The same wisp of "xiang" serves different purposes at different moments: what burns in the censer is ritual and night, what blossoms on the branch is spring and character, what is worn on clothing is affection and obsession, what is sensed among the seats is Chan and stillness, what drifts along the road is feasting and wandering. Here, poems and lyrics containing the character "xiang" are divided into five volumes by context, making it convenient to study them by theme.
The censer is the most common place for incense. Boshan censers, golden beasts, golden lions, sleeping ducks, jade ducks, incense warmers... the vessel's name is the incense's name, and when the incense is exhausted, the night is deep. This volume collects specifically incense "burned in the censer, reduced to ash in the censer."
In the Boshan censer burns agarwood fire; twin smokes as one breath rise above the purple clouds.
The Boshan censer is a mountain-shaped incense burner popular since the Han dynasty; agarwood fire is the smoke of burning agarwood. "Twin smokes as one breath" depicts love like intertwined incense smoke—for the first time, censer incense became a metaphor for romantic love.
Explaining the spring breeze's boundless regret, north of the Agarwood Pavilion, leaning on the railing.
The Agarwood Pavilion was a pavilion built of agarwood wood in the Tang dynasty's Xingqing Palace. The pavilion was named for fragrant wood, and thus incense entered the imperial gardens and romantic intrigue.
Her beauty not yet aged, but favor already severed; leaning askew against the incense warmer, she sits until dawn.
The incense warmer is a bamboo cage placed over charcoal fire to scent clothes and bedding. Palace ladies sit by the warmer at night, fragrance and loneliness growing together—censer incense fully captures the long nights of the deep palace.
The golden toad bites the lock as incense smoke enters; the jade tiger pulls the silk rope as one returns from drawing well water.
The golden toad is a toad-shaped incense burner; "incense smoke enters" means incense is burned within it. The incense burner and the well windlass are set in parallel, depicting the deep courtyard's secluded stillness.
The dance-phoenix mirror box puts away the last traces of eyebrow paint; the sleeping-duck censer is changed to evening incense.
Sleeping duck: a duck-shaped incense censer; evening incense: incense changed at dusk. At the start of the night, changing the incense serves as a ritual.
Jade censer incense, red candle tears, casting light on autumn thoughts in the painted hall.
Incense burned in a jade censer, red candles shedding tears; censer incense and candle tears together depict autumn-night longing—a classic image of late Tang incense poetry.
Thin mist and dense clouds, sorrow through the endless day; borneol incense fades in the golden beast.
Ruinao is borneol (bingpian), and the golden beast is a beast-shaped incense censer. Alone on the Double Ninth, the borneol in the censer slowly burns out—incense is time, and also the measure of solitude.
The incense has gone cold in the golden lion; the quilt tosses in red waves; I rise and listlessly comb my hair.
Golden lion: a lion-shaped incense censer; cold incense: the incense has burned out while the censer is still warm. "Cold incense" depicts a person's listlessness and emotional languor—exceedingly delicate and restrained.
The jade duck censer idly holds borneol incense; the red cherry bed curtain covers the tassels.
Jade duck: a duck-shaped jade incense censer; idle borneol: borneol incense laid aside unburned. The censer is at hand but the incense is unlit—the material embodiment of "grieving for spring."
Burning agarwood to dispel the damp heat. Birds call for clear weather, peeking and chattering under the eaves at dawn.
The three words "burning agarwood" are the most direct record of burning agarwood in Song colloquial speech—burning agarwood in summer to dispel damp heat; incense entered daily life.
The incense in the golden censer has burned out, the water-clock sound fades; a sharp, light wind brings gusts of cold.
Incense ash: the incense has burned out; the incense's exhaustion depicts the depth of night and the waning of the watch.
Cold seeps into the rush mat, the iron inkstone is warm; the incense in the golden duck is spent, the night about to divide.
Golden duck: a duck-shaped incense censer; incense spent and night dividing depict studying hard on a cold night, incense and water clock running out together.
Ten thousand scrolls, small characters by the bright window, eyes blurred with only mottled hues; a stick of incense burns out and the fire grows cold, half a lifetime gone, the body old, the heart at leisure.
"A stick of incense burns out and the fire grows cold, half a lifetime gone, the body old, the heart at leisure" — the incense in the censer burns away; this is the supreme line of Song-dynasty incense delight (see details inDiscussions of Incense by Various Authors）。
Sudden snow swirls like catkins by the incense chamber, a light breeze blows to the vase of plum, the heart-shaped seal is now ash.
Xin zi, the heart-shaped incense (seal incense molded in the shape of the character for heart); cheng hui, the incense spent. "The heart-shaped seal turned to ash" puns on a heart turned to ash — Nalan writes of love through censer incense, most poignantly.
The "fragrance" in this scroll is not in the censer but in the wind, on the branches, in the fields — the breath of the plants themselves. Plum, chrysanthemum, rice, osmanthus, grass: fragrance is both style and season.
