Incense, as a necessary thing for the ancients to keep healthy at home and cultivate their sentiments, was widely used in the lives of the ancients.
Incense culture should have originated from Chu State in the Spring and Autumn Period, where the land was wet and incense was used indoors to remove filth, prevent mildew and sterilize.
During the Dragon Boat Festival, people will burn or smoke aromatic plants such as Artemisia argyi and Acorus calamus, so as to ward off epidemics, kill various pests and reduce diseases in summer.
The current mosquito-repellent incense and the common sanitary incense in hotel bathrooms probably developed from the function of repelling epidemics and avoiding filth.
As for Shi Shuo Xin Yu and other books, it is recorded that Shi Chong deodorized the toilet with agarwood, which is a naked show of wealth.
At that time, spices were very rare, and only the royal family and the upper class could afford them.
Cao Cao recited the housework before his death, including the words "Yu Xiang can share with his wife without sacrifice".
Shi Chong's best thing in this life is to show off his wealth, decorate the toilet like a palace, and invite a dozen well-dressed girls to wait on him. "Jia Jia Jian powder, a genus of Shen Xiang, is readily available." There are all kinds of fragrant powders for washing hands and wiping faces, and the toilet is equipped with sachets (equivalent to toilet paper sprayed with perfume). Guests should sprinkle agarwood powder after going to the toilet to remove the odor. As a result, guests were afraid to go to the bathroom when they went to his house.
It is the second generation of officials who burn the most money in history.
Many herbs are recorded in Lisao and Chuci. Although the poet expressed his noble character, it also shows that Chu people have the habit of wearing herbs.
In TV series, women usually give sachets as a symbol of love. Anyone who has seen A Dream of Red Mansions should never forget the sachet used by goblins to fight.
Wearing sachets should have evolved from the habit of wearing vanilla.
Sachets, also called sachets, are worn by both men and women. You can add vanilla directly, or you can add spices and powder.
In ancient times, there were many incense sticks to wear. Jia Baoyu's sachet contains two dollars of agarwood and instant incense. After all, he is a noble family.
More should be the plum blossom fragrance, rose fragrance, peony fragrance and so on recorded in Xiangcheng.
In the 26th episode of "Jin Ping Mei", Song Huilian gave Simon a fragrant pouch: "It contains pine and cypress, rose stamens, and stumbled to mow the grass".
Etiquette incense, one is religious incense, the so-called burning incense to worship Buddha, since ancient times to worship the ancestors of heaven and earth, temples, security halls, Taoist temples, land temples, all need to use.
Whether ordinary people or royalty, such a large amount of consumption and such a large market every year is enough to give birth to an industry, drive technological innovation and enrich varieties.
Religious use of incense can be said to be a major driving force for the development of incense culture.
Speaking of which, there is a question. Why burn incense when offering sacrifices to God?
Excluding the theory and stress of Buddhism and Taoism is actually because of the smoke released by burning incense.
The gods are illusory, hanging high in the foggy sky.
The morphological characteristics of smoke are similar to those of clouds.
So the ancients thought that they could communicate with the gods through smoke.
As everyone knows, Zhou Youwang beat warlords with bonfires, indicating that there were beacon towers in the Zhou Dynasty.
The beacon tower transmits information through smoke.
Erya, an ancient book written about the Warring States Period, records that "the sacrifice to heaven means burning wood."
Note and explanation: the ceremony of worshipping heaven is to pile up firewood and burn it with real people, jade and silk to make the smell of smoke reach the sky, so it is called firewood burning because of its name of worshipping heaven.
When the flame burns, people burn sacrifices, offer sacrifices to high-altitude gods through the smoke curling up in the air, and convey their prayers to the gods.
Then there is the religious concept of believing in incense. For example, Taoism says that "treasure incense is burned in a golden stove, and cigarettes spin to the sky."
In some paintings of ancient royalty or senior officials, we often see a couple holding incense burners with long handles in ceremonial ceremonies.
We can see the application of incense in court etiquette in the section of A Dream of Red Mansions.
