The History and Significance of the god Shen Nong

Shen Nong, or Shen Nung, is the ancient Chinese god of medicine, health, agriculture and forestry and one of the most popular deities in China. Together with Fu Xi and Huang Di, he is one of the San Huang or ‘Three Noble’s, who were legendary emperors of China.

According to mythology, the god Fu Xi first taught ancient Chinese man how to hunt and fish, and was seen as the first emperor. In order to create a more settled way of life, Shen Nong taught man to plough and harvest.

Shen Nong was born on earth and at this time, nine wells surrounded him instantly. These wells all drew their water from one spring, so if water was drawn from one well, each of the others would be affected.

At this time, the high population in China meant that the people struggled to find enough food to eat, surviving on plants, fruits, nuts, insects etc – whatever was on hand. Shen Nong was inspired by the wells and taught the people how to plough the land, sow seeds and harvest plentiful crops. He also showed them that different soils had different qualities – some were barren, some fertile. They called him the god of agriculture when he died at aged 168.

Shen Nong is usually shown with a human body with a bull’s head, which links him to the ox that pulls the farmer’s plough – emphasising his agricultural qualities. Further emphasis on this role is through the ox as a divinity – originally the ox was a star divinity sent by the Emperor of Heaven to reassure the people that if they worked hard enough they would always have enough food to eat. However, the ox divinity made a mistake in delivering a message and was therefore banished to earth, required to assist farmers in ploughing their fields.

One scholar states that Shen Nong and his roles stem from the agricultural legends and rites that originated in the Shang Dynasty. He goes unmentioned in the Shih (Book of Songs), the Shu (Book of Documents), the Tso-chuan (Mr Tso's Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals), the Kuo-yu (Conversations of the States), the Ch'u-tz'u (Songs of the South), the Lun-yu (Analects of Confucius), and the Shan-hai chin ((Classic of Mountains and Seas). This scholar further states that Shen Nong could have been a Warring States creation which borrowed from earlier sources.

He was first mentioned from around the fourth century BCE and portrayed in two ways. The 'School of Tillers' (Nung-chia) states that he was a pre-dynastic emperor who 'reigns in perfect peace over an empire of farmers, whom he teaches without issuing decrees or imposing punishments, and he works in the fields side by side with them’. The other states that he was a “culture hero, founder of agriculture, the farmer who invented the plough and taught others how to sow and eat grains”.

Shen Nong was also seen as the god of the fiery wind. Scholars believe that this role could symbolise the way early man prepared their fields by burning vegetation prior to planting seeds in the ash-rich soil. When agricultural technologies advanced (such as the method of ploughing), shen Nong took on the role as an agricultural deity.

Bibliography:

Henricks, Robert G. (1998) A Look at Shen Nung (The Divine Farmer) and His Ties with Yen Ti (The 'Flaming Emperor' or 'Flaming God'), Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Cambridge University Press on behalf of School of Oriental and African Studies.