Niwa mend the sky and Shennong try to taste hundreds of herbs and grass
2 min readA long time ago，Gong Gong，God of Water，and Zhu Rong ，God of Fire，had a battle.Zhu Rong won，and Gong Gong，in anger，struck his head against the Buzhou Mountain .The mountain collapsed，and down came the big pillar that held the Heaven.Half the sky fell in，leaving a big black hole.Consequently fires and floods occurred，and savage animals started to hurt people.Niwa was sad to see that the human beings which she had made underwent sufferings，so she melted rocks of five colors and used them to mend the sky.In addition，she cut off the legs of a giant turtle and used them as pillars to support the sky.She scared away all the savage beasts and blocked the flood with the ashes of reeds.Since then，people were able to live in peace.
Why does Shennong try to taste hundreds of herbs and grass？
Shennong is also called Emperor Yan.According to Chinese myth，he invented farming and taught people how to cultivate crops，and establish markets for trade.
He helped people change from a diet of meat，clams and wild fruits，to the diet based on grains and vegetables.During Shennong’s time，people drank unboiled water and ate grass and wild fruits.As a result，they often got sick.So Shennong tasted all kinds of herbs that were suitable as remedies or medicinal herbs.It is said that he once identified more than 70 poisonous plants in a day.Due to him，people learned that medical herbs could cure diseases.
It is thought that Shennong lived from 2737 B.C.to 2697 B.C.，nearly 5，000 years ago，so people often say that Chinese medicine has a history of 5，000 years.
However，we have little information about how herbal medicines were used prior to The Shennong Herbal Medicine Classics，written during the Eastern Han Dynasty.