In the Grand View Garden, "the pot burns lily fragrance, and the bottle is inserted into the heart of Changchun". Before the arrival of spring in January, Jia Jia first saw the royal etiquette: "Pairs of dragons, phoenixes, pheasants, feathers and golden hairpin are burning with royal fragrance. Then a golden umbrella with seven phoenixes came over, which was a crown robe with shoes. There are eunuchs on duty with Zhu Xiang, embroidered handkerchiefs, mouthwash and dusting clothes.
What Jia Fei saw in the Grand View Garden was: "So she entered the palace. But see the court burning empty, incense crumbs all over the ground, fire trees and flowers, golden windows and jade thresholds. I can't tell you how to roll shrimp whiskers with curtains, lay fish otters with carpets, float musk deer brains with a tripod, and screen fans with pheasant tails. "
There is another important occasion for royal etiquette to use incense, that is, to receive the imperial edict.
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, before taking orders, you should bathe and change clothes, put incense tables in class, put incense burners and other etiquette supplies on the incense tables before taking orders.
Before the Western Han Dynasty, people put herbs and spices in incense burners and lit them directly. The fireworks are very strong.
During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Borneolum Syntheticum and Styrax were introduced into Middle Earth. People began to make spices in the form of fragrant balls or cookies, put them on charcoal fire and light them slowly, with strong fragrance and little fireworks.
Incense also appeared in this period.
The shape of incense has changed, and the utensils need to be improved, so Boshan furnaces with different shapes and wonderful workmanship have appeared.
Boshan furnace body is mostly bean-shaped, with a high and pointed cover, which is often carved into a mountain shape, with overlapping mountains and many rare birds and animals, symbolizing the legendary Haixian Mountain.
When burning incense, the dense fog rises from the hollow stove cover, like a fairy wind, as if you were in a fairyland.
Incense burners were often called incense burners before and after the Han Dynasty. During the Warring States period, the manufacturing technology of incense burners was very exquisite.
It is estimated that other forms of incense burners appeared in the Western Jin Dynasty, and their uses were subdivided, so they were gradually called incense burners. After the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the name of incense burner was basically adopted.
About lavender, Bai Juyi has a poem: tears wet the silk scarf, and the temple sings before midnight. Beauty is not old, has lost the elegance of the king, and sat on warm clothes until dawn.
This smoking cage is an instrument to cover the incense burner. The most vivid example is a bamboo basket placed upside down on an incense burner, and clothes can be spread out and covered on it when incense is being smoked.
The common ones are woven with bamboo, while the expensive ones are made of gold, silver and ceramics.
In the Tang Dynasty, there was a poem "Gong Ci", which said, "Turn off the lights and iron the royal clothes every night, and it rains at the bottom of the silver smoke cage." The emperor's clothes should be ironed every day and incense should be made in a silver smoking cage.
Su E recorded the luxurious life of Yuan Zai, the prime minister, in Reading Foreign Miscellanies. When hanging Luo Renqi's embroidery, there were 20 gold and silver stoves to incense, all of which burned different incense.
In order to reduce the smoke when smoking clothes, the fragrant pill ointment is used, and the fragrance is slowly emitted by heating with fire, which slightly infiltrates the clothes and the fragrance can last for several days.
Historically, Zhao said, "If you sit there, the fragrance will last for a hundred days." The place where I have been sitting for three months is full of fragrance, which is too exaggerated.
Or Yu Xun's record in Romance of the Three Kingdoms is more reliable. "Xiangyang Ji" contains "Xun went to see others and sat there for three days." .
Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties were indeed a group of people who burned steamed buns.
Even with the method of fire roasting, in the eighth episode of A Dream of Red Mansions, the proud Baochai still dislikes "good clothes, smoky fire".
Cao Tingdong, a A Qing writer, once pointed out in Volume IV of Essays on Health: "Smoked cages can only be used for incense, and if warm quilts are used, the anger will be too great."
In the thirteenth episode of A Dream of Red Mansions, Wang Xifeng described it like this: "This night, Zheng and Deng were tired of embroidery, and ordered people to embroider quilts early. They slept and counted where to go, and before they knew it, they had already handed in three drums. "
In Jin Ping Mei, there are many descriptions about smoked bedding. The sixth time: "The thick quilt laid by the woman on the kang has long been under the bed, and the smoked quilt smells fragrant." The thirteenth time: "In the evening, there is a golden lotus fragrance and a silver lamp in the room."
