History of incense culture?

Boshan Deer in the Western Han Dynasty —— Preliminary Development of Xiang Culture from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Han and Wei Dynasties

Humans have a long history of using natural spices. According to the existing historical data, China has used a lot of spice plants in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Due to geographical restrictions, the climate in Central China is warm and cool, which is not suitable for the growth of spice plants, and the types of fragrant wood used are not as diverse as those in later generations. Commonly used are Eupatorium adenophorum (non-cymbidium hybridum), vetiver (cymbidium hybridum), pepper (pepper tree), laurel (laurel), Xiao (Artemisia argyi), Yu (Curcuma aromatica), Zhi (Angelica dahurica), Mao (citronella) and so on. At that time, there were many ways to use xiangmu vanilla, such as smoking and burning (such as Cao Hui and Artemisia argyi), wearing (sachet and fragrant vanilla), cooking soup (Eupatorium adenophorum), decocting ointment (Orchid cream) and drinking.

There are related records in The Book of Songs, Shangshu, Book of Rites, Zhou Li, Zuo Zhuan and Shan Hai Jing.

People not only use incense wood and vanilla, but also sing and hold it. For example, there are many wonderful arias in Qu Yuan's Li Sao: "Qiu Lan thinks Pei is separated by the Shanghai River"; "Drink Mulan in the morning and watch autumn chrysanthemum in the evening", "You can't see that you appreciate orchids when you wait on Ai", "You used to be a fragrant grass, but now you are", and "Pepper is only used to slow down your meal, and wood kills you, so you have to mend your husband's shoes".

During the Qin and Han Dynasties, with the unification of the country and the expansion of its territory, spices produced in hot and humid areas in the south gradually entered China. With the activities of "Land Silk Road" and "Maritime Silk Road", many spices from Southeast Asia, South Asia and Europe were introduced into China. Agarwood, storax, chicken tongue, etc. It has become the best in the furnace of princes and nobles in the Han Dynasty. The prevalence of Taoism and the introduction of Buddhism in Han Dynasty also promoted the development of incense culture in this period to some extent.

In the early Western Han Dynasty, incense was popular among the nobles before Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Pottery fuming stoves and smoked herbs unearthed from Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha.

Incense is particularly popular in southern Guangdong and Guangxi. Smokers in the Han Dynasty even spread to Southeast Asia, and pottery stoves engraved with the words "the fourth year of the Yuan Dynasty" were found in Sumatra, Indonesia.

Boshan furnace has been popular for 700 years from the Western Han Dynasty to the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.

With the extensive use of incense burners, incense habits are more common. Officials who play stories for the emperor should also burn incense (incense clothes) first, and install "chicken tongue incense" when playing stories (the buds of Ding trees produced in Nanyang are used for incense).

In the Han Dynasty, there was also a "smoking cage" that could be placed directly in clothes for incense, and a "incense burner" that could be covered in a quilt, that is, "smoked meatballs". Two hemispherical hollowed-out metal pieces are buckled together, and a cup-shaped container is hung in the middle, which can burn incense. Even if you shake the perfume ball in your hand, the perfume in the container will not spill. )

Incense burners (including Boshan stoves), fumigation cages and other incense utensils are also common funerary objects in the tombs of emperors in Han Dynasty.

The rapid development of Hunan culture in Han Dynasty was greatly contributed by Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty. During his reign, he opened the frontier on a large scale, connected the western regions, unified South Vietnam, and opened sea routes, which not only promoted the exchanges between the East and the West, but also facilitated the introduction of spices from hot and humid areas in the south and overseas. Emperor Wu himself has a very beautiful gold-plated silver incense burner. Maybe he likes incense, too.

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, although wars continued, the incense culture still made great progress.

Incense is more common in high society. At the same time, Taoism and Buddhism are prevalent, and both advocate the use of incense.

During this period, people conducted in-depth research on the functions and characteristics of various spices, and widely used the compatibility of various spices to make unique fragrance, and the concept of "fragrant prescription" appeared. There are many kinds of formulas, and there are many special medicinal incense for treating diseases.

