The fragrance of heaven: the history of the development of incense culture
China's incense culture originated from Shennong tasting hundreds of herbs. Throughout the dynasties, different incense utensils and different ways of producing incense have been used to burn different spices in activities such as rituals, religion, medicine, social interaction, home life, and personal enjoyment.
Incense culture has a long history. It is a cultural activity and life behavior carried out by the Chinese nation in various aspects such as politics, economy and culture in a long historical process, using different spices and different ways of producing incense on different occasions, thus developing a unique Chinese incense culture system, which has risen from a cultural phenomenon to a cultural concept. Incense culture accompanies the unique political, religious, cultural and life views of the Chinese people, and is integrated into the traditional Chinese philosophical system.
The nature and connotation of incense culture is not just about smelling the fragrance of spices and displaying the incense ceremony. Incense culture is a comprehensive art culture that also has the function of self-cultivation. For example, the function, shape, and decoration of incense utensils are formed after people from all generations have thought about art and philosophy. This is an extremely important part of incense culture and is also a "metaphysics" that transcends the smoke and fragrance of spices. In summary, incense culture is composed of incense-producing activities such as spices, incense utensils, and incense mats, which realize the sublimation from physiological feelings to psychological feelings. Obviously, the profound incense culture is not just about tasting the fragrance of incense and displaying the incense ceremony.
Shennong Tasting Herbs
From the vertical trajectory of the historical development of incense culture, the original incense culture is "Shennong tasted hundreds of herbs and identified the fragrance of them; the ancestors drove away insects and epidemics, and often created smoke and haze." In "The Biography of Tianxiang" written by Ding Wei in the Song Dynasty, it says "The use of incense dates back to ancient times. So it can be used to worship gods and achieve purification." It means that the history of using incense can be traced back to ancient times. It can be used to worship gods and achieve the purpose of warding off filth and purification.
The Legend of Tianxiang
We cannot prove that prehistoric ancestors had already begun to use green plants as incense and wander in the ideological field, but we have reason to infer that prehistoric ancestors had already begun to use green plants as fumigation to fight against mosquitoes and plagues.
The incense culture of the Han and Jin Dynasties was "the common people worshipped ghosts and gods with the incense; the nobles looked at the wind with incense and sent warmth." The Zhou people raised incense to offer sacrifices to the heavens, which was called "禋" or "禋祭". During the Qin and Han Dynasties, the country was unified and the territory was expanded. Spices produced in the hot and humid southern regions gradually entered the Central Plains, and many spices from Southeast Asia, South Asia and Europe were also introduced to China. Suhexiang, chicken tongue incense, agarwood, and wood incense had become the best in the furnaces of princes and nobles in the Han Dynasty. The prevalence of Taoist thought in the Han Dynasty and the introduction of Buddhism into China also promoted the development of incense culture during this period to a certain extent. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, incense was more common in the upper class. At the same time, Taoism and Buddhism flourished, and both advocated the use of incense.
Incense Culture in the Sui and Tang Dynasties
The incense culture of the Sui and Tang dynasties was "the three religions spread the heavenly sound, and incense helped meditation; the swallows in front of the emperor's hall flew and raised the fairy smoke." In the Tang Dynasty, there was a complete and detailed classification of the uses of incense: the hall had hall furnaces and offering furnaces for burning incense, the bedroom had sleeping furnaces and smoke balls for burning incense, the study had literary furnaces and piano furnaces for burning incense, and the practice had walking furnaces and scripture pressure furnaces for burning incense, and so on, each different. More specifically, Buddhism has its own incense, Taoism has its own incense, Confucianism has its own incense, and different cultivation methods have different incense... It can be said that in the Tang Dynasty, special incense was used for special purposes. Among the incense utensils of the Tang Dynasty, the standard of the incense burner also underwent new changes, that is, the shallow chamber directly ignited the herbal spices to the deep chamber incense burner of "burning incense through fire". It was precisely because of the development of the Tang Dynasty that the popularization of incense culture later became a natural and inevitable thing.
