The Legend of the Origin of Chinese Herbalism
Herbalism in China has been practiced for a long
period of time. For more than 5000 years it has been the main stream of
Chinese medicines. Even though chemical medicines are so prevailing, herbal
medicines cannot be replaced. Mythology about the origin of Chinese herbalism
goes like this:
About 5000 years ago, a legendary emperor, Shen Nung,
was said to have a crystal-like belly so that he could see what happened
to his own stomach. As he cared a lot about people, he was determined to
cure them of their illnesses. Later, he started to test the herbs that
he encountered. Shen Nung always had two bags with him. One was for plants
that could be taken as food; the other one was for medicinal use.
In fact, he had no science laboratory, of course.
The only way for him to get to know the application of herbs as medicine
was to eat them. He took himself as a human guinea pig. Surely some of
the herbs made Emperor Shen Nung very sick when he tried them out, but
fortunately, he always found out an antidote to a certain kind of poison.
According to Huai Nan Tzu, an ancient book, he took more than 70 kinds
of poison in a day, but fortunately he was saved by himself. It's said
that he recorded the result of his "experiment" in a book, named "Sheng
Nung Benchau Jing" (The Medicine Book of Shen Nung). It is followed that
ginseng was among of Shen Nung's contributions. As a matter of fact, this
book is a collection of Chinese wisdom on herbalism.
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