Xiangcheng Volume 04: Incense Types 4 - Woods, Fruits, and Vegetables
A volume-by-volume interpretation of Zhou Jiazhuo's Xiangcheng, Volume 04, "Incense Types 4 - Woods, Fruits, and Vegetables."
Volume 04 · Incense Types 4 - Woods, Fruits, and Vegetables
Records woody, fruit, and vegetable aromatic materials such as spikenard, sweet grass, fennel, dried tangerine peel, and lychee shell, expanding the range of ingredients for blended incense and embodying the idea that "no material is unusable for incense."
Its Place in Xiangcheng
The twenty-eight volumes of Xiangcheng are divided into six major sections: appraisal of incense materials (Volumes 1-5), religious and courtly incense use (Volumes 6-7), incense anecdotes and allusions (Volumes 8-16), incense prose and poetry (Volumes 17-20), incense formulas (Volumes 21-25), and literati pure offerings and blended floral incense (Volumes 26-28). This volume is one link in that chain, connecting the complete genealogy of incense culture(香学) from "documents to allusions to methods."