Yandi Shennong "taught the people to turn mountains into fields, grow trees and cultivate grains, make grass and cultivate crops, and tame five birds." He created weaving, promoted trade, built cities, and led mankind into the age of cooked food. His achievements have been widely recognized by people. As you know, another great contribution of Shennong to mankind was to taste hundreds of herbs and teach mankind to start using herbal medicine to treat diseases. He sacrificed his precious life for the survival of the nation and to discover the great treasure house of traditional Chinese medicine. ((Huainanzi. Training Training) ) records: Shennong "tasted the taste of hundreds of herbs, and the sweetness and bitterness of springs, so that the people knew what to avoid. At this time, they encountered seventy poisons in one day." This is the story of Shennong's difficult journey of tasting hundreds of herbs and inventing Chinese herbal medicine.
In 5000 BC, the southern tribal alliance led by Emperor Yan Shennong became more and more powerful, and its territory became wider and wider. He led more and more soldiers. In order to eradicate the equally powerful northern tribes, After a long period of harassment, he led tens of thousands of soldiers to a place called Banquan (Huailai, Hebei) on the bank of the Yellow River, and faced off with an equally large northern tribe. The bodies of dead soldiers blocked the river.
Yandi Shennong, a kind-hearted man, was heartbroken when he saw many of his sons from his hometown died fighting in foreign lands. He was unwilling to continue fighting, so he took the initiative to negotiate peace with the northern leaders, and was willing to retreat to the south and lead the sons of the tribal alliance. The people rest and recuperate.
When Shennong returned to Mount Lie (now called Jiulong Mountain), he saw soldiers everywhere who had been injured and infected, and fellow villagers who had fallen ill due to "epidemic". Even his own mother An was lying ill. Bed, unable to eat, unable to see clearly, Shennong was heartbroken. He was determined to find medicine that could cure the soldiers who were injured and infected, the villagers who fell ill due to the epidemic, and his mother's illness.
Hearing that there was fairy grass in the mountains that could cure all kinds of diseases, Shen Nong arranged the affairs of the Southern Tribal Alliance to be managed by his subordinates. He himself twisted the basket and led a few soldiers to Jiulong Mountain to find it. . In the absence of written records and no one's guidance, Shennong could only rely on the original method of tasting by himself. He would taste herbs or fruits that were sweet and invigorating after eating, such as jujube and licorice. Put it into one basket; and put herbs that taste bitter and hard to swallow and make you feel uncomfortable when swallowed in the abdomen, such as verbena, astragalus, etc., into another basket. Once, when Shennong was tasting a grass with yellow flowers, a poisonous insect bit him on the back of his hand. He felt itchy and painful, and it quickly became red and swollen. In desperation, he chewed the flower in his mouth. Spit the grass residue on the itchy spot on the back of the hand. After a while, the affected area no longer hurts or itch, and the redness and swelling also subside significantly. The shrewd Shennong realized that this grass has good detoxification, swelling, and pain relief effects. He asked his followers to pull out a few baskets of yellow-flowered grass and take it back to the tribal alliance's residence. The injured soldiers chewed the grass and applied it to the affected area. The infected wound healed within a few days, and those who secretly swallowed the grass were The wounded soldiers who planted grass healed faster, which made Shennong realize that taking medicine internally and externally can significantly improve the therapeutic effect of the medicine. This small grass with yellow flowers is the familiar dandelion, also known as yellow flower seedlings. Shennong also gave this dandelion to people infected with the epidemic to eat, and it also achieved certain effects. Even his mother's pink eye improved significantly after eating some dandelions.
In order to find more effective medicinal herbs, and also to find the legendary fairy grass, Shennong carried his mother, who had not yet recovered, on his back, took his family and some of his followers, and searched westward along Jiulong Mountain. They walked and walked, and after dozens of days of arduous trekking, they came to a stop beside a stream in front of a very tall mountain. They built a straw hut for their mother, her family and their entourage to live in. This is where we are now. The place called "Shennongjia" and the place where the stream flows in the front of the mountain is called Shennong Creek.
Shennongjia is a group of mountains much larger than Jiulong Mountain, and there are more medicinal herbs here than Jiulong Mountain.
In order to find the "immortal grass" that can cure diseases, Shen Nong still relies on his own taste to identify it. When he tastes the medicine every day, he often encounters the feeling of being beaten to the ground after taking poisonous medicine. Once when he was in pain and helpless, Encountering a small tree with fragrant aroma made him feel much more relaxed. His keen observation told him that this medicine might have detoxification effect. He quickly tore off the leaves of this small tree, chewed them in his mouth and swallowed them. When I entered my intestines, I felt something flowing in my intestines, as if I was checking something. Soon the poisons in my intestines were washed clean, and my whole body felt much better. So Shennong called this small leaf "Chaye". Later, After there were written records, "chaye" was written as "tea". Historical records (Huainanzi. Xiuwu Xun) recorded that "Shen Nong tasted the taste of hundreds of herbs and the sweetness and bitterness of water springs, and ordered him to avoid it. At this time, He encountered seventy poisons in one day and got rid of them with tea."
