Chinese Incense Culture (香学) · Detailed Study of Incense Manuals
Essential Incense Manuals Through the Ages
From the Hong Manual and Chen Manual to the Comprehensive Xiang Cheng, see at a glance the lineage of Chinese incense literature.
Overview of Major Incense Manuals
- Qing Yi Lu · Incense(Song dynasty, Tao Gu): a note-style work, mostly recording anecdotes of incense from the Tang and Five Dynasties; not a dedicated manual yet highly vivid.
- Hong Family Incense Manual(Northern Song, Hong Chu): an earlier extant dedicated manual, discussing incense by category.
- Chen Family Incense Manual(Late Song to early Yuan, Chen Jing): four volumes, gathering incense formulas and anecdotes of earlier ages.
- Seven Essentials of Incense Burning(Ming): discusses the seven vessels for incense appreciation.
- Zunsheng Bajian · Xiang Jian (Eight Discourses on the Art of Living · The Incense Chapter)(Ming dynasty, Gao Lian): discusses incense in terms of health preservation and leisurely appreciation.
- Xiang Cheng (Incense Compendium)(Ming dynasty, Zhou Jiazhou): twenty-eight volumes, the comprehensive masterwork of incense culture(香学), seeXiang Cheng volume by volumeandtranslation and annotation。
Brief summary of origins and development
Before the Tang dynasty, incense matters appear scattered in the classics, histories, and notes; the Northern Song saw the first dedicated treatise (Hong Chu); in the late Song and early Yuan, Chen Jing compiled the grand overview; Ming scholars emphasized leisurely appreciation and implements (Seven Essentials, Zunsheng); by Zhou Jiazhou's Xiang Cheng it reached its grand culmination. This is roughly the outline of Chinese incense culture(香学) literature.