Xiangcheng, Volume 14: Incense Matters III · Shi Chong's Toilet Incense
Shi Chong's Toilet Incense — original text (compiled), with vernacular translation and annotations.
Volume 14 · Incense Matters III · Shi Chong's Toilet Incense
Original Text (Compiled)
"Yulin": Shi Chong's toilet often had more than ten maids attending in rows, all richly dressed and adorned, with jiajian powder, agarwood juice, and the like, all fully provided.
Vernacular Translation
Shi Chong's toilet had maids attending with incense, with jiajian and agarwood juice fully provided—an extreme of extravagance, yet also showing how much the people of Jin valued incense, even to the point of the toilet.
Annotations
- Jiajian: blended aromatic paste
- Agarwood juice: decocted agarwood broth
- Fully provided: complete in every respect
Editorial Notes · Editions and Compilation Explanation
Edition basis:Xiang Cheng has been transmitted with the Ming Chongzhen period edition as the ancestral text; today we see the Wenyuan Ge Siku Quanshu edition, the Siku Huiyao edition, and various Qing manuscript copies. This compilation uses the commonly circulated collated edition as the base text and cross-checks with the Siku edition.
Collation of this volume:Records the allusion of Shi Chong often placing jiajian powder and agarwood juice in his toilet (from Yulin and Shishuo); to show the extravagant incense trend of the Six Dynasties.
Facsimile comparison:The "original text" on this page is a compiled transcription (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:Wikisource full text of Xiang Cheng from the Siku Quanshu edition (twenty-eight volumes)、Wikimedia Commons facsimile scans of Xiang Cheng (PDFs such as the National Library of China copy). This site does not fabricate ancient book layouts, so it provides external links to authoritative public domain facsimiles instead.