First, the relationship between the figures. Huang Tingjian (1045–1105), courtesy name Luzhi, pseudonym Shangu Daoren, together with Zhang Lei, Chao Buzhi, and Qin Guan, studied under Su Shi and were known as the 'Four Scholars of the Su School'; his poetic fame was on par with Su Shi, and they were called 'Su and Huang.' The two were eight years apart in age, both teachers and friends to each other, and their written exchanges throughout their lives were extremely dense.
The exchange of incense between Su Shi and Huang Tingjian centered on three rounds of six-character-line poems around a piece of 'Jiangnan Zhangzhong Xiang' (Jiangnan Bedchamber Incense) around the first year of Yuanyou (1086).Huang Tingjian first obtained the incense and composed poems first; Su Shi responded with 'Two Poems on Burning Incense in Harmony with Huang Luzhi'; Huang Tingjian then replied with 'Two Poems Again in Response to Zizhan's Follow-up Harmony.' This round of exchange was not merely literary socializing; it brought forth the two concepts of 'bi guan' (nasal contemplation) and 'xiangyan benji' (Incense Solitude's original quiescence), and from then on, Song dynasty incense burning had a philosophical dimension.
Key points
- The starting point of the poetic exchange was a piece of Jiangnan Bedchamber Incense (Goose Pear Bedchamber Incense), traditionally attributed to the palace of Li Houzhu of the Southern Tang, made by steaming agarwood with goose pear juice.
- Huang Tingjian called himself an 'incense addict,' with the original words: 'Heaven endowed me with a love for literary matters, as I have an addiction to incense,' see 'Poem Written in Reply to Jia Tianxi's Gift of Precious Incense and Request for a Poem.'
- Su Shi's famous line 'It is not something that hearing and thinking can reach; let the nose contemplate first' comes from 'Two Poems on Burning Incense in Harmony with Huang Luzhi' and is the source of the term 'bi guan' (nasal contemplation).
- 'The Ten Virtues of Incense' is attributed to Huang Tingjian; it consists of ten lines and forty characters. Through the recommendation of Zen Master Ikkyū, it became regarded as a standard in Japanese kōdō; in Chinese sources it appeared late, and its authorship is debated in academic circles.
- In his later years, Huang Tingjian was exiled to Yizhou, where he 'sat burning incense' in a broken house opposite a butcher shop, and named the house 'Xuanji Zhai' (Studio of Noise and Silence).
The incense-related poetic exchange took place during the Yuanyou era when both were in Bianjing.
First round: Huang Tingjian started.He received a piece of Jiangnan Bedchamber Incense from someone and wrote two six-character-line poems:
Hundred-times-refined incense snail and sinking grade agarwood, the precious incense recently comes from Jiangnan.
A stalk of yellow cloud encircles the table, deep meditation as if facing a fellow practitioner.
— Huang Tingjian, 'Two Playful Six-Character-Line Poems in Reply to One Who Gave Me Jiangnan Bedchamber Incense,' No. 1
'Incense snail and sinking grade agarwood' refers to the combination of shell incense (operculum of snails) and sinking grade agarwood; 'the precious incense recently comes from Jiangnan' indicates that this is a famous product from Jiangnan. 'A stalk of yellow cloud encircles the table' describes a wisp of incense smoke curling around the desk.
He also wrote two more poems with the same title but different topics, 'Two Poems Playfully Using the Previous Rhyme after Hearing That Bedchamber Incense Was Thought to Be for Boiling Scorpions,' with two even sharper lines:
On the sea there are people chasing stench, but Heaven endowed nostrils as a compass. Just seal in the original quiescence of Incense Solitude; no need to visit all the monasteries.
'Xiangyan benji' (Incense Solitude's original quiescence) is a Chan Buddhist phrase; Huang Tingjian means that as long as a burner of fine incense is present, there is no need to go seeking visits in the monasteries.
Second round: Su Shi responded.He replied with "Two Poems on Burning Incense, Matching Huang Luzhi's Rhymes":
Four lines of incense-burning gatha, carried by the wind across the southeast. Beyond what hearing and thinking can reach, let the nose observe first.
Ten thousand scrolls by the bright window, small characters; eyes blur, seeing only mottled patches. One stick of incense smoke fades, the fire grows cold; half a lifetime, the body ages, the heart at leisure.
The two characters "nose observation" were coined by Su Shi. The eyes can observe, the ears can observe, and the nose can also "observe"—incense is no longer merely for diversion, but an object that can be "contemplated." The second poem's "one stick of incense smoke fades, the fire grows cold; half a lifetime, the body ages, the heart at leisure" sets the burning out of incense against a person's half lifetime—bracingly cold and sharp.
Third round: Huang Tingjian matches again"Two Poems: Zizhan Matches and I Reply Again," leaving behind "finding contentment in one stick of incense smoke" and "stealing leisure amid the dust of the nine thoroughfares" and "greeting with a smile, heavenly fragrance filling the sleeves, delighted that you newly attend court." The former line later entered the "Ten Virtues of Incense," becoming "stealing leisure amid the dust."
This is the part the shopkeeper cares about most—Incense matters cannot speak only of moods; they must come down to the actual object.
