Yandishennong Legend
01 · Historical Records
Legends of Yandi Shennong began in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods and continually appeared in written records in the classics of successive dynasties, and the sacrificial activities to Yandi Shennong in each dynasty continued without interruption. The place name Shennongjia comes from the legend that Shennong built a frame there to gather herbs. The legends are rich in content, covering the whole course of Shennong's life from birth to death, including his birth, his teaching the people to farm, his tasting of the hundred herbs, his making of medicines and his creation of the day market, and are important oral material for studying ancient history and the origin of agricultural civilisation.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Yandi Shennong is the founding ancestor of the Chinese and an outstanding representative of Chinese agriculture and medicine. Most of the legends tell of Shennong's achievements, their content covering the whole course of his life from birth to death. Suizhou city and the Shennongjia forestry district gather rich and varied legends of Yandi Shennong, containing historical information about the economy, society, culture, agriculture and medicine of China's primitive society and embodying a profound people-centred thought, innovative spirit, spirit of struggle and spirit of dedication, and are a treasure of folk literature and art. Taking Suizhou and the Shennongjia forestry district as their core area, they are closely bound up with local place names and sacrificial customs.
The Legend of Shennong Sacrificing to Heaven
Legends connected with the sacrificial activities to Yandi Shennong.
The Legend of Creating the Day Market
The legend of Yandi Shennong first instituting market trade.
The Shennongjia Place-Name Legend
The place-name legend of Shennongjia, named from Shennong building a frame to gather herbs.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Yandi Shennong legends circulate in the Shennongjia forestry district, Suizhou city and their surroundings in Hubei, most concentrated in the Yindian and Lishan areas of Zengdu district in Suizhou. The Lishan and Yindian areas of Suizhou are said to be where Yandi Shennong was born and was active, while Shennongjia takes its name from Shennong building a frame to gather herbs; the relics and legends of the two places corroborate each other, jointly forming the space of the legend's transmission.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Yandishennong Legend.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Yandi Shennong legends are rich in content, but there are already few old artists who can tell and transmit the whole story, and protection is urgently needed. Protecting and transmitting them is of great significance for carrying forward the culture of the Chinese founding ancestors and strengthening national cohesion. The Yandi Shennong legends and Chinese agricultural civilisation and medical culture are two sides of one thing and are precious spiritual wealth of the Chinese nation.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。