The meaning of "fragrance" has also evolved. It no longer only refers to "single fragrance", but also often refers to "fragrance made by mixing a variety of spices according to the fragrance formula", which is later called "combined fragrance". The evolution from a single spice to the compound use of multiple spices is an important development of spices. Boshan furnace, a beast-riding figure in the Western Han Dynasty

Sui and Tang Dynasties: the Maturity and Perfection of Hunan Culture

Before the Sui and Tang Dynasties, although the upper class respected incense, many spices suitable for smoking and burning, especially high-grade spices, were not from the mainland, but from the frontier or overseas, so the total amount of spices available was very small, even for the upper class, it was rare, even for lower-ranking officials, which greatly restricted the development of incense culture. After the Tang Dynasty, the situation was completely different.

With the Tang Dynasty becoming an unprecedented powerful empire, its foreign trade and domestic trade were unprecedentedly prosperous. A large number of spices from the western regions arrived in China through the Silk Road, which passed through the hinterland of Asia. Although the "land Silk Road" in the north was blocked after the Anshi Rebellion, with the improvement of shipbuilding and navigation technology, the "maritime Silk Road" in the south began to flourish after the middle Tang Dynasty, and a large number of spices entered the north through Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian. The prosperity of spice trade led to the emergence of many merchants specializing in spices in the Tang Dynasty. The prosperity of society and the growth of the total amount of spices have created extremely favorable conditions for the all-round development of incense culture.

In the Tang dynasty, a large number of scholars, medicine, medicine, Buddhism and Taoism participated in it, which made people's research and utilization of incense enter a refined and systematic stage. The sources, properties, processing, functions and compatibility of various spices have been specially studied, and the formulas for making synthetic incense are endless.

During this period, the use of fragrant products has also been completely and meticulously classified: incense for meeting guests, incense for bedroom, incense for practice and so on; Buddhism has the fragrance of Buddhism, Taoism has the fragrance of Taoism, and different cultivation methods have different fragrances ... It can be said that in the Tang Dynasty, it was specially used for fragrance.

Like the previous emperors, many emperors in the Tang Dynasty, such as Emperor Gaozong, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty and Emperor Wuhou, loved spices very much, and relied on their strong national strength to far surpass the previous emperors in the grade and quantity of incense. The emperor even paved the way with borneol and Yujin wherever he went.

The prosperity of Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty is also an important driving force of incense culture. The Buddhist scriptures praise incense greatly, and incense is used in almost all Buddhist activities. Not only do you have to burn incense when you worship Buddha, but monks also have to burn incense before they come to power. At the popular bathing Buddhist ceremony at that time, the Buddha was bathed in the first-class fragrant soup; Buddhist temples, altars and other places often splash perfume. Most of the emperors in the Tang Dynasty believed in Buddhism, and the royal Buddhist activities were frequent, so it is conceivable that they used incense.

A large number of gold, silver and jade articles appeared in incense burners in the Tang Dynasty. Even if they imitate the style of Boshan furnace in the previous dynasty, their appearance is more gorgeous.

Smoked balls (appeared in Han Dynasty), incense sticks and other incense sticks began to be widely used. The smoked ball consists of two hemispherical hollowed-out metal sheets with a cup-shaped container suspended in the middle. Incense can be burned in a container, and even if it is shaken, it will not spill. Xiangdou is a small incense burner with a long handle, which can be held in your hand.

Cloisonne enamel incense inlay is mainly used for offering Buddha. )

In Dunhuang murals, you can often see colorful incense sticks in the Tang Dynasty, such as Xiangdou and Boshan Furnace.

Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties: Prosperity and Popularization of Fragrant Culture

After the Song Dynasty, not only Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism advocated the use of incense, but incense also became a part of ordinary people's daily life. In the living room hall, there are incense in all kinds of banquet and celebration places, and there are also people responsible for burning incense; There are not only incense here, but also various exquisite sachets that can be hung. Spices will be added when making snacks, tea soup, Mo Ding and other items; There are special shops in the market that supply incense. People can not only buy incense, but also invite people to make incense at home. When women from rich families travel, they are often accompanied by aromatherapy balls. Scholars not only use incense, but also make their own incense, call friends and appreciate the taste.

From the history books of the Song Dynasty to the descriptions of novels of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, we can see that incense after the Song Dynasty has a very close relationship with people's lives.

During this period, there were more and more kinds of formulas, more sophisticated production techniques and more colorful fragrance types. In addition to sweet cakes, fragrant pills and incense sticks, "seal incense" (also known as "seal incense") has been widely used. It uses molds to press the prepared powder into round patterns or characters, which not only facilitates the use of incense, but also adds a lot of interest. In many places, printing incense is also used as a tool for timing.