The late-day sun, rivers and mountains fair; spring wind, grasses and flowers fragrant.
The plainest line of fragrance — the breath of grasses and flowers in the spring wind, the ground tone of High Tang spring.
Sparse shadows slant across the clear shallow water, a hidden fragrance floats in the dusk of the moon.
An eternal masterpiece on the fragrance of plum; Jiang Kui later created the two ci tune-patterns "Hidden Fragrance" and "Sparse Shadows," which take their names from this line.
From afar I know it is not snow, for a hidden fragrance comes.
Using "hidden fragrance" to tell the plum in the snow — from afar it looks like snow, only by scent does one know it is plum; fragrance becomes the confirmation beyond sight.
The plum must yield to the snow by three parts whiteness, yet the snow loses to the plum by one stretch of fragrance.
The debate of plum and snow, with "fragrance" as the plum's victory. One line settles the eternal case of plum poetry.
Helpless, the flowers fall away; familiar, the swallows return. Alone I pace the fragrant path of the little garden.
Fragrant path: fallen blossoms pave the way, still fragrant underfoot. Floral fragrance entwines with fading spring and solitary pacing.
By the eastern hedge I raise my cup after dusk, and a hidden fragrance fills my sleeves.
Chrysanthemum fragrance fills the sleeves—the "hidden fragrance" of the second stanza echoes the ruinao in the brazier of the first, one brazier one branch, both the fragrance of Chongyang.
In the fragrance of rice flowers they speak of a bumper year, and hear a chorus of frogs.
The most worldly line of fragrance—not a famous incense in a brazier, but the fragrance of rice flowers in the fields, the common people's hope for a bumper year.
Scattered and ground to dust, only the fragrance remains as before.
Though the plum is ground to dust, its fragrance does not change—using floral fragrance to write of the scholar's integrity, the most resolute of the eternal plum-blossom poems.
When people are at leisure, osmanthus flowers fall; in the still night, the spring mountain is empty.
Osmanthus falls finely, using the subtlety of "fragrance" to write the emptiness of the mountain and the leisure of the person—Zen meaning is already within the floral fragrance.
I do not need people to praise my fine color, only to leave pure qi filling heaven and earth.
"Pure qi" is an elegant name for fragrance; using plum fragrance to describe one's own character, this is the solitary purity of country and self in the plum-painting inscriptions of the Yuan people.
Fragrance can be worn, can be used to scent, can be condensed upon clothing. This scroll writes of "fragrance carried on the body"—scent sachets, heart-character silk garments, agarwood, sandalwood and rouge, fragrant cheeks: the ancient aesthetics of bodily fragrance.
In a golden box is held red snow, and a sachet is tied again with four-petaled flowers.
The scent sachet, a pouch holding fragrance, worn by both men and women in the Tang dynasty. Red snow may be a metaphor for fragrant powder; the sachet is a token of fragrance worn on the body.
I remember first meeting Xiaoping, in a silk garment of double heart characters. On the pipa strings I told of longing.
The heart-character silk garment, a clothing fragrance embroidered (or scented) into the shape of the character for heart. The fragrance on the clothing became the person first met in memory—Song lyrics use clothing fragrance to write of love, most tenderly.
Little hills overlap, golden light flickers; cloudy hair is about to pass over fragrant cheeks white as snow.
"Fragrant cheeks" uses fragrance as a metaphor for skin, a customary device of late-Tang sensuous lyrics—fragrant without burning, the fragrance is in the skin.
Leaning slantwise on the embroidered bed, so charmingly languid, she chews red velvet and laughs, spitting toward her sandalwood lover. A touch of agarwood and sandalwood lightly applied.
Chen and tan: fragrant cosmetics (rouge) made from agarwood and sandalwood; "lightly applied a touch" describes the Southern Tang palace makeup using fragrance on the face—fragrance has ascended to the dressing table.
Painted with fragrant ink in curved strokes, evenly blended with swallow rouge. A blue-dyed blouse, an apricot-yellow skirt.
Fragrant ink: ink mixed with fragrance; using fragrance in makeup and clothing was the daily delight of the Song dynasty.
The fragrant mist is thin, passing through layered curtains.
The fragrant mist of clothes-incense and bed-curtain incense passes through the blinds—the fragrance of garments and the fragrance of curtains are the breath of the deep boudoir.
Clouds evoke her garments, flowers evoke her face; the spring breeze brushes the railing, the dew is rich and heavy.
Though the word "fragrance" is not written directly, "flowers evoke her face" likens her garments to floral fragrance—the consort's garments are the fragrance of peonies.
When incense enters the Zen gate, it is no longer merely a scent but a gateway to awakening. This scroll collects works of literati who "practice Zen through incense"—the nose contemplates first; one stick burns out, the fire grows cold, half a lifetime of leisure in the heart.
Four lines of incense-burning gatha, spreading with the fragrance throughout the southeast; not reachable by hearing and thinking—let the nose contemplate first.
