Nalan Xingde and Incense: Incense Imagery in the Drinking Water Ci

In Nalan Xingde's ci, the incense is almost always cold, dying, or already reduced to ashes.The most typical examples are "A gentle breeze blows to the plum in the vase, the heart-shaped incense has already become ash" from Meng Jiangnan, "Red wax weeps, blue silk quilt, deep water sinking incense" from Xiangjian Huan, and "Clearly a small portrait, a wisp of agarwood, a heart full of sorrow hard to paint" from Yuzhong Hao. He wrote incense not to write of wealth and rank, but only to write of the nights a person endured alone indoors.

Key points

• Nalan (1655–1685), courtesy name Rongruo, style name Lengjia Shanren, ci collection Drinking Water Ci. Wang Guowei commented that he "observes things with natural eyes and expresses feeling with a natural tongue."
• "The heart-shaped incense has already become ash" comes from Meng Jiangnan: The Dusk Crows Vanish, and is the peak of Nalan's incense imagery: the incense shape and the human heart burn out together.
• Xiangjian Huan: A Faint Cloud on a Distant Peak, "deep water sinking incense" describes the imagined scene of his wife alone in her chamber; water sinking incense is agarwood.
• Yuzhong Hao: Hand in Hand in the West Wind, Tears Not Dry, "clearly a small portrait, a wisp of agarwood" is about friendship; here incense becomes the background of the portrait.
• The famous line "betting on books, the fragrance of spilt tea" alludes to Li Qingzhao's Postface to Records on Metal and Stone; that is the fragrance of tea, not burned incense—the most easily misread passage.

I. Who Nalan was, and why his incense is cold

Nalan Xingde, born in the eleventh year of Shunzhi (1655), died in the twenty-fourth year of Kangxi (1685), living only thirty-one years.A Manchu of the Plain Yellow Banner, originally named Chengde, courtesy name Rongruo, style name Lengjia Shanren; his father was the Grand Secretary Mingzhu. He passed the metropolitan examination in the fifteenth year of Kangxi and rose to First-Class Imperial Bodyguard, constantly accompanying the emperor on tours.

Of his ci, Wang Guowei in Renjian Cihua gave an extremely apt appraisal:

Nalan Rongruo observes things with natural eyes and expresses feeling with a natural tongue.

His status was that of the highest nobility, yet what he wrote was extremely plain.This contrast is the premise of all his incense writing.

There were two truly major events in Nalan's life: first, an early hopeless romance (accounts vary; no need to insist on it), and second,the death of his first wife, Lady Lu, in the sixteenth year of Kangxi (1677). After that, his ci turned almost entirely to mourning and travel.

It was after this turning point that the incense turned cold.Before this, he wrote "tea named Dragon-Phoenix cake, incense shaped as mandarin-duck cakes" (Shengchazi: Sitting with Scattered Books in Settled Dust), the refined daily life of a noble young man; after this, incense was nothing but lingering smoke and cold ash.

II. The heart-shaped incense has turned to ash: the zenith of Nalan's incense imagery

The dusk crows have all flown; standing briefly, for whom does resentment arise? A sudden snow flurry overturns the willow catkins by the incense chamber; a light breeze reaches the plum in the gall-shaped vase; the heart-shaped incense has already turned to ash.

— Nalan Xingde, "Dreaming of Jiangnan · The Dusk Crows Have All Flown"

This poem of twenty-seven characters is the key to understanding Nalan's incense imagery.

Unpacked line by line:

• The dusk crows have all flown— the crows of dusk have all flown away; the sky is neither fully dark nor still light, and the person is still standing there;
• A sudden snow flurry overturns the willow catkins by the incense chamber— willow catkins are swept up by a sharp wind and blown into the "incense chamber" (a woman's boudoir);
• A light breeze reaches the plum in the gall-shaped vase— the evening breeze reaches the plum blossom placed in the gall-shaped vase;
• The heart-shaped incense has already turned to ash— that coil of heart-shaped incense has already burned to ash.

The first two lines are motion (snow flurrying, wind blowing); the last line is stillness (already turned to ash).All the liveliness is outside; inside the room only a brazier of cold ash remains.

"Heart-shaped" is a double entendre: the incense powder is coiled into the shape of the character "heart," and when it burns out, "the heart has turned to ash."Nalan presses three things into five characters: the shape of the incense, the process of burning, and the state of the human heart.This is the most ruthless stroke in Chinese incense imagery.

III. Thick sinking-grade agarwood: that room of the incense in imagination

Now look at another poem about travel and lodging.

A smear of faint clouds on distant peaks, cold and clear, just like the one who painted her brows at clear dawn.Red candle tears, blue silk quilt, thick sinking-grade agarwood, yet together with the thatched wild inn listening to the west wind.

— Nalan Xingde, "Joyful Meeting · A Smear of Faint Clouds on Distant Peaks"

"Sinking-grade" refers to incense made from agarwood. The structure of this poem is quite unusual:The first stanza depicts the scene before his eyes (distant mountains and faint clouds); the first nine characters of the second stanza are an imagined scene (at home: red candles shedding tears, the blue silk coverlet, agarwood thick in the air); the last line pulls back to reality (I am in a thatched inn in the wilds, listening to the west wind).

Here incense is the scent-coordinate of "home."He is not home, but he knows the agarwood at home is thick in the air.The colder the reality, the thicker the incense in imagination—this is Nalan's most frequently used device of contrast.