In ancient times, the rich had to incense their bedding before going to bed. In addition to the use of smoking cages, there is also an extremely exquisite artifact that can be placed directly in bedding.
In the second1episode of Jin Ping Mei, Pan Jinlian and Meng Yulou go to Li Pinger's house to talk about banquets and enjoy the snow. Before Li Pinger got up, Pan Jinlian reached into the bed and touched the smoking silver ball.
Xiang Qiu appeared in the Tang Dynasty, also known as "incense burner lying on a mattress", "incense burner in a quilt", "sachet", "golden hairpin" and "smoked ball".
In the Ming Dynasty, Tian Yiheng recorded in Volume 22 of Liu Qingri Zagreb:
"Today's gold-plated fragrant balls are natural and graceful. Three of them are closed, with appropriate weight and endless circulation. They were put in the quilt, but the fire went out. Exquisite flowers and cigarettes are everywhere, which is the elegance of a real boudoir. "
Incense balls are usually hollow balls made of metal, which burn incense inside. No matter how the ball rotates, the incense pot containing spices in the ball is always horizontal. When burning, Mars will not leak out, and incense ashes will not scatter and burn bedding. Therefore, Li Pinger can sleep on his bed with a fragrant ball in his arms.
Yuan Zhen, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, once praised in a poem: "Follow the custom and only turn, never waver in the middle." I love you unexpectedly, and I'm still surprised that the fire will burn. "
We know that on more serious occasions, the ancients would burn incense and bathe first to show their solemn respect.
Zhou Li costustoot should first bathe directly with herbs such as Folium Artemisiae Argyi. Later, it developed into two things: bathing and burning incense.
Needless to say, taking a bath here is mainly for meditation.
For example, when the literati fiddled with it, they burned an incense burner, which was placed on the ground next to the portrait fiddled with by Song Huizong.
Mr. Chen Yinque said: "The culture of the Chinese nation has developed for thousands of years, which is the peak of the Zhao and Song Dynasties." In the hands of the people of Ya and Song Dynasties, the literati's various elegant things have reached the insurmountable peak of later generations.
Burning incense can be said to have reached the realm of Taoism in the Song Dynasty before it can be called incense.
Zhu Xinjian said that China's arts, such as playing chess, painting, calligraphy, poetry, hops and fragrant tea, are all made by a group of people with high IQ to kill their excess energy, because these people have read a lot of books and are capable and prepared to engage in politics, but there is not much work for them. If these people are restless and make trouble for the emperor every day, it will be a mess.
It is precisely because these people are all wise men that China's art can reach such a peak when he focuses on piano, chess, calligraphy and painting and puts the spiritual world on it.
Yang Wanli has a poem of burning incense: "The poet wears his own cologne, but the fragrance disappears. I want to open jasmine, and the dragon musk deer weighs less sandalwood. "
Yang Tingxiu wrote "Poetry of Burning Incense": "Cutting porcelain is brighter than water, and cutting silver is as light as paper. Without words and weapons, you can't afford to close the curtains. "
Huang Tingjian even claimed to have a fetish for incense. He once wrote a poem given to Su Shi by others, which was called "Fragrance in Jiangnan Account".
In the poem, there is a sentence that "a hundred fragrant snails sink in the water, and the treasure is smoked near the south of the Yangtze River", Su Shihe's sentence that "four words of burning incense spread all over the southeast with the wind", and Huang Tingjian's reply is also a sentence that "a cigarette is proud, and nine places are carefree".
Su Shi, who loves to play with incense, has a poem "Poetry of Printing Incense", which reads: "Yu Zi's birthday, sandalwood Guanyin statue, new silver printed incense". The mentioned seal and silver seal are the ways of using incense in Song Dynasty.
All kinds of incense materials are ground and mixed, which is called combined incense.