Dongpo harmonizes with Huang Tingjian (Luzhi) in praise of incense, writing incense burning as Zen practice. "The nose contemplates first"—incense is a gateway to awakening, beyond reach of thought and discussion.
Ten thousand volumes by the bright window, small characters; eyes blurred with only mottled patterns; one stick burns out, the fire grows cold; half a lifetime grown old, the heart at leisure.
Smoke fades and fire cools, yet the heart is at leisure—where incense ends is stillness, the highest line of Song-dynasty incense Zen (see in detailVarious Authors on Incense）。
Moving spirits and deities, purifying mind and body, able to remove defilement, able to awaken from sleep, becoming a friend in stillness, stealing leisure amid dust...
Shangu writes of the virtues and uses of incense in "Ten Virtues": sitting in stillness, awakening from sleep, becoming a friend, stealing leisure—all are daily applications in the Zen gate—incense is a friend when sitting alone, leisure amid worldly toil.
By the bright window, the quiet day is prolonged; sitting silently, worldly ties dissolve; about to take boundless thoughts and lodge them in this one stick of smoke.
A work of peerless purity among Song-dynasty incense-burning poems: boundless feelings, all entrusted to a single column of smoke. Sitting in silence through the still day, incense itself is Zen.
Carved porcelain made into a censer, greener than water; young orioles now and then pass along a hidden fragrance.
Incense burned in a porcelain censer, its hidden fragrance borne in like young orioles—using sound to write of scent, the clever conceit of the Chengzhai style; incense dwells among the quiet offerings of leisure.
In recent years no one shares my hidden inclinations; I cultivate orchids, idly wishing to drift in the bright breeze. Truly this becomes the fragrant-cloud realm of a Buddha-land, not to be counted alongside the laurel groves of Huai Mountain.
Master Zhu writes of the pure Buddha-land reached through incense-burning as the 'fragrant-cloud realm'—the incense of a Neo-Confucian philosopher also opens onto the realm of Zen.
Incense also drifts among passersby and banquet tables. The fragrance filling the roads on Lantern Festival night, the perfumed carriage with painted wheels, the chrysanthemum scent of Double Ninth, the fragrance of spilled tea—this scroll writes of 'incense flowing among the crowd.'
East wind at night releases a thousand trees of blossoms, and further blows down stars like rain. Jeweled horses and carved carriages—fragrance fills the roads.
On Lantern Festival night, wherever carriages and horses pass, 'fragrance fills the roads'—incense is the air of the festival, and also the clue to seeking someone (the second stanza's 'a thousand times I sought her in the crowd').
The perfumed carriage with painted wheels is met no more; the gorge's clouds leave no trace, drifting west or east.
The perfumed carriage with painted wheels is the symbol of incense for writing of wandering women and chance encounters since the Tang and Five Dynasties—the carriage named for fragrance, the encounter remembered by fragrance.
Opening the window facing the threshing floor and garden, raising a cup to talk of mulberry and hemp. When the Double Ninth day comes, I'll return to enjoy the chrysanthemums.
Chrysanthemums on Double Ninth, their scent amid rustic evening talk—the incense of feasts and outings settles into the simplest places of the farmhouse.
Do not startle my heavy spring slumber with wine; matching wits over books, we savored the fragrance of spilled tea—at the time, I only thought it ordinary.
'Fragrance of spilled tea' alludes to Li Qingzhao and Zhao Mingcheng matching wits over books and spilling tea, using tea's fragrance to write of marital joy; 'at the time, I only thought it ordinary' mourns both the fragrance and the everyday together.
The famous flower and the beauty of a nation delight each other; ever does the sovereign gaze on them with a smile.
The banquet appreciation north of the Agarwood Pavilion (see Scroll One): famous flower, imperial consort, and sovereign rejoicing together—the incense of palace banquets is the luxury of a golden age.
From a wisp in the censer to rice blossoms in the fields, from the 'heart' character on a robe to a Buddha-land among the seats, the word 'incense' has traveled three thousand li in poetry: it has burned, bloomed, been worn, been contemplated, drifted—and at last all returns to human feeling and stillness.
Note: This page is a thematic sub-collection of poems containing the character "香" (fragrance)Thematic sub-collections(not exhaustive); citations are based on various collated collected works, Complete Tang Poems, and Complete Song Ci. For more famous lines containing "香," seeComplete Collection of Poems Containing the Character "香"for detailed annotations of famous works, seePoems on Incense。
The following Q&A is compiled from content on this site for quick reference; descriptions of the medicinal properties of incense materials reflect traditional understanding only and do not constitute medical advice.
They are divided by imagery themes, such as incense burners, incense ash, sachets, fragrant dreams, and fragrant snow, making it convenient to read famous lines from successive dynasties grouped by the same imagery.
It is suitable for citation in writing, lesson preparation for teaching, sourcing copy, and systematically experiencing the evolution of the imagery of "香" in classical literature by theme.
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