Shennong, Yan Emperor and Divine Farmer

After Nuwa, a New Tribe Rises

In the last episode, Nuwa repaired the sky, recreated humanity, and held together a world that had almost fallen apart.

But even Nuwa's time had to end.

After her death, her descendants continued to lead their tribe for many generations. For a long time, it remained powerful.

Yet no tribe stays at the top forever.

As the old one slowly weakened, a new power rose in its place.

That new tribe was led by Shennong, the Yan Emperor.

The Birth of Yan Emperor Is No Ordinary Birth

Like many ancient culture heroes, Yan Emperor enters the story through a strange birth.

His father belongs to the Shaodian line, and his mother comes from the Youjiao clan. In one version of the story, she goes into the mountains, and the weather suddenly changes. Thunder crashes, lightning flashes, and a golden dragon descends from the sky and circles around her.

After that, she becomes pregnant.

Another version is stranger still. It says she rests in a mountain cave, meets the son of the Dragon King, and then conceives Yan Emperor.

Whichever version one chooses, the meaning is the same.

Yan Emperor is not meant to be an ordinary man.

At birth, he too begins as a ball of flesh, just like some of the other wondrous children in early myth. His parents are terrified and think they have given birth to a monster.

But when the flesh is cut open, out leaps a large baby boy.

In three days he grows teeth. In five days he can walk. In seven days he can speak.

At that point, the story makes its meaning clear.

This is no monster.

This is a divine man.

When Yan Emperor Takes Power, the Tribe Is Facing Famine

Around the age of twenty, Yan Emperor takes over as tribal leader.

But he does not inherit an easy world.

Tools have become better and better. Bows, stone spears, stone knives, and stone axes are all in use. Human beings have grown stronger at hunting, and because of that, wild animals have become harder to find.

The animals are not foolish either.

Once they learn that the two-legged creatures are dangerous, they hide.

So the tribe faces a pressing question.

If the hunt fails, what will people eat?

When there is not enough food, people grow hungry. When they grow hungry, their bodies weaken. When their bodies weaken, sickness follows.

Yan Emperor looks at his people and begins to think.

If meat is no longer enough, what can replace it?

Only plants.

But gathering fruit here and there will never support a large tribe.

How can plants be made to multiply?

That is the question Yan Emperor fixes his eyes on.

A Small Sprout Gives Yan Emperor an Idea

One day, Yan Emperor sits in front of a mountain, deep in thought.

Then he notices a small seedling growing unusually well.

Where has it come from?

He digs into the soil and finds a half-rotted fruit underneath.

At once he understands.

If fruit is buried in the earth, it can sprout.

Once it sprouts, it can bear fruit again.

One seed can produce many more.

This changes everything.

It is not merely the discovery of a single meal.

It is the discovery of a way to make meals multiply.

Yan Emperor returns to the tribe and tells the people that they must go out and search for seeds and edible plants. Once they find them, they can plant them, wait for them to grow, and escape the endless fear of hunger.

So the tribe sets out with him.

Tasting the Hundred Herbs Is Not Something Done at Home

They arrive at a great mountain.

Its forests are dense, and the smell of plants fills the air. It looks like the kind of place that must contain valuable things.

But the mountain is not empty and waiting for them.

As soon as they reach its entrance, wolves, tigers, and other fierce animals rush out.

Yan Emperor and his people fight a bitter battle before they can drive the beasts away.

The tribe is exhausted and urges him to return home.

He refuses.

Until he finds a way to save his people from hardship, he says, he will not go back.

After the beasts come cliffs and steep heights. The fruits and herbs they need are above them, but the people cannot climb up.

So Yan Emperor devises another method. With wooden poles and vines, the tribe builds its way upward layer by layer, like a ladder to the sky, until at last they reach the summit.

There, as expected, strange plants are everywhere.

Yan Emperor does not let others eat them first.

He tastes them himself.

If one can be eaten, he tells the people.

If one is poisonous, he records it.

If one can cure illness, he records that too.

