Ancient China · Divine Farmer; ancestral deity of the house

Shen Nong 農

Nong

Dates uncertain

Passages: 4
Chapters: 4
Histories: 4

Overview

Shen Nong was a Divine Farmer; ancestral deity of the house.

Other names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal name	Shennong	神農	Shénnóng

Life and dates

Attested activity

legendary antiquity
Directly stated · Book of Later Han 32, passage 83; Records of the Grand Historian 61, passage 32; Book of Zhou 3, passage 33

Key source chapters

Source notes

Historicity legendary
Directly stated · Records of the Grand Historian 61, passage 32

References in the histories

Book of Han, Chapter 117Volume 100a: Afterword and Family History 1 · 1 passage

方今大漢洒埽群穢，夷險芟荒，廓帝紘，恢皇綱，基隆於羲、農，規廣於黃、唐； Great Han has cleansed the mire, cut the brambles, stretched the emperor's net wider than Fu Xi or Shen Nong, vaster than Huangdi or Yao;

Book of Later Han, Chapter 32Volume 28b: Biography of Feng Yan · 1 passage

修神農之本業兮，采軒轅之奇策； I return to Shennong's husbandry and borrow the Yellow Emperor's craft;

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 61Biographies: Biography of Bo Yi · 1 passage

神農、虞、夏忽焉沒兮，我安適歸矣？ Shennong, Yu, and Xia have suddenly perished—where shall I return?

Book of Zhou, Chapter 3Volume 3 Annals 3: Emperor Xiaomin · 1 passage

詔曰：「予本自神農，其於二丘，宜作厥主。 An edict declared: “Our line descends from Shen Nong; at the two mounds he shall be chief among the spirits.