the medicinal virtues of the plants, as well as the Shennong bencaojing of the Western Han, first Chinese treaty of Phytothérapie. It is sometimes confused with Yandi and is presented like the brother of Huangdi. the first mentions relating to it are in the Guanzi and the Zhuangzi of the Royaumes combatants, but the details of its legend go back to later. The direction of its name, " farmer divin" , allowed him to become a god enjoying certain importance in the agricultural company. He is also the owner of the pharmacists and the doctors.

Double of Yandi

According to certain authors, Shennong and Yandi do only one. Wire of Shaodian (1) like Huangdi, his/her mother, Fangdeng (2) or Rensi (3) of the clan Youjiao (4), conceived it by seeing a dragon in the sky whereas it crossed a mountain in the country of Shu. It would be about the mount Changyang (5) close to Baoji where a site claims to be its tumulus funerary (Cénotaphe). Become emperor, it installed his capital with Chen then with Lu. He died after 120 years of reign and was buried with Changsha. Born close to the Jiang river, he is the ancestor of the clan Jiang (6). Others see in Yandi a descendant of Shennong, or estimate that Shennong is actually the name of a clan or one tribe to which Yandi would be attached.

(1) 少典 (2) 方登 (3) 任姒 (4) 有蟜 (5) 常羊 (6) 姜

Herbalist and civilizing

He would have been born with a head from bovidé (symbolized on its anthropomorphic effigies by two embryos of horns), and according to the medical folklore a partially transparent trunk, practical detail for the observation of the simple effect of the S which he passed his time to taste. It is claimed that it absorbed one day 70 species of toxic plants. Certain versions lend the supernatural capacity to him to die and of ressusciter several times randomly of its tests, whereas others claim that its task finishes by him costing the life and insist on its spirit of sacrifice. At all events, it would have thus identified the 360 species of the treaty of phytotherapy Shennong bencaojing . He would have noticed the for his medicinal virtues (another version reports that a sheet of the fell by chance in the warm water which he prepared with drinking).

Initiator of agriculture, it would have also invented the markets and the currency necessary to the trade of the agricultural produce. One allots sometimes the invention to him of the Cithare guqin 古琴 in competition with Fuxi and Huangdi.

Worship and iconography

In the traditional religion, where its worship took one of rise under the Song, he was the owner of the farmers. The emperor Yongzheng of the Qing ordered that the official temples prefectures, districts and counties have a whole a furnace bridge devoted to its worship under the name of Xiannong (1) (first farmer). A ceremony was to be there celebrated each year in its honor by the local fonctionnaies. The emperor chaired itself that of Beijing, called " prayer with Shennong" (2).

In the temples, its effigy is that of a corpulent man to the barechested, vêtu in “savage” of a skirt and a flange of sheets (short pants can replace the skirt). Two protuberances on its cranium or its face symbolize the horns of bovidé. Sometimes it holds with the hand a specimen of the local agricultural production, an ear of Riz in the South of the China for example. It has very many divine names: Emperor of the five seeds (3), Emperor of the remedies (4), Emperor founder Yandi (5), Ancêtre of the fields (6) etc His birthday pertaining to worship is the 26 of the fourth month. Its worship is declining with the reduction in the farming population.

One allots a magic whip to him (7) which reveals qualities of the plants.

To the mount Binds (8) (common of Lishan (9), Hubei) one shows the two caves of Shennong. In one it would have preserved its grasses, the other being used to him as dwelling. In the surroundings many sites are claiming to have been its places of activities.

(1) 先農 (2) qinong 祈農 (3) 五穀大帝 (4) 藥王大帝 (5) 開天炎帝 (6) 田祖 (7) zhebian 赭鞕 (8) 列山 (9) 厲山鎮

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