Cannabis in Ancient China
A look at what the archaeological and textual record actually shows about cannabis use in early China, and where the popular myths come from.
Cannabis was unquestionably important in ancient China — but almost entirely as a fiber and seed crop, not as a recreational drug. The famous story that Emperor Shennong prescribed cannabis around 2737 BCE is folklore: the 'Shennong Bencao Jing' was compiled around 200 CE, and there was no historical Shennong. Real evidence for psychoactive use exists (notably the Jirzankal burial braziers, c. 500 BCE) but it's narrow, ritual, and shouldn't be stretched into a sweeping claim about widespread Chinese 'medical marijuana.'
What the archaeology actually shows
The oldest physical traces of cannabis in China are not pipes or potions — they're textiles and cord impressions. Hemp cord marks on Yangshao culture pottery from the Yellow River valley date to roughly 4000 BCE, and a hemp fragment from Gansu province has been dated to a similar window [1] Strong evidence. Cannabis (genus Cannabis) was domesticated somewhere in East or Central Asia, and a 2021 genomic study placed the likely origin of all modern hemp and drug-type cultivars in early Neolithic China [2] Strong evidence.
For most of Chinese prehistory and early history, cannabis appears as a utilitarian crop: bast fiber for rope, sackcloth, fishing nets and (eventually) paper, plus the seed (huǒmá rén, 火麻仁) as a grain. The character 麻 (má) appears on oracle bones from the Shang dynasty (c. 1200 BCE) and refers to this fiber/seed plant [3] Strong evidence.
Psychoactive use is much rarer in the record. The clearest single piece of evidence is the Jirzankal Cemetery on the Pamir Plateau (modern Xinjiang), where a 2019 study found wooden braziers containing burnt Cannabis residue with elevated cannabinol (CBN, a THC oxidation product) dating to around 500 BCE [4] Strong evidence. The authors argue this represents intentional burning of high-THC plants in a funerary ritual context — a narrow but well-documented case.
The Shennong myth
Almost every popular article on cannabis history repeats some version of: "In 2737 BCE, Emperor Shennong listed cannabis as a medicine for over 100 ailments." This is folklore stacked on folklore Disputed.
First, Shennong (神農, the 'Divine Farmer') is a mythological culture hero, not a historical emperor. Second, the Shennong Bencao Jing (神農本草經, 'Divine Farmer's Materia Medica') attributed to him was compiled by anonymous authors during the Eastern Han dynasty, roughly the 1st–2nd century CE — more than two and a half millennia after his supposed reign [5] Strong evidence. Third, the original Han text is lost; what survives is a Tao Hongjing reconstruction from around 500 CE.
The Bencao Jing does list má (cannabis) — specifically the seeds (máren) and the flowering tops (mábo or máfen) — and notes that prolonged consumption of the flowers can cause one to 'see ghosts and run about frantically' (見鬼狂走), with claims of communication with spirits [5] Strong evidence. That's a real primary-source acknowledgement of psychoactivity. It is not a prescription chart for '100 ailments,' and it certainly isn't from 2737 BCE.
The '100 ailments' phrasing seems to have entered the English-language cannabis literature through Ernest Abel's 1980 book Marihuana: The First Twelve Thousand Years and similar popular histories, and has been copy-pasted ever since [6] Weak / limited.
Hua Tuo and the 'cannabis anesthesia' claim
A second recurring claim: the legendary Han-era surgeon Hua Tuo (c. 140–208 CE) performed surgery using a cannabis-based anesthetic called mafeisan (麻沸散, 'cannabis boil powder'). The Records of the Three Kingdoms and the Book of the Later Han describe Hua Tuo administering mafeisan dissolved in wine before operations [7] Weak / limited.
The problem: the actual recipe for mafeisan was never recorded, or was destroyed when Hua Tuo was executed. The má in mafeisan literally means 'numb' or 'hemp,' and Chinese pharmacology uses 麻 in compound names for many numbing plants. Modern reconstructions have proposed datura, aconite, or rhododendron as more pharmacologically plausible primary ingredients [8] Weak / limited. Cannabis may have been involved; it may not have been. The honest answer is that we don't know what was in mafeisan.
