Shen Nong

Shen Nong

Shen Nong (circa 2700 BCE) also known as the Emperor of the Five Grains or the Red Emperor, was a ruler of ancient China and cultural hero, considered the father of agriculture and medicine. He is reputed to have taught people the art of growing food by means of agriculture in order to avoid eating animals. He is said to have ingested hundreds and thousands of plants himself to discover their nature, thereby making him one of the first ancient herbalists. His discoveries of the various properties of plants were later assembled into a book, making it the earliest Chinese pharmacopoeia (The Divine Farmer's Herb-Root Classic). Shen Nong is also credited with the discovery of tea, and revered as the founder of acupuncture, a system of traditional Chinese medicine that uses the insertion of needles at specific predefined points on the body to cure various diseases, and also as a means to alleviate pain.