IV. Threads of Agarwood: Incense Can Also Write of Friendship

Nalan's incense is not only for mourning the dead; one censer also writes of friends.

Clasping hands in the west wind, tears unending; these years have mostly been spent in parting. From afar I know you sit alone listening to rain before the lamp; then I recall how together we watched the mountains after snow.

By this message, I urge you to eat well. Around the osmanthus season, let us meet again.Your small portrait stands clear in the threads of agarwood; yet that piece of heartbreak is impossible to paint.

—Nalan Xingde, "Yu Zhong Hao · Clasping Hands in the West Wind, Tears Unending"

This poem was sent to Gu Zhenguan (style name Liangfen). In the twentieth year of Kangxi (1681), Gu returned south to Wuxi for his mother's funeral, and Nalan composed this as a farewell gift.

How to read the last line: your small portrait is clearly visible amid the wisps of agarwood smoke, but that piece of heartbreak in your heart can never be painted.Here incense becomes a developing solution—the smoke brings the portrait out, yet it cannot bring out the heartbreak.

This line is often overlooked, but it shows that Nalan's approach to writing about incense is broader than "mourning the dead":Incense is his tool for "developing" all things invisible.People, feelings, past events—all float up on a wisp of smoke.

V. 'Gambling on books, the fragrance of spilled tea': a misreading that must be clarified

The last thing to clarify is his most famous line.

Who pities me, alone in the west wind's chill, as rustling yellow leaves close the latticed window, pondering past events standing in the setting sun?

Heavy with wine, do not startle the deep spring sleep,Gambling on books, I savored the fragrance of spilled tea; at the time, I only thought it ordinary.。

—Nalan Xingde, "Huan Xi Sha · Who Pities Me, Alone in the West Wind's Chill"

The allusion of "gambling on books and spilling tea" comes from Li Qingzhao's "Postscript to Jinshi Lu": after meals at the Guilai Hall in Qingzhou, she and Zhao Mingcheng would brew tea and, pointing to the piles of books and histories, wager on which book, which volume, which page, and which line a certain matter was recorded; whoever guessed right drank first, and the winner laughed so hard that she spilled the tea into her lap and never got to drink.

So the "fragrance" in this lineis the fragrance of tea, not incense from a censer.Nalan borrowed the happiness of Li Qingzhao and her husband, and wrote of his own past with Lady Lu—back then he too "only thought it ordinary," and only now does he know how precious it was.

Counting this line among Nalan's incense imagery is a common misreading.This site's consistent stance is: cite the original classics where possible; keep allusions and physical objects recorded separately, never conflated.

VI. Three Lessons Nalan's Incense Offers People Today

Reading Nalan, the shopkeeper found three things that can be applied to daily life.

First, incense must truly have been used before what you write about it rings true.Nalan's "water sinking is thick," "threads of agarwood," "lingering smoke in the incense basket" (from "Qiuqian Suo": "unable to doze lightly, I lean by the incense basket, wisps of lingering smoke curl")—all are concrete objects in concrete states, not piled-up allusions. Today's incense notes are the same: writing "sweet, cool, with a floral charm" is far more useful than writing "the fragrance is elegant."

Second, incense marks time; it does not mask odors.All of Nalan's incense serves to mark time: the heart-shaped incense burned to ash = a whole night of waiting; threads of agarwood = a long gaze before a portrait. Many people today light incense to cover up smells in the room—the direction is reversed.

Third, "at the time I only thought it ordinary" is incense's greatest enemy.Good incense stops smelling good after you've smelled it too long. Nalan's lesson: treat every lighting of incense as the first time.

Incense friends who want to seriously smell a burner and move from "smelling for fun" to "smelling for understanding" are welcome to come try scents in the shop—both Hui'an and Xingzhou families are available, with no obligation to buy; those who can't make it, call 400-809-1913 and the shopkeeper will suggest a direction based on your budget.For the method, seeIncense ceremony primer。

FAQ

Does Nalan Xingde's poetry really mention agarwood?

Yes. "Yu Zhong Hao · Clasping Hands, West Wind, Tears Won't Dry" says directly "the small portrait is clear, threads of agarwood, a piece of heartbreak hard to paint"; in "Xiang Jian Huan · A Wisp of Cloud on the Distant Peak," the "water sinking" in "red candle tears, blue silk quilt, water sinking is thick" is also another name for agarwood. In addition, the "heart-shaped" in "Meng Jiangnan · The Dusk Crows Are Gone" and the "incense basket" in "Qiuqian Suo" are both incense-burning imagery.

What does "the heart-shaped incense has already become ash" mean?

"Heart-shaped" refers to heart-shaped incense—incense powder coiled into the character "heart" and lit (one account holds it is a method of scenting agarwood with jasmine, per Yang Shen's Cipin citing Fan Chengda's Canluan Lu). "Has already become ash" both describes the incense burning out and puns on a heart turned to ash. The whole line uses the burning out of incense to depict a person's despair—a representative technique of Nalan's mourning poetry.

Why is Nalan's incense always cold and remnant?

It is directly tied to his experiences. After the death of his first wife, Lady Lu, in the 16th year of Kangxi (1677), Nalan's poetry turned to mourning and travel; in his writing, incense shifted from the noble youth's "incense-character mandarin-duck cakes" to "the heart-shaped incense has already become ash" and "wisps of lingering smoke curl." The state of the incense changes with life's circumstances—the most consistent inner logic of Nalan's poetry.

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