Different from "burning incense", the method of "burning incense in the fire" is also very popular: instead of lighting incense directly, first light a piece of charcoal (or charcoal briquettes), bury most of it in incense ashes, then put a heat transfer sheet (such as mica sheet) on the charcoal, and finally put incense (single spice or prepared incense pills) on the sheet, so that it "smokes" slowly.

By the Ming dynasty, incense thread had been widely used and formed a mature production technology. There are records about incense in all kinds of ancient books, especially Zhou's Xiang Cheng.

Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica also contains a lot of contents about incense and spices, such as: Rhizoma Cyperi, "Rubella can cure wind-cold rheumatism in frying and bathing"; "The combination of frankincense, benzoin and camphor wood can cure death"; "Burning agarwood, honey incense, sandalwood, Dalbergia odorifera, Styrax, benzoin, camphor, Gleditsia sinensis, etc. Together, we can stop the plague. "

Compendium of Materia Medica also records the production process of linear incense (extruded into strips): using Radix Angelicae Dahuricae, Gan Song, Radix Angelicae Pubescentis, Flos Caryophylli, Herba Pogostemonis, Fructus Foeniculi, Radix et Rhizoma Rhei, Scutellariae Radix, and Cedar as powder, and adding elm bark as paste and agent, linear incense can be made.

In terms of incense, the most noteworthy thing in the Song Dynasty was porcelain. In the Song Dynasty, porcelain firing technology was superb, porcelain kilns were spread all over the country, and the output of porcelain incense burners (mainly incense burners) was very large. In terms of modeling, it either imitates the existing bronzes or has other innovations. Because the price of porcelain furnace is lower than that of copper furnace, it is very suitable for folk use. The five most famous official kilns in Song Dynasty, Guan, Ge, Ding, Ru and Chai, all produced a large number of incense burners. Although the porcelain furnace can't be as elaborate as the bronze furnace, the porcelain furnace in Song Dynasty has its own concise style and high aesthetic value.

During the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, incense burners, incense boxes, incense bottles and candlesticks became popular. During the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty personally supervised and sent skillful craftsmen to make a number of peerless bronze incense burners with tens of thousands of Jin of brass donated by Zhenla (now Cambodia) and a large amount of gold and silver jewelry replenished to the national treasury, which became the legend of later generations. "Xuande Furnace" has all kinds of wonderful characteristics, which are difficult to reproduce even with the current smelting technology.

For the literati in Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, incense has become an indispensable part of life. From Su Shi's superb recitation to the rich and detailed description of A Dream of Red Mansions, the description of incense in literary and artistic works of this period can be described as pitching.

Moreover, from the poems of Su Shi, Huang Tingjian, Chen Qufei, Zhu He, we can see that incense not only permeates the life of literati, but also has high taste. Even in daily life, incense is not only a fragrant thing, but also a spirit of enjoyment, aesthetics and enlightenment. Chemical essence is one of the main raw materials of cosmetics. Such as Su Shi's "Harmony"

Zhu's Fragrant World.

Modern and Contemporary Aromatic Culture

In ancient times, natural spices were used to make incense, but in modern times, chemical spices have become the main raw materials for making incense.

Chemical essence is one of the main raw materials of cosmetics.

Due to the development of chemical industry, synthetic spices (namely chemical flavors) appeared in Europe in the second half of the19th century. These chemical flavors can not only roughly simulate the taste of most spices, but also have easy access to raw materials (such as oil and coal tar) and extremely low cost, so it is easy to produce very rich fragrance. Therefore, it quickly replaced natural perfume and became the main perfuming agent in modern industrial production and perfume industry.

Compared with natural perfume, perfume made of chemical essence is cheap, which is made naturally by manufacturers, sold by merchants and bought by pilgrims. So most of the perfumes we see in the market now are these chemical spices. They are called sandalwood and agarwood, but in fact they just use the chemical essence of "sandalwood flavor" or "heavy fragrance".

Compared with natural spices, chemical flavors have similar or even stronger fragrance, but they are not the same in terms of fragrance quality, calming the nerves and keeping healthy, enlightening the spirit and so on. Many natural spices are listed as top-grade medicinal materials, and as synthetic spices of chemical products, they look very fragrant at first glance, but if used too much, they will be harmful to health. Moreover, even in terms of smell alone, chemical flavors are only close to and far from natural flavors.

