Fúxī’s 伏羲 (reign 01a-1) successor in ruling the world was Shénnóng 神农 (reign 01a-2), which means “divine farmer.” He was born in Shāndōng 山东 province to a princess named Āndēng 安登 after she had a close encounter with a dragon near the Jiāngshuǐ 姜水 river. It is said that for this reason he bore the surname of Jiāng 姜. (Others say he was named Liè 烈 because he lived near Mount Liè 烈山.) His personal name was Yīqí 伊耆, but when he became emperor he was called Yándì 炎帝, the “fire emperor.” Despite all these names, people still call him Shénnóng, “Divine Farmer.”
Shénnóng is said to have taught people to use wooden plows. (The same is said of the Yellow Emperor [Huángdì 黄帝, reign 01a-3] and of Hòujì 后稷.)
Shénnóng also instituted markets so that goods could be exchanged, and some people say he also invented pottery and axes so there would be something worth exchanging.
Shénnóng also combined the eight trigrams devised by Fúxī into pairs, producing the 64 hexagrams used in divination to this day.
Shénnóng was always interested in plants, and he is the patron god of farmers. But he also realized that plants could be used as medicine, and he experimented constantly with them. He tended to experiment on himself, and unfortunately many of his experimental concoctions turned out to be poisonous. Finally he poisoned himself until he turned black and died.
(Tea merchants today like to say that he used tea to conteract poisons for a long time, and therefore everyone ought to drink lots of tea to stay strong and healthy. But even tea could not save him in the end.)
He is usually portrayed with a black or dark red face (remembering the poison) and dressed in leaves, since unfortunately he did not figure out how to make clothes of cloth or of skins.