Xiang Cheng Vol. 02: Incense Types II · Sandalwood · Frankincense
Sandalwood · Frankincense — Original text (compiled and edited), with vernacular translation and annotations.
Vol. 02 · Incense Types II · Sandalwood · Frankincense
Original Text (Compiled and Edited)
《Bencao》: Sandalwood, pungent and warm, mainly dispels wind-heat and swelling toxins. White sandalwood is pungent and warm, removes evil qi and kills insects. Also 《Xiangpu》: Sandalwood comes from the South Sea and Lingnan; the one with solid bark and yellow color is yellow sandalwood, the one with clean bark and white color is white sandalwood, both can be used for making objects. Frankincense, also called Xunlu, comes from Dashi, is warm in nature, and treats various malignant sores.
Vernacular Translation and Annotation
Records two items: sandalwood and frankincense. Sandalwood is divided into white sandalwood and yellow sandalwood—white has clean bark and white color, yellow has solid bark and yellow color; both can be used for making objects and in incense; frankincense is Xunlu incense, produced in Dashi, warm and unblocking, treats sores. Sandalwood is one of the skeletons for blending incense, and is complementary to agarwood.
Annotations
- White sandalwood: authentic sandalwood, with clear qi
- Yellow sandalwood: another name, solid bark and yellow color
- Xunlu: ancient name for frankincense, from Arabia
Editorial Notes · On Editions and Compilation
Edition basis:The Xiang Cheng has been transmitted with the Ming Chongzhen-era printed edition as the ancestral text; extant today are the Wenyuan Ge Siku Quanshu edition, the Siku Huiyao edition, and various Qing manuscript copies. This compilation takes the commonly circulated collated edition as its base and cross-checks against the Siku edition.
Collation for this volume:This volume records the categories and places of origin of sandalwood and frankincense; frankincense is also called “xunlu,” and various books sometimes write it as “xunlu xiang”; here we follow the Xiang Cheng.
Facsimile comparison:The “original text” on this page is a collated compilation (punctuated and paragraphed according to modern conventions), not a facsimile of the original book; for character-by-character comparison, please consult authoritative public-domain editions:Full text of the Xiang Cheng (twenty-eight volumes) in the Siku Quanshu edition at Wikisource、Facsimile scans of the Xiang Cheng at Wikimedia Commons (PDFs of the National Library of China holdings and other copies). This site does not fabricate ancient book layouts, so it uses links to authoritative public-domain facsimiles instead.