The heyday of Chinese aromatherapy

The Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties period was an important period in the history of the development of incense smoking. At this time, the number of foreign incense medicines entering the Central Plains was increasing, and at that time, historical works such as “Nanzhou Foreign Body History”, “Guangzhi”, “Southern Grass and Trees” and so on recorded the content of many incense medicines. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, the development of aromatism entered its heyday, and the use of incense was more systematic and refined.

Shi Dafu’s fragrance is fashionable

During the Wei and Jin dynasties, the style of men’s smoking clothes was particularly prominent, such as in the Western Wei dynasty, Emperor Wen Cao Pi was good at incense, but because the aroma was too strong and the horses were frightened, the “Weishu Fang Ji Biography” contains that “the horse is evil and fragrant, shocking Emperor Wen’s knees”; Shang Shu Ling Xun Yu was particularly fond of smoked clothes, and was sometimes known as “Xun Lingjun to people’s homes, sitting in three days of incense”, so there is an allusion to “Xun Ling Liuxiang” (“Xiangyang Ji”). By the time of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, according to the “Yan Family Motto”, the children of the nobles were already “all smoked and noodles”.

At this time, the literati wrote many literary works related to incense, such as “Rosemary Fu” by Cao Pi and Cao Zhi, “Rue Xiang Fu” by Fu Xian and Cheng Gongsui, and so on. Monographs on incense also began to appear, such as Fan Ye of the Southern Dynasty wrote “Hexiang Fang”, whose preface contains a discussion on the characteristics of various spices and precautions for their use: “Musk is taboo, excessive is harm; Calm and easy, no injury. Zero weed is dry, and Zhan Tang is sticky. ”

Medical and Taoist incense

Taoists believe that incense can assist cultivation, and the Eastern Jin Dynasty’s “Tai Dan Yin Shu Dong Zhen Xuan Jing” said that “those who burn green wood incense and smoke Lu rest glue between the heads of the sleeping place to open up the smell of five turbidities, stop the demonic qi on the ground, and soar straight to the sky for forty miles”; The Northern Wei Taoist priest Kou Qianzhi prescribed corresponding rituals for each fasting ceremony, and all prayers, cures, and transcendent undead souls must first raise incense and throw incense to appeal. Ge Hong’s “Holding Puzi Inner Chapter: Huang Bai” contains that incense must be burned when refining pills and fasting: “All those who make yellow and white, all set up Taiyi, Xuannu, and Laozi to sit on the liquor sacrifice, such as the Jiudan method, often burn five incense, and the incense is endless” Medical Education Network 'Collect and sort out.”

At this time, the use of incense medicine in medical treatment was also becoming more and more abundant, including various methods such as internal administration, wearing, and burning. There are many contents related to incense in the “Inner Part of Holding Puzi”, such as discussing the preciousness of incense medicine: “The human nose is not happy with fragrance, so Liuhuang, Tulip, Zhilan, Suhe, Xuangall, Sujiao, Jiangli, Jieche, Chunhui, Qiulan, the price is the same as Qiong Yao” (see “Discernment”); There is also the method of entering the mountain to ward off snakes, “using musk pills in the claws, all of which are effective” (see “Dengsheng”) and so on. In addition, “Elbow Reserve Emergency Prescription – Treatment of Facial Blisters Bald Body Odor Heart Contemptible and Ugly Formula” contains “Six Flavors of Smoked Incense Formula”, which uses agarwood, musk, suhe, white gum, cloves, and patchouli, which is the earliest record of incense prescriptions included in medical books. Tao Hongjing also included foreign incense medicines such as suhexiang, dipterocarp, and smoked land incense in the “Commentary on the Classic of Materia Medica”, and when annotating a variety of incense medicines, there are many references to “Taoist people use incense”; His “Dengzhen Hidden Tips, Scrolls, and Chapters” is said to be “due to illness, you need to burn incense on all sides and install four incense burners”.

In addition, the Sui Shu Jingzhi records “Xiangfang” (written by Emperor Ming of Song), “Nagarjuna Bodhisattva and Incense Law”, “Miscellaneous Incense Fang”, and “Miscellaneous Incense Fang”, etc., although the books are gone, but they can already reflect the rich and prosperous situation of Xiangfang at that time.

At this time, due to the prosperity of celadon in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, various celadon smokers were very popular for a while, such as various celadon incense smokers now in Zhejiang Provincial Museum, Nanjing Museum, and Suzhou Museum.

The aromatic life of the court

During the Sui and Tang dynasties, the imperial princes and nobles and the literati with a certain social status were still the main class of incense, and they not only inherited the love of incense from their predecessors, but also gave it a richer connotation: incense was burned in the court to show solemnity and courtesy, and it was written into the system; The magnates used Qi Xiang as a capital to show off and test each other; The literati, on the other hand, regarded the burning of incense as a sign of elegant living and developed it into a playful affair.

For example, the “New Book of Tang Yiwei Zhi” mentions that “in the Asahi Dynasty, there are eclipses, banquets, smokers, and incense cases on the palace”, and this system is also reflected in Tang poems, Jia Zhi’s “Early Dynasty Daming Palace”: “Clothes and bodies provoke the incense of the imperial furnace”, Du Fuhe’s poem “Chao Strike cigarettes with full sleeves” and so on, which shows that there was indeed a system of incense at the imperial meeting at that time. During the Tang Dynasty, sea and land transportation was developed, the national strength was strong, and all countries listed their self-produced incense as important tributes, and a large number of Hu merchants living in the Central Plains also operated more incense medicines. The Tang royal family set up a city envoy in Guangzhou in the second year of the Kaiyuan era (714), and its initial function was to procure luxury goods, including incense medicine, for the royal family. Through official tribute, private trade and overseas procurement, incense medicines entering the Central Plains have become increasingly abundant. With a material foundation, the powerful people who loved incense rose up the “fighting incense” activity. Emperor Zhongzong of Tang once held an elegant bixiang gathering, and the Zong Chuke brothers, Wu Sansi, Empress Wei and other relatives and ministers each brought famous incense at the meeting, comparing the advantages and disadvantages, and called the “Douxiang” medical education network 'collection and collation.

By the Song Dynasty, “burning incense” had developed into one of the four idle tasks of the literati (burning incense, fighting tea, arranging flowers, and hanging paintings), and became a symbol of elegance. The literati were keen to make and collect incense recipes, and many incense recipes were named after their names, characters and numbers, such as Yangji Lao Ambergris, Ding Jin Gong Halal Incense, Suneihan Poor Incense, Xu Xuan with Moon Incense, etc. Many literati in the Song Dynasty wrote “Xiangpu”, from Shen Li, Hong Li to Chen Jing, there are more than a dozen “Xiangpu” works that appeared in the two Song Dynasties; There are also incense works such as Ding Shi’s “Legend of Tianxiang”, Ye Tingjie’s “Nanbo Xianglu”, and Yan Bowen’s “History of Incense”. The large number of incense monographs shows the flourishing of incense among literati.

During the Tang and Song dynasties, a large number of exquisite incense sachets (or “incense balls”) and other incense vessels made of precious metals and other materials appeared, and the Tang poet Zhang Huo’s poem “Taizhen Xiangzi” “Crouch the small flower sac of the golden concubine, and consume the old incense on the chest.” Whoever resolved the king will leave a lifetime of hatred in his heart” is to sigh that after the Tang Ming Emperor Li Longji and Yang Yuhuan parted from life and death, they saw the relics “sachets” left.