As for the relationship between "Shennong tasted a hundred herbs" and Chinese medicine, the earliest record of this statement is probably Huainanzi written by Liu An, the king of Huainan in the Western Han Dynasty, and his disciples. "Huainanzi" said that Shennong tasted a hundred herbs, sweet and sour, and suffered more than 70 kinds of poison. In this way, Shennong distinguished which plants can be used as medicine to treat people and which plants will kill people. So with medicinal materials, medicine began to rise.
"Road history? Waiji also mentioned this matter, saying that Shennong took the whip given to him by the Emperor of Heaven and gently smoked it to know which plants were poisonous and which could be used as medicine. Later, these herbs were used to treat people's diseases. Everything is wrong. This book thinks so about "Shennong tastes a hundred herbs". The book says that Shennong and his people went out to look for food, and slowly found that not all animals and plants could eat it. Sometimes people will vomit and fall into a coma because they eat some animals and plants, and even more seriously, they will die. And sometimes eating some animals and plants can alleviate some of the above symptoms or have some benefits to the disease. After such a long time, people can distinguish more and more animals and plants, and knowing their efficacy is more and more beneficial to people's survival at that time.