That "Jiangnan Tent Incense" which sparked the poetic exchanges is mostly called by later generationsGoose-Pear Tent Incense(also written "Jiangnan Lord Li's Tent Incense"). The method is found in the incense-manual tradition: agarwood powder steamed together with goose-pear juice, steamed repeatedly until the pear juice is reduced to dryness, letting the agarwood borrow the clear, sweet fruity fragrance of the pear juice. This belongs toblended incense's "steamed incense" method, not a single-ingredient agarwood.
A few details are worth noting:
In Huang Tingjian's poem the line "lowering the curtain, the sleeping duck, spring at leisure"—"sleeping duck" is a duck-shaped censer, "lowering the curtain" is letting down the bed curtain—exactly matches the use.Tent incense is not for entertaining guests in the living room; it is for before sleep, so the scent must be soft, sweet, and free of any restless quality. This logic still holds today: bedroom incense and study incense should never be the same formula.
Huang Tingjian's obsession with incense was more outwardly expressed than Su Shi's. In his poem 'Jia Tianxi Presents Precious Incense and Asks for a Poem, I Write This to Reply,' he says directly:
Marquis Jia harbors the Six Strategies, his home has twelve halberds. By nature he delights in literary matters,like me, he has an incense habit.。
The term 'incense habit'—among the ancients, probably only he called himself that. He also left behind the 'Formula for Making Ying Incense'—an incense formula written in running-cursive script, both a famous calligraphic work and a document of incense culture(香学). According to researchers, the incense formulas recorded in Huang Tingjian's works include several kinds, such as 'Han Palace Incense Formula,' 'Yihe Incense,' 'Yike Incense,' 'Shenjing Incense,' 'Xun Ling's Ten-Mile Incense,' and 'Xiaozong Incense.'
'The Ten Virtues of Incense'Attributed to his name, forty characters:
Moving ghosts and spirits, purifying heart and body, able to remove filth, able to awaken from sleep, becoming a friend in stillness, stealing leisure amid dust, abundant yet not tiresome, sparse yet sufficient, long stored without decay, constantly used without hindrance.
It should be noted:This short note appeared relatively late in Chinese domestic literature; after being recommended by the Japanese Zen master Ikkyū, it was widely known in Japanese incense ceremony and revered as a standard., and its authorship is still debated in academic circles. We cite it with its title noted, not daring to confirm it as Shan Gu's own definitive text.
Twenty years after this round of poetic exchange, both men's fates slid southward.
In the fourth year of Shaosheng (1097), Su Shi crossed the sea to Danzhou.Three years later, pardoned, he returned north and died in Changzhou in the first year of Jianzhong Jingguo (1101).
In the second year of Chongning (1103), Huang Tingjian was banished a second time, landing in Yizhou, Guangxi, on the charge of 'rejoicing in calamity and slandering the state.' His dwelling was a broken room in the marketplace, facing a butcher's shop, reeking of blood and stench, unsheltered from wind and rain.
He named this room'Xuanji Studio'—noisy outside, still within. In 'Postscript to My Own Written Scroll' he wrote:
Having set up a sleeping cot, I burn incense and sit, directly facing the western neighbor's beef-slaughtering block.
He set up his bed, lit incense, and sat down, directly facing the western neighbor's beef-slaughtering block. In the fourth year of Chongning (1105), Huang Tingjian died here, aged sixty.
This is the most powerful scene in the history of Chinese incense.Incense here is not elegant play, not status—it is a person's means of guarding an inner boundary. What Su Shi called 'nose contemplation' became, in Huang Tingjian's hands, a way of living.
Three points, all at the practical level.
The shop keeps several agarwood powders from the Hui'an and Sin Chew lines, which can be used for electric-heater practice.Friends who want to move from 'smelling the excitement' to 'smelling the craft' are welcome to bring their materials to the shop for free trials, or call 400-809-1913 to describe your material and equipment, and the shopkeeper will help you set up a temperature plan.Related methods seeIncense Way Introduction。
The common account is during the Yuanyou era, when both were in Bianjing; most scholars place it around the first year of Yuanyou (1086), shortly after the two first met. This set of poems went back and forth three rounds: Huang Tingjian started with a poem, Su Shi wrote 'Harmonizing with Huang Luzhi's Two Poems on Burning Incense,' and Huang Tingjian wrote 'Zizhan Follows with Harmony and Replies Again, Two Poems.' Specific years vary slightly across editions.
No. Zhangzhong Xiang (Goose-Pear Zhangzhong Xiang) is a steamed blended incense, with agarwood as the main ingredient and goose pear juice as an auxiliary, belonging to bedtime incense; the 'Kaiyuan Weizhong Yaxiang' in Chen's Xiangpu (retitled 'Yang Guifei Weizhong Yaxiang' in Xiangsheng) is a different formula, more complex in composition, using fierce-fire sealed roasting—belonging to the Tang court yaxiang system. The two have similar uses but different formulas; don't mix them up.
It is attributed to Huang Tingjian, but it appears late in Chinese sources; its status in incense culture(香学) was mainly established through its transmission in Japanese incense culture(香学) (one account says it was introduced by Ikkyū Zenji). Scholars disagree on authorship. When citing it, we note 'attributed to Huang Tingjian' and draw no firm conclusion—this is also this site's consistent stance on classical texts.
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