‘ BOTANICON SINICUM. 75 
part of the work, the Chang pien, but subsequently was induced 
to draw up the second or supplementary part, accompanied with 
drawings, in which the author endeavoured to give the results of 
his personal observations. 
Among the works and authors frequently quoted by Wu K4 
siin I may notice the Kin huang pen ts‘ao (see above),—the #6 $3 
Hua king, published 1688,—the jj pi SE Bf Wan yiie pr ki, an 
account of the Southern provinces of China, written during the 
present dynasty,—the jit fy ZAK Hi Tien nan pen ts‘ao, a Herbal 
of the province of Yiin nan (unknown to me). 
With this my sketch of the History of Chinese Materia medica 
and Botany may be brought to a close. I have reviewed only the 
more important works of this class. Chinese writings on plants 
are very numerous, both general treatises and monographs on 
particular plants. These will be shortly noticed in another 
chapter devoted to Bibliography. 
9. CurInEsE Works ON AGRICULTURE. 
The primeval Emperor Shen nung, whom the Chinese believe 
to have composed the first treatise on Materia medica, is also 
credited with having laid the foundation of Chinese Husbandry. 
His name implies this tradition, for Shen nung means: the 
Divine Husbandman. It is related in the early records that the 
people of his age were rude and wholly unacquainted with the 
advantages of agriculture. They subsisted on fruit, vegetables, 
and the flesh of birds and beasts. Shen nung examined first the 
quality of the soil, fashioned timber into ploughs and taught the 
people how to till the ground and raise grain. On a previous page 
I referred to the mountain in Shan si, where tradition makes him 
first teach his people the fundamental processes of agriculture. 
Sz’ ma Ts‘ien (B. C. 163—85) records in the Shi ki (book 1) that 
Shen nung sowed the five kinds (fi Ft $4)-— 38 B Cheng hiian, 
a celebrated scholar of the Han dynasty, A. D.127—200, explains 
that the five kinds of cereals, the Fy, #} wu Au, are meant, namely: 
#8 tao (Rice), BE mai (Wheat), HE ang (Panicum italicum), Zs 
