Shennong (Traditional Chinese: 神農; Simplified Chinese: 神农; pinyin: Shénnóng), sometimes known as the Yan Emperor (炎帝), is a legendary emperor and culture hero of Chinese mythology who is believed to have lived some 5,000 years ago and who taught the ancients 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. Traditional Chinese characters are one of two standard character sets of printed contemporary Chinese written language. ... Simplified Chinese characters (Simplified Chinese: 简体字; Traditional Chinese: 簡體字; pinyin: jiǎntǐzì; also called 简化字/簡化字, jiǎnhuàzì) are one of two standard character sets of printed contemporary Chinese written language. ... Pinyin (拼音, pīnyīn) literally means join (together) sounds (a less literal translation being phoneticize, spell or transcription) in Chinese and usually refers to Hànyǔ Pīnyīn (汉语拼音, literal meaning: Han language pinyin), which is a system of romanization (phonetic notation and transliteration to roman script) for Standard Mandarin used in the... A legend (Latin, legenda, things to be read) is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude. ... A culture hero is a historical or mythological hero who changes the world through invention or discovery. ... Chinese mythology is the mythology of Chinese civilization. ... A herb (pronounced urb in American English and hurb in British English) is a plant grown for culinary or medicinal value. ... Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) also known simply as Chinese medicine (Chinese: 中醫學, zhōngyī xué, or 中药学, zhōngyaò xué) or traditional Oriental medicine, is the name commonly given to a range of traditional medical practices used in China that have developed over the course of several thousand years of history. ... A cup of tea A tea bush. ...

The most well-known work attributed to Shennong is the 神农本草经 (The Shennong 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. The Han Dynasty (Traditional Chinese characters: 漢朝, Simplified Chinese characters: 汉朝, pinyin Hàncháo 202 BC - AD 220) followed the Qin Dynasty and preceded the Three Kingdoms in China. ...

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. Yellow Emperor The Yellow Emperor or Huáng Dì (黄帝) is a legendary Chinese sovereign and cultural hero who is said to be the ancestor of all Chinese. ... Han Chinese (Simplified Chinese: 汉族; Traditional Chinese: 漢族; pinyin: ) is a term which refers to the majority ethnic group within China and the largest single human ethnic group in the world. ... The Vietnamese people (Vietnamese: người Việt) is an ethnic group originating from northern Vietnam and southern China. ... The Three August Ones and Five Emperors (Chinese: 三皇五帝; pinyin: sānhuáng wǔdì, Wade-Giles: san-huang wu-ti) were mythological rulers of China during the period preceding the Xia dynasty from 2500 BC to 2205 BC. The Three August Ones The Three August Ones, sometimes known as the Three Sovereigns...