Origin of Tea: The Legend of Shennong, China’s Divine Farmer

ByDerry Liu

According to Chinese legend, tea was discovered about 5,000 years ago by Shennong (神农, Shénnóng, “Divine Farmer”), the father of Chinese agriculture and herbal medicine. The story says he tasted 72 poisonous plants in one day, then chewed a few fragrant leaves that fell from a nearby tree and recovered. Those leaves were tea.

It’s the best-known origin of tea story in China, and it’s why people often say Chinese tea has a 5,000-year history. Here is the legend, what else Shennong is remembered for, and what the earliest written records actually tell us.

Origin of tea: fresh tea shoots growing on bushes in the rain
Fresh tea shoots. Legend says Shennong found tea when its leaves fell beside him.

Who was Shennong?

Shennong was one of the earliest legendary rulers of ancient China, often counted among the ancestors of Chinese civilization. China sees itself as the homeland of tea, a leader in growing, making and drinking it, and the story of tea begins with him. He is called the father of agriculture and of herbal medicine, because in remote antiquity people knew very little about plants, and Shennong set out to learn which ones could be eaten and which could heal.

What is the Shennong legend of the origin of tea?

Shennong tasted all kinds of plants to learn whether they were food or medicine. According to the legend, he had a transparent stomach, so he could watch how each plant affected his body.

One day he tried 72 different poisonous plants and collapsed on the ground, barely alive. Just then, a few leaves drifted down from the tree beside him, giving off a lovely fragrance. Out of curiosity and habit, he put them in his mouth and chewed. After a while he felt well and full of energy again. He ate more of the leaves and cleared the poison from his body. Those magic leaves were tea.

Because Shennong is said to have lived four to five thousand years ago, people say the history of tea in China is about 5,000 years long. The legend is recorded in Shennong’s Classic of Materia Medica (神农本草经, Shénnóng Běncǎo Jīng), although neither its author nor its exact date can be verified.

The healing story is a legend. These are traditional views, not medical claims. Tea is not intended to diagnose, treat or prevent any disease.

An old tea tree with wide, twisting branches on a hillside in Yunnan
An old tea tree on a hillside. Southwest China is thought to be the birthplace of the tea plant.

What else did Shennong give China?

Discovering tea is only one of the gifts Chinese tradition credits to Shennong. He is also said to have:

  • Taught people to use the plow, leading them from a wandering life to farming.
  • Created markets and set midday as trading time, the start of commerce and money in China.
  • Encouraged weaving, so people wore real clothes instead of leaves and animal skins.
  • Invented a five-string musical instrument, one of the earliest forms of entertainment.
  • Invented the bow and arrow, to protect people from wild animals and invaders.
  • Invented pottery, which made daily life much easier.
  • Created the Chinese calendar, including the 24 solar terms (二十四节气, èrshísì jiéqì) that still guide farming and tea picking today.
  • Tasted countless plants and became known as the father of Chinese herbal medicine.

The legend ends sadly: Shennong is said to have finally died from the poison of a plant he tasted.

What do the earliest records say about tea?

Beyond the legend, written records go back a long way. As early as the 2nd century BC, during the Western Han dynasty, the writer Sima Xiangru of Sichuan listed 20 medicinal plants of his time in his Fan Jiang Pian (凡将篇), and tea was among them.

Later, Chang Qu of the Eastern Jin dynasty wrote in the Records of the State of Huayang (华阳国志) that the ancient state of Ba sent tea as tribute, and that this tea was grown in gardens, not gathered in the wild. This suggests the ancient Ba people, who lived around today’s southern Shaanxi and eastern Sichuan, used and grew tea for at least 3,000 years.

Hands holding freshly picked green tea leaves
Freshly picked tea leaves, the same plant Shennong is said to have chewed.

Want to follow the story further? Read the history of Chinese tea, how people went from eating tea to drinking tea, and the story of the first person to plant tea trees.

FAQ

Who discovered tea?

According to Chinese legend, Shennong, the “Divine Farmer,” discovered tea around 5,000 years ago.

Is the Shennong story true?

It’s a legend, not recorded history. The earliest written mentions of tea date to the Western Han dynasty, more than 2,000 years ago.

Where did tea first grow?

Southwest China, especially Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou, is widely seen as the birthplace of the tea plant.

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