"Tasting a Hundred Herbs"

A Land of Fairytales (Photo by Han Zihao)

Emperor Yan, or Shennong, is said to be the father of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) .According to Sima Qian's Historical Records: the Three Sovereings, Shennong tasted "one hundred" (or "very many" ) herbs and then taught people how to use herbal medicines in their daily life. He later became the God of Medicine and is also regarded as the first pharmacist in China.

In ancient times, as the crops and weeds grew together, and herbs and flowers huddled, it was difficult to tell food or medical herbs from weeds. To help his tribesmen, Shennong climbed the mountains to collect herbs, and then attempted to know their nature by tasting them.

According to Tongjianqianbian,at first the tribesmen knew nothing about medicine, and Shennong began to taste various herbs, examining their components and expounding on the effects of all kinds of medicinal ingredients. He wrote a book about the methods of healing patients, signifying the beginning of Chinese medicine. According to the book Huaninanzi, when Shennong tasted herbs, he once ingested 72 kinds of poisons in a day, and could only be cured by tea.Having known the different features of herbs, Shennong was able to cure patients and mitigate their sufferings.

The touching story of "Shennong tasting a hundred herbs and saving his patients" has been widely spread, serving as a part of Shennongjia's TCM cultural heritage. According to Hu Zhen, dean of the School of Arts and Humanities at the Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, Shennong upheld the spirit of respecting and protecting people's lives, which demonstrated his respect for life and his unremitting pursuit of protecting living beings.

The ridgeline of the western side of Tianmenya, a peak in Shennongjia, formed in the shape of a ladder, and the peak itself reaches high up to the sky. It's said that this is where Shennong flew to heaven from a wooden altar. Nowadays, there are some places in Shennongjia that are called Baicaoyuan, Baicaochong, and Baicaoya. "Baicao" means "a hundred herbs," so these names are closely associated with Shennong's legendary stories.