第7章 神农尝百草

饮茶是中国文化的一个组成部分。

据陆羽《茶经》所载，中国饮茶最早要追溯到周朝（公元前1046—公元前222年）：“茶之为饮，发乎神农氏，闻于鲁周公。”茶在中国已有四千年的历史了。相传有位传奇英雄叫神农，品尝了成百上千种植物，并分辨出哪些是有毒的，哪些是可以食用的，以此来防止人们吃到有毒的植物。据说他曾经一天中毒72次，后因咀嚼了一种开着白色花朵的长青树嫩叶而脱险了。神农的肚子是水晶般透明的。人们可以看见食物是如何通过胃和肠消化的。当他们看到这种嫩叶汁在他胃里上下洗涤，好似在检查什么，就称这种绿叶为“查”，即寻找的意思。后来转命名为“茶”，与“查”同音。

中国人民世世代代传颂这个故事，是为了表示崇敬和纪念这位中国农业和医学事业的开创者的功绩。

Shennong Tasted Herbs

Tea-drinking is a constituent part of Chinese culture.

According to Lu Yu's Tea Classics,tea-drinking in China can be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty（1046 B.C.-222 B.C.），"ea was discovered by Shennong and became popular as a drink in the State of Lu（1043 B.C.-249 B.C.）because of Zhou Gong." Tea drinking in China has a history of four thousand years.As the legend has it,Shennong,a legendary hero,tasted hundreds of wild plants to see which were poisonous and which were edible,so as to prevent people from eating the poisonous plants.It is said that he was poisoned seventy-two times in one day and was saved by chewing some tender leaves of an evergreen plant with white flowers blossoming.Since he had atransparent belly,people could see how the food moved throughout his stomach and intestines.When they saw the juice of the tender leaves go up and down in the stomach as if it were searching for something,they called it“查（cha）"（meaning "search”）.Later it was renamed“茶”（cha）having the same pronunciation of“查”.

People told and retold this story from generation to generation,paying great respect to this ancestor,who pioneered agriculture and Chinese medicine.