Xiang Cheng, Volume 17: Incense Literature (Fu and Song)
Incense literature is where literati expressed their inner feelings through a burner of incense.
Volume 17 · Incense Literature (Fu and Song)
Original Text (Compiled and Edited)
In the incense odes of the ancients, some entrusted objects to express their aspirations, while others wrote of their hearts through immediate events. Lord Han Wei's Nongmei, Lord Ouyang's Zizheng, and Su Neihan's Xuezhong—each passed down their incense through their own person. But how could incense be only for the nose? It is that by which the heart is nourished.
Vernacular Translation and Annotation
Volume 17 of Xiang Cheng compiles incense fu, incense song, and other "incense literature" from past dynasties. This short preface reveals the true meaning of the literati's incense odes: incense is a medium for entrusting objects to express aspirations—Han Qi (Duke of Wei)'s Nongmei incense, Ouyang Xiu's Zizheng incense, and Su Shi (Neihan)'s Xuezhong Chunxin all use a burner of incense to express inner feelings. Incense does not merely delight the nose; it can also "nourish the heart," serving as spiritual cultivation for literati.
Annotations
- Lord Han Wei: Han Qi, enfeoffed as Duke of Wei, creator of Nongmei incense.
- Su Neihan: Su Shi, once a Hanlin Academician, creator of Xuezhong Chunxin.
- Zizheng: Ouyang Xiu once served as Academician of the Zizheng Hall.
Editorial Notes · Editions and Compilation Notes
Edition basis:The surviving editions of Xiang Cheng trace their origin to the Ming Chongzhen-era printed edition; presently we see 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 text and cross-checks it against the Siku edition.
Collation for this volume:This volume records pieces such as incense rhapsodies and incense eulogies, many of them parallel-prose compositions; variant readings lie in the wording, and here we follow what is included in 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; if word-by-word comparison is needed, please consult authoritative public-domain editions:Full text of Xiang Cheng (twenty-eight volumes), the Siku Quanshu edition, at Wikisource、Facsimile scans of Xiang Cheng (PDFs such as the National Library of China copy) at Wikimedia Commons. This site does not fabricate ancient book layouts, so it substitutes external links to authoritative public-domain facsimiles.