Shennong
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Shennong (Traditional Chinese: 神農; Simplified Chinese: 神农; Pinyin: Shénnóng), sometimes known as the Yan Emperor (炎帝), is a legendary Emperor of China and culture hero of Chinese mythology who is believed to have lived some 5,000 years ago and who taught ancient China the practices of agriculture. Appropriately, his name means "the Divine Farmer". He is credited with identifying hundreds of medicinal (and poisonous) herbs by personally testing their properties, which was crucial towards the development of Traditional Chinese medicine. Tea, which acts as an antidote after being poisoned by some seventy herbs, is also said to be his discovery. Chinese legends places this occurrence in 2737 BC, and states that leaves from burning tea twigs blew upwards from the fire and landed in his cauldron of boiling water ().
The most well-known work attributed to Shennong is the 神农本草经 (pinyin: Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing translated as The Divine Farmer's Herb-Root Classic) -- first compiled some time during the end of the Western Han Dynasty -- which lists the various medicinal herbs discovered by Shennong by grade and rarity.
A close kin of the Yellow Emperor, he is said to be a patriarch of the Chinese. The Han Chinese regarded them both as their joint ancestors. He is also considered one of the ancestors of the Vietnamese people. He was deified as one of the San Huang for his contributions to mankind.
Shennong is said to have played a part in the creation of the Guqin, together with Fuxi and the Yellow Emperor.
Shennong appears in Sierra Entertainment's city-building game . He is a non-playable character and one of the three ancestral heroes of the game, who can be summoned to enhance the player's ability and efficiency in various tasks.
The numerals 3 and 9 have always been revered in Chinese Mythology. The reason behind this was that Shen Nong is part of the Divine Triumvirate, the other two being (Fu Hsi and Huang Di. And 9 being the largest single digit represented fullness, completion. Besides that, 9 being a product of three times three, was considered doubly sacred. In Ancient China, the numerals 3 and 9 were used exclusively by the Emperor or the Son of Heaven(pinyin: tiān zǐ).
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