Shen Nong was determined to discover more useful medicinal herbs, so he went into the mountains to search, climbed mountains and waded in rivers, ate the wind and stayed in the dew, and suffered a lot. . One day, Shen Nong was collecting herbs in the mountain stream. He was hit by a heavy rain and was soaked to the skin. He was tired and hungry. The always strong Shen Nong fell ill. He lay on the stone slab in the cave with aversion to cold, fever, headache and body aches. He had chest tightness, nausea, loss of appetite, and thought he was going to die. He was thirsty and couldn't help but get up and wanted to go down the mountain to find water. Unexpectedly, the ground was wet and slippery. As soon as he stepped on the air, his body slid down the mountain. In a hurry, Shennong grabbed It took a handful of thick straw to stop myself from falling into the abyss. Shen Nong stood up and looked closely at the strawberry that saved his life. Suddenly he saw two yellow roots exposed next to the strawberry. After the spicy, fragrant juice entered his belly, he felt a slight sweat, his fever was gone, he felt refreshed, his energy was boosted, and he had a great appetite. Shen Nong named the root of this rough grass that not only saved his life but also cured his disease "ginger" after his surname, which means that this grass gave him a second life.
When Shennong returned to his shack by the Shennong River, he saw his mother picking a yellow flower on the hillside not far from the shack. "Mom, you can't see clearly, why do you still go so far to pick flowers?" "The filial Shennong took the basket from his mother's hand and said. l
"My eyesight has become brighter and my eyesight has faded since I ate this flower." Shennong's mother said happily. Shennong opened his mother's eyelids to take a look, and said happily: "Thank you, mother, for helping me discover another medicine." Shennong named this flower the Mingmu flower, and later medical books named this flower chrysanthemum.
Shennong’s pace of identifying Chinese herbal medicines has not stopped. In order to reduce the number and degree of poisoning by tasting medicines as much as possible, Shennong took the collected herbs home and let them be eaten by pigs, dogs, cows, and sheep in captivity. , to see if there is any poisoning reaction. If there is no abnormal reaction, he will taste it himself. After tasting the medicine, he will put the herbs without severe numbness, spicy, mouth burning, abdominal pain and other abnormal reactions into a long basket, called Medicines; if there are obvious discomfort reactions after tasting the herbs, they are put into a garden basket and are called poisonous herbs. These herbs are planted in the Herb Garden so that the people can learn to identify and plant them. Shennong told the people of the tribe one by one about these experiences that he had personally experienced with his own body and even his life, so that people could avoid them, thus greatly reducing the troubles caused by the disease to people.
In the process of identifying medicinal herbs, Shennong found that the taste of medicinal herbs is closely related to the effects of medicines. For example, sweet medicinal herbs have certain tonic properties, such as licorice and red dates, which can make people excited and energetic after eating. Doubling physical strength; bitter medicines have the effect of clearing away heat and purging fire, such as wild chrysanthemums and dandelions, which can cure red and swollen eyes, swollen throat, skin sores and other fire diseases; sour medicines have astringent and antidiarrheal effects, such as purslane and physalis. Treat diarrhea; pungent medicines have the effect of dispersing and relieving the symptoms, such as ginger and green onions, which can dissipate headaches and fever caused by cold and dampness, such as wind-cold and cold symptoms.
Shennong’s exploration of Chinese herbal medicine became wider and wider, and he traveled to more and more places. One day, he came to the tea town of Bailuyuan (now Yanling County, Hunan) and was very happy to see many tea trees. While picking tea leaves, he walked into the mountains. When he came to the valley, he saw many small grasses with yellow flowers growing beside a big rotten tree. He habitually pulled two grasses and chewed them in his mouth. Maybe it was because he had eaten a lot of stimulating tea leaves. He did not put the yellow-flowered herbs in his mouth and chew them less as usual, and then tasted them according to their pungent, spicy, numbing, sour, sweet, bitter and other flavors. Preliminarily identify the properties of the medicine, and then feed it to sheep, dogs, pigs and other animals for observation. Instead, chew the weeds with yellow flowers and inadvertently consume them in the stomach.
Unexpectedly, this kind of grass is extremely poisonous. After swallowing the concoction into the abdomen, he will feel that his liver and intestines are broken, unbearable abdominal pain, dizziness, sweating profusely, and his lips and face will be black and purple. Eating tea with detoxifying effect did not help. Knowing that his end was approaching and he would die soon, he hurriedly grabbed the scribe who was rushing over and said: "This herb caused my liver and intestines to break. Let's call it Broken Heart Herb. It is poison." King, remember its characteristics carefully and tell people never to eat this poisonous weed." After saying this, he passed out and never woke up.
With his courage to explore and fearless spirit of sacrifice, Shen Nong tasted and experienced the Chinese herbal medicines he discovered at the cost of his own noble life, which were passed down orally to his people. The form was passed down from generation to generation and continued to develop. It was not until the Eastern Han Dynasty that the written recording technology was available, and the names of these Chinese herbal medicines were classified according to their medicinal properties and functions. There were 252 types of botanical medicines, 67 types of animal and mineral medicines, and a total of 365 types. Record it in the book. The book divides medicines into three categories: upper, middle and lower grades: top-grade drugs can be taken regularly and are non-toxic, and have the effect of prolonging life and curing diseases; middle-grade drugs are slightly toxic and have the dual effects of curing diseases and nourishing, but are not easy to take for a long time; low-grade drugs are not easy to take for a long time. It has a purgative effect and may even be very poisonous. When taking it, the disease should be stopped immediately and should not be taken for a long time. This book is the earliest extant medicinal monograph in my country ((Shen Nong's Cao Jing)) and one of the four classic works of Chinese Han traditional medicine. The book also demonstrates the outstanding contribution of Yan Emperor Shennong to traditional Chinese medicine and traditional Chinese medicine.