What cannabis was actually used for
Stripping away the myths, the documented uses of cannabis in ancient China are:
- Fiber. Hemp was one of the 'five grains' (五穀) in some early classifications and the dominant textile plant before cotton's arrival in the late medieval period. Commoners wore hemp; silk was for elites [3] Strong evidence.
- Food. Hemp seed (huǒmá rén) was eaten as a grain and pressed for oil. It remains in the modern Chinese materia medica as a mild laxative [9] Strong evidence.
- Paper. Some of the earliest paper fragments from the Western Han dynasty (2nd century BCE) contain hemp fiber [1] Strong evidence.
- Ritual and shamanic use. The Jirzankal braziers are the strongest case; textual hints in the Bencao Jing about 'seeing ghosts' suggest some awareness of psychoactive effects, possibly in Daoist or shamanic contexts [4][5] Weak / limited.
- Medicine. Seeds for constipation and as a tonic; flowering tops occasionally noted but with explicit warnings about toxicity in the Bencao Jing and later texts [5] Weak / limited.
What's conspicuously absent is any tradition of widespread recreational smoking. Smoking as a delivery method only arrived in East Asia after tobacco came from the Americas in the 16th–17th centuries [10] Strong evidence. Earlier psychoactive use, where it existed, was by combustion in braziers, ingestion, or infusion.
How to read the sources honestly
A few rules of thumb for evaluating claims about cannabis in ancient China:
- Dates attached to mythological figures are not historical dates. Shennong, the Yellow Emperor, and Fuxi are culture heroes. '2737 BCE' is a number, not a date.
- Compilation date matters more than attribution. The Shennong Bencao Jing tells us what Han-era physicians believed, not what Neolithic people did.
- 麻 (má) is ambiguous. In classical Chinese it can mean cannabis, ramie, flax, or 'numb' depending on context. Translators sometimes flatten this.
- Archaeological residue trumps text. Burnt-cannabinoid residue in a dated brazier is harder evidence than a sentence in a much later book.
For the actual botany and modern usage that descends from this lineage, see Hemp and Cannabis Sativa.
Sources
- Peer-reviewed Li, H.-L. (1974). An archaeological and historical account of cannabis in China. Economic Botany, 28(4), 437–448.
- Peer-reviewed Ren, G., Zhang, X., Li, Y., et al. (2021). Large-scale whole-genome resequencing unravels the domestication history of Cannabis sativa. Science Advances, 7(29), eabg2286.
- Book Kuhn, D. (1988). Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 5, Part 9: Textile Technology: Spinning and Reeling. Cambridge University Press.
- Peer-reviewed Ren, M., Tang, Z., Wu, X., et al. (2019). The origins of cannabis smoking: Chemical residue evidence from the first millennium BCE in the Pamirs. Science Advances, 5(6), eaaw1391.
- Book Yang, S. (trans.) (1998). The Divine Farmer's Materia Medica: A Translation of the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing. Blue Poppy Press.
- Book Abel, E. L. (1980). Marihuana: The First Twelve Thousand Years. Plenum Press.
- Book Chen, Shou (3rd c. CE). Sanguozhi (Records of the Three Kingdoms), Biography of Hua Tuo, Book of Wei, Vol. 29.
- Peer-reviewed Chen, Y., Wang, J. (2018). Hua Tuo's mafeisan: A historical and pharmacological review. Journal of Anesthesia History, 4(2), 99–104.
- Peer-reviewed Brand, E., Wiseman, N. (2008). Concise Chinese Materia Medica. Paradigm Publications. [Entry on Huo Ma Ren / Cannabis seed.]
- Peer-reviewed Russo, E. B. (2007). History of cannabis and its preparations in saga, science, and sobriquet. Chemistry & Biodiversity, 4(8), 1614–1648.
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