HEBRARIUM
Long before cannabis became a modern legal problem, it lived in older systems of plant knowledge.
In Chinese tradition, Shennong — the Divine Farmer — stands as a legendary ancestor of agriculture and medicine. The classical herbal tradition attributed to him includes cannabis, known as má (麻), among the plants that entered the human pharmacopeia.
Whether we read Shennong as history, myth or cultural memory, the trace is important. Cannabis appears here not as scandal, but as materia medica:
a plant observed, classified, tested, feared, respected and used.
For LIBERA HERBA, this is not a call to romanticise ancient medicine.
It is a reminder that prohibition is young.
The plant’s relationship with human knowledge is much older.
Factual Note
The Shennong Ben Cao Jing, is traditionally attributed to the legendary Divine Farmer Shennong. Modern scholarship generally treats the text as compiled much later than the mythical date of Shennong himself. Cannabis, má (麻), appears in early Chinese materia medica traditions.
Shennong Ben Cao Jing
The Shennong Bencaojing belongs to China’s early materia medica tradition and preserves one of the old written traces of má, cannabis.
Its legendary author is mythic; its value is historical: a plant entering medicine through memory, classification and use.
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archive open.
The VADEMECUM is not just a book anymore. It is becoming a living archive of guides, tools, notes and practical plant knowledge.
Free member access. Join early. Keep the archive open.
The VADEMECUM is becoming a living archive of practical plant knowledge.
Free member access.