Xiang Cheng Volume 13: Incense Matters II · Han Shou Steals Fragrance
Han Shou Steals Fragrance — Original text (compiled and edited), with vernacular translation and annotations.
Volume 13 · Incense Matters II · Han Shou Steals Fragrance
Original Text (Compiled and Edited)
Shishuo Xinyu: Han Shou was handsome in appearance, and Jia Chong appointed him as a subordinate official. Chong's daughter saw Shou through the carved window and admired him, and secretly gave him exotic Western Region fragrance. When Chong found out, he married his daughter to Shou.
Vernacular Translation
Han Shou was handsome, and Jia Chong's daughter secretly gave him the exotic Western Region fragrance stored by her father; when the affair was discovered, it led to marriage. Later, 'stealing fragrance' became an allusion for private gifts between men and women and mutual affection.
Annotations
- Qing suo: carved window
- Yuan: subordinate official
- Qi shou: give daughter in marriage to Han Shou
Editorial Notes · Editions and Editorial Remarks
Basis of the Edition:The transmitted text of the Xiang Cheng (Fragrance Compendium) traces its ancestry to the Ming Chongzhen-era printed edition; extant today are the Wenyuan Pavilion Siku Quanshu edition, the Siku Huiyao edition, and various Qing manuscript copies. This compilation uses the commonly circulating critical edition as its base text, collated against the Siku edition.
Collation for This Volume:Records the allusion of Han Shou stealing fragrance (from Shishuo Xinyu) and later poetic laments; the original event and the poems are listed separately to avoid misattribution.
Facsimile Cross-Reference:The "original text" on this page is an edited compilation (punctuated and paragraphed according to modern conventions), not a facsimile of the original book; for character-by-character collation, please consult authoritative public-domain editions:Full text of the Xiang Cheng (twenty-eight volumes) from the Siku Quanshu edition on Wikisource、Facsimile scans of the Xiang Cheng (PDFs of the National Library holdings and other editions) on Wikimedia Commons. This site does not fabricate ancient book layouts, and therefore substitutes links to authoritative public-domain facsimiles.