Incense burner
The incense culture during the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties was "a world of incense in thousands of homes, and incense in every household; the three realms of heaven, earth and man are surrounded by incense every day." After the Song Dynasty, not only did Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism advocate the use of incense, but incense also became a part of ordinary people's daily life. From the historical books of the Song Dynasty to the descriptions of Ming and Qing novels, we can see that the relationship between incense and people's lives after the Song Dynasty has been very close. After the Song Dynasty, the method of "burning incense" became popular, which was different from "burning" incense. In the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, the combination of incense burners, incense boxes, incense bottles, candlesticks, etc. became popular. For literati since the Song Dynasty, incense has become an indispensable part of life. Even in daily life, incense is not just a fragrant thing, but has become a wonderful thing that is pleasing, aesthetic and enlightening.
The incense culture of modern times is "the smoke of gunpowder makes people squint, and people are all cold and fragrant; a gust of fragrant wind blows by, and China is filled with smoke again." With the decline of the aristocracy in modern China, China's incense culture has also declined. At the same time, the ideological trends of modern times, especially the evolution of the lifestyle and values of the literati class, have weakened the power that has long supported and promoted the development of Chinese incense culture since the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Under such circumstances, the incense culture that has long been integrated into the study, piano room and daily life has gradually faded away, losing its connotation of calming the mind, beautifying life, and cultivating the soul, and is mainly retained in temple sacrifices as a sacrificial ritual.
Modern Incense
With the improvement of people's material and spiritual living standards, more and more people like to taste and use incense in recent years, and have higher requirements for the quality of incense; at the same time, more people who love and understand incense have begun to devote themselves to the inheritance and promotion of traditional incense culture. With the further prosperity of social economy and culture, Chinese incense culture will also be rejuvenated and flourish, showing its wonderful and fascinating millennium charm in this great era.
From the horizontal level of the nature and characteristics of incense culture: the first is the ritual incense culture , that is, the primitive respect for heaven and ancestor worship. Since the Zhou and Qin Dynasties, incense culture has been used in ritual politics, music, etc.; the second is the religious incense culture , that is, incense culture is used to worship Buddha, Taoism, and Confucianism; the third is the social incense culture , which is used for tea tables, piano tables, study rooms, etc.; the fourth is the home incense culture , which is used to repel mosquitoes, avoid plague, fumigate clothes and quilts, etc.
From the classification of spices and the characteristics of their fragrance: the first is resin fragrance , such as agarwood, sandalwood, etc., which is mainly sweet and has the characteristic of burning with hot fire. The second is cream fragrance , such as ambergris, musk, etc., which is mainly fragrant and greasy, and has the characteristics of both fumigation and fumigation. The third is flower and grass fragrance , such as orchids, wormwood, etc., which has sweet and spicy flavors, and has the characteristics of both fumigation and fumigation. The fourth is melon and fruit fragrance , such as chayote, cypress seeds, etc., which has sweet and spicy flavors, and has the characteristics of both fumigation and fumigation. The fifth is mixed (water) fragrance , such as incense powder, incense dew, etc., which has sweet and spicy flavors, and has the characteristics of both fumigation and fumigation.
From the classification characteristics of incense utensils, different incense utensils are used for different purposes and spices. For example, incense burners are used in temples, offering burners are used to worship heaven and earth, ghosts and gods, fumigating clothes and quilts in bedrooms, writing burners are used in study rooms, and piano burners are used in piano desks.
In short, the Chinese incense culture is not only about smelling the scent of agarwood, but also about using different incense utensils in different situations to let different spices emit different aromas. It is both a perceptual olfactory and visual activity and a rational inner perception activity. The Chinese incense culture has been integrated into philosophy "metaphysically" and deeply into people's daily lives "physically".