Xiang Cheng Vol. 01: Incense Categories I · Agarwood-Producing Countries
A volume-by-volume interpretation of Zhou Jiazhou's Xiang Cheng, Vol. 01 "Incense Categories I · Agarwood-Producing Countries."
Vol. 01 · Incense Categories I · Agarwood-Producing Countries
The opening volume is devoted to agarwood, distinguishing varieties by origin (Jiaozhi, Champa, Chenla, Hainan, Siam, etc.) and detailing the differences among sinking grade(沉水), raw resin (shengjie), mature resin (shujie), yellow-ripe (huangshu), zhanxiang, and wormhole (chonglou) agarwood—the cornerstone of the entire Xiang Cheng material system.
Its Place in Xiang Cheng
The twenty-eight volumes of Xiang Cheng fall into six major sections: appraisal of incense materials (Vols. 1–5), religious and court incense use (Vols. 6–7), incense lore and anecdotes (Vols. 8–16), incense prose and poetry (Vols. 17–20), incense formulas (Vols. 21–25), and literati offerings and blended floral scents (Vols. 26–28). This volume is one link in that chain, connecting the complete incense culture(香学) genealogy of "texts—lore—methods."