Chemical flavors and fragrances are popular because most pilgrims just burn incense as a ritual. Since we don't smell or taste incense, we just burn incense to see, naturally we ignore the material, formula and quality of incense, and only pay attention to the beauty or rich fragrance of incense.

The extensive use of chemical essence and chemical processing technology has also substantially changed the modern and contemporary aroma-making technology. Although some traditional methods and techniques are still adopted, they are only peripheral and formal, while the core contents such as the selection, processing, compatibility and temperature of spices are discarded. One of the consequences is the interruption of fragrance-making technology and the loss of fragrance spectrum formula, so that few people are really proficient in traditional fragrance-making technology now.

Although chemical essence is the main force now, you can still see the fragrance made of natural spices, which also leaves room for people who like to taste the fragrance.

At present, there are mainly two kinds of natural spices: one is the "single fragrance" of a single spice (or basically keep the original state of the spice, such as block, strip or powder; Or made into thread incense, coil incense and other shapes). Although its quality is better than chemical fragrance, its taste and health-preserving function cannot be fully exerted by directly using a single fragrance, and many spices such as sandalwood are not suitable for use alone. The ancients had a clear saying that "sandalwood is burned alone, and naked burning is easy to float in the air, which makes the gods restless for a long time." This kind of single incense is only the original method of using incense before the Han Dynasty. After the Han and Tang dynasties, the main use was "lotus fragrance" (blended with various spices).

The second category is a combination of spices, mostly linear incense, coil incense and so on. However, the manufacture of traditional synthetic incense not only needs natural spices as raw materials, but also needs reasonable formula and strict processing methods and techniques. But as far as I know, most of the few natural spices that can be seen in the market are only made of natural spices, and there are very few authentic spices that are really made according to the ancient method.

Nowadays, people's neglect of the quality of incense and the adoption of chemical essence and chemical processing technology have greatly lowered the technical threshold for making incense, so that there are many perfumers now, and the quality of incense products is uneven. The fragrant products on the shelves have more and more fancy names, richer shapes and more gorgeous packaging, but there are few "fragrant treasures" in the "golden jade". Inferior ones only smell of burning grass after being lit, or they are vulgar although they are rich in fragrance. These so-called incense can be said to have the shape of incense, which ruined the reputation of incense. Faced with these fakes, it is no wonder that people nowadays are reluctant to enjoy the fragrance. I wonder if Dongpo can still write poems here? How would it feel if the immortal Buddha and ancestors could really smell the smoke?

Although the current incense and incense culture are not as good as those in ancient times, with the improvement of people's material and spiritual living standards, more and more people like to taste and use incense in recent years, which has higher requirements for the quality of incense; At the same time, more people who love and understand incense began to devote themselves to inheriting and carrying forward the traditional incense culture. With the further prosperity of social economy and culture, China's fragrant culture will also be full of vitality, showing wonderful and charming Millennium charm in this great era.

The development of modern incense culture Since the late Qing Dynasty, continuous wars, long-term political turmoil and the spread of western social thoughts have made the traditional social system in China suffer an unprecedented impact, and China incense culture has also entered a more difficult development period.

To a great extent, tasting and using incense is a kind of luxury, so the development of incense culture needs a stable and prosperous "prosperous" environment, and the constant turmoil of modern society not only greatly affects the development of incense trade and incense-making industry, but also makes people lose their leisure.

On the other hand, modern China lagged behind the western world in science, technology and military affairs, which also aroused people's doubts about traditional culture and began to widely accept modern western cultural ideas. However, when the nation is in danger, it is inevitable that the reflection on traditional culture is too extreme, resulting in overcorrection and sports criticism, which makes many essences of traditional culture confused with dross and denied at the same time, and even the concepts of spiritual purity and self-cultivation are criticized as negative attitudes. In this extreme reflection, it will inevitably involve the fragrant culture with distinctive traditional characteristics.

At the same time, with the evolution of the life style and values of the literati class, the strength of the literati class, which has long supported and promoted the development of Hunan culture in China since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, has become weaker and weaker. In this situation, the fragrant culture, which has long been integrated into the piano room of the factory study and daily life, has gradually drifted away, losing its connotation of calming the nerves, beautifying life and cultivating the soul, and is mainly kept as a sacrificial ceremony in temple fairs.