Wang Yi: Scholar
Wang Yi (Yuan dynasty), one of the key figures in the history of Chinese Incense Culture(香学).
Wang Yi · Yuan
Identity:Scholar
Representative Incense Works / Incense Matters:Sanxiang Ji (Collected Works on Three Incenses)
Wang Yi (Yuan dynasty) compiled the Sanxiang Ji, organized around the three incenses of agarwood, sandalwood, and borneol, gathering incense-themed poetry and prose along with incense lore. It is a rare Yuan-dynasty thematic anthology of incense culture(香学), continuing the Song-era tradition of incense compendia and constituting an important body of documentation preceding the completion of the Xiangcheng.
and Chinese Incense Culture(香学)
Viewed through Wang Yi, Chinese Incense Culture(香学) is not an isolated craft, but a process in which generations of literati and artisans continually textualized, systematized, and spiritualized olfactory experience. Only by understanding these pioneers can one understand the weight of the wisp of incense in one's hand today.
Representative Incense Formulas · Incense Poems · Incense Discourses
Incense Writings"Biographies of the Three Incenses"
Wang Yi of the Yuan dynasty imitated the biographical style of history to compose "Biographies of the Three Incenses," writing a biography for agarwood, sandalwood, and musk respectively, recounting their places of origin, properties, and virtuous uses—a remarkable work that makes incense its subject through writing.
Incense Poetry
Wang Yi's poems on incense mostly express thoughts of "cold smoke over the Boshan censer, fragrance fading in the precious duck censer," using incense to convey a sense of longing for the fallen dynasty.