Xiang Cheng, Volume 03: Incense Types III · Sandalwood, Musk, and Borneol
Sandalwood, musk, and borneol are the three most fundamental pillars of traditional incense blending.
Volume 03 · Incense Types III · Sandalwood, Musk, and Borneol
Original Text (Compiled and Edited)
Sandalwood comes in two kinds, yellow and white; white sandalwood is especially fine, originating from the South Seas and the Western Regions. Musk is produced in Zhongtai and Guanshan; it is stored in the umbilical sac of the musk deer, obtained by hunters, and is also called cunjinxiang (inch-gold incense). Borneol originates from the country of Poli; the tree grows eighty to ninety zhang tall, and when shaved into flakes, it resembles mica, translucent white as ice, hence it is called bingpian (ice flakes) and jiebuluoxiang.
Vernacular Translation and Annotation
This volume presents three famous incenses side by side. Sandalwood is divided into yellow sandalwood and white sandalwood; white sandalwood (the heartwood of the sandalwood tree) has a clear, sweet scent and serves as the sovereign in incense blending. Musk is the secretion from the scent sac beneath the navel of the male musk deer; its fragrance is extremely intense with strong penetration, and in incense blending it acts as the 'messenger' to bring out the other aromas. Borneol (bingpian) comes from the borneol tree of the country of Poli (present-day Sumatra); it is crystal-clear like ice, cool and penetrating, and can elevate and enhance the fragrance notes. The three—one warm, one intense, one cool—form the three most fundamental pillars of traditional incense blending.
Annotations
- White sandalwood: the finest among sandalwoods, with a clear and moist fragrance.
- Cunjinxiang: another name for musk, indicating its preciousness.
- Bingpian: an alternative name for borneol, so called because it is translucent white as ice.
- Polizhi Kingdom: an ancient place name, roughly present-day northern Sumatra, a production area of borneol.
Collation Notes · Version and Editorial Notes
Version basis:The extant transmission of Xiangcheng takes the Ming Chongzhen-era printed edition as its ancestor; currently seen are the Wenyuan Ge Siku Quanshu edition, the Siku Huiyao edition, and various Qing manuscript copies. This compilation takes the commonly circulated modern collated edition as its base text and cross-checks it against the Siku edition.
Collation for this volume:This volume discusses the three materials sandalwood, musk, and borneol, which form the framework of blended incense; borneol is also called 'bingpian' or 'jiebuluo incense,' and variant names appear together.
Facsimile comparison:The 'original text' on this page is an edited compilation (punctuated and paragraphed according to modern conventions), not a facsimile of the original book; if character-by-character collation is needed, please consult authoritative public-domain editions:Full text of Xiangcheng (twenty-eight volumes) from the Siku Quanshu edition on Wikisource、Facsimile scans of Xiangcheng on Wikimedia Commons (PDFs of the National Library of China holdings and other editions). This site does not fabricate ancient book layouts, so it substitutes links to authoritative public-domain facsimiles.