This is the meaning of Shennong tasting the hundred herbs.

Once the Five Grains Are Found, Life Changes

By tasting and testing, Yan Emperor finally identifies several crucial crops.

Millet, broomcorn millet, hemp, wheat, and beans.

Later tradition calls them the Five Grains.

These are things that can be eaten, planted, and harvested again and again.

Hemp is especially useful, because it can also be turned into cloth.

At that point, life for the tribe changes.

In the old days, people live by hunting and gathering. If food appears today, they eat today. If it does not appear tomorrow, they go hungry tomorrow.

Now they have seeds, so they can plant.

Now they have harvests, so they can store.

Human beings no longer only chase after food. They begin to grow it under their own feet.

Tasting Herbs Also Brings Danger

Shennong's testing of plants is never going to be easy.

Once he tastes an unknown herb and almost dies at once.

The world begins to spin. Blood comes from his mouth. His tongue goes numb, and he can barely speak.

The people beside him panic.

Before he loses consciousness, Yan Emperor points with his finger toward a red lingzhi mushroom nearby.

The others quickly chew it up and put it into his mouth.

Only then is his life saved.

But in the end, tradition says he meets a deadly herb called duanchangcao, the "intestine-breaking grass." This time there is no chance to cure him, and he dies in the course of tasting plants.

His whole life is remembered as a process of testing, one by one, what can be eaten, what can heal, and what can kill.

Finding Seeds Is Not Enough. Tools Matter Too

Discovering the Five Grains is only the first step.

Farming cannot rely on bare hands forever.

So Yan Emperor is also remembered for teaching people to use agricultural tools.

The earliest wooden farm implements, the lei and si, are placed under his name. With them, turning soil and sowing seed becomes far easier than scratching at the earth by hand.

Once crops are grown, another problem appears.

How are people supposed to eat them?

Meat can be roasted over fire.

Grain cannot.

Millet, beans, and wheat are not things one simply sticks on a branch over a flame.

That is where pottery enters the story.

With pottery, people can cook porridge, boil soup, and turn grain into real food that can be eaten regularly over time.

These are practical changes.

But it is exactly these practical changes that make a tribe begin to look like a stable society.

Agriculture Also Needs the Right Season

Even farming has its own difficulty.

You cannot plant whenever you like.

If the season is wrong, the crop will fail.

So Yan Emperor must also observe the sun and the moon, establish a calendar, and help people understand when to sow and when to harvest.

This matters enormously for agriculture.

Farming depends on timing.

Without knowing the proper season, seeds and tools alone are useless.

From this point onward, people do not merely look to Heaven for food. They begin to study Heaven in order to arrange food.

Hemp Becomes Cloth, and People Begin to Look More Civilized

Once the problem of food is eased, Yan Emperor notices something else.

People may be stronger now, but they still do not have proper clothing.

Leaves rot. Bark decays. Animal hides are not always enough.

This is where hemp becomes useful again.

Hemp can be woven into cloth.

With hemp cloth, people can make clothing, protect themselves from cold, cover their bodies, and begin to look more like a settled community with order and habits.

So the story of Yan Emperor is not only about agriculture.

It also includes medicine, tools, pottery, calendars, and clothing.

Taken together, these are the things that make life truly livable.

After Yan Emperor, Another Power Begins to Rise

After Yan Emperor dies, people bury him where he falls and allow his descendants to go on leading the tribe.

The tribe continues for many years.

But just as after Nuwa, no power remains forever at the top.

The Yan Emperor tribe too begins to decline over time.

Another strong tribe is already rising.

Its leader is the Yellow Emperor.

Continue Reading

Shennong teaches people to plant, taste herbs, and slowly climb out of hunger.

But once people are more numerous, grain is more plentiful, and tribes are stronger, a new question follows immediately.

Who will become the greater leader?

Who will bring more tribes under one larger order?

In the next episode, the Yellow Emperor steps onto the stage.

The old stories are now moving from learning how to survive toward deciding who gets to lead.