In order to facilitate ignition, it is stamped into fonts or graphics with seal script as the pattern with a mold, and then it is burned in sequence after ignition. This way of using incense is called "fragrant seal", also called "fragrant seal" and "fragrant extension".
Su Shi's silver printing plate is the mold for stamping incense, which is called "incense printing mold".
There is also a poem in "Su Xun": "Mash musk deer and sieve sandalwood into the mold to nourish the chicken."
It seems that Susan and her son like to play with incense and seals when they have nothing to do at home.
Li Qingzhao's Ci also has a poem "The incense is burnt out, and the shadow of the sun is hooked".
When we talk about fragrance now, we generally mean printing incense. This is what the popular Xiangxiang class is playing in recent years.
Li Qingzhao and Zhao Mingcheng are lovers of epigraphy. They will not hesitate to "undress" when they meet the paintings and calligraphy of celebrities.
Li Qingzhao wrote in the Preface to the Inscription: "If you get a book, a painting, an easy job and a good job, you should also play with scrolls, criticize flaws and make a candle at night."
There is a sentence in her famous "Drunken Flowers": "The fog is thick and the clouds are light and always sad, and the mind is refreshed and sells golden beasts."
Ruinao is a kind of perfume, also known as borneol, that is, borneol. The Golden Beast is an animal-shaped bronze incense burner.
Smoking utensils in the shape of ducks and animals were very popular in the Song Dynasty, mostly made of metal, called "beast stove" or "fragrant beast".
"Sumo" records:
"This delicious beast is painted with gold in the shape of armadillos, unicorns and ducks. It burns incense in the air and makes smoke come out of its mouth, thinking it's fun. "
This kind of duck-shaped and animal-shaped fuming stove is also common in Song Ci.
Ouyang Xiu's Yue Xi Chun, "Shen Musk Deer Don't Burn Golden Duck Cold, Take Pear Flowers in Cage", and Zhou Zizhi's "Partridge Sky", "Adjust the treasure and dial the gold, and then sing partridge talk together". Liu Yong worships heaven:? "Remember to gently push the embroidered blanket to each other. Pingshan is covered, red wax is bright, and golden beasts are full of smoked orchids. "
The most famous is Zhou Bangyan's wonderful poem about Li Shishi: "The sword is like water, Wu Yan wins the snow, and the hand breaks the new orange. At the beginning of the brocade, the animals kept smoking and sat opposite each other. "
When it comes to incense burners, we can't help but talk about the famous Xuande furnace.
Xuande Furnace is a bronze incense burner made of tens of thousands of catties of brass donated by Zhenla (present-day Cambodia) according to the shape of the incense burner in Song Dynasty. It was designed and supervised by Zhu Zhanji, Emperor Xuanzong of Ming Dynasty, in the third year of Xuande in Daming.
Xuande furnace takes color as the bright spot and color blends in.
Xiang (), a connoisseur, collector and painter in the Wanli period, said: "The beauty of the furnace lies in its full beads, expensive color and beautiful appearance."
The furnace is regular, elegant and exquisite, and it is also quite elegant as a study display.
In the paintings of Ming and Qing dynasties, the study is often depicted as clear and fun, and the typical facilities are stoves and bottles.
That is, incense boxes, incense burners and candle bottles.
The stove is used to burn incense, the box is used to hold sweet cake, incense sticks and other incense products, and the incense stick bottle is convenient for placing incense shovels and incense sticks. A incense shovel is used to shovel incense ashes in the furnace, and incense sticks are used to pick up incense.
There is a description in the 40th episode of Jin Ping Mei: "(Pan Jinlian) looked at the table next to him, and there was a copper wire stove for baking inkstone tiles. He took it and put it on his hand. Sister Li, there are some sweet cakes in the box with fragrant teeth. Please bring me some. "
With the introduction of perfume, the ancient incense custom in China disappeared in people's lives.
After becoming an intangible cultural heritage, Xiangdao has gradually revived in recent years. Whether it is arty or cultivating sentiment, Chinese traditional culture is always emerging one after another. It's better than offering an altar after death, making future generations doubt whether it ever existed, or thinking elegantly about China's classical civilization on paper.