Xiang Cheng, Volume 20: Incense Poems
In poetry, incense is both a real scene and a vehicle for emotion.
Volume 20 · Incense Poems
Original Text (Compiled)
Li Taibai, "Qingping Diao": "Famous flowers and a beauty toppling kingdoms delight each other; ever does the sovereign gaze on her with a smile. Explaining away the boundless grief of the spring breeze, north of the Agarwood Pavilion she leans on the railing." Du Gongbu, "Lilac": "The lilac's body is soft and frail; its tangled knots leave the branches still matted." Bai Fu, "Palace Lyrics": "Her rosy face not yet old, the favor is already cut off; leaning sidelong against the incense cage, she sits until dawn."
Vernacular Translation and Annotation
Volume 20 collects incense poems from successive dynasties. Li Bai writes of the favored consort at the Agarwood Pavilion, using "agarwood" to point to the flourishing of incense burning in the Tang palace; Du Fu sings of the lilac, lending a frail flowering branch to convey a sense of his own lot; Bai Juyi writes of a palace lady who has lost favor, "leaning sidelong against the incense cage, she sits until dawn"—the incense cage was an ancient incense utensil for perfuming clothes and keeping warm; burning incense through the night portrays all the loneliness of the deep palace. In poetry, incense is both a real scene and a vehicle for emotion.
Annotations
- Agarwood Pavilion: a pavilion in the Xingqing Palace of the Tang, made of agarwood.
- Incense cage: a bamboo cage placed over a brazier for perfuming clothes, serving both for warmth and for burning incense.
- Bai Fu: Bai Juyi, who once served as Junior Tutor to the Crown Prince.
Editorial Notes · Edition and Compilation Notes
Edition basis:The transmitted text of Xiang Cheng (Incense Multiplication) traces its ancestry to the Ming Chongzhen-era printed edition; extant versions include the Wenyuan Pavilion Siku Quanshu edition, the Siku Huiyao edition, and various Qing manuscript copies. This compilation is based on the commonly circulated modern edition, collated against the Siku Quanshu edition.
Collation for this volume:Poems on incense from successive dynasties are recorded in the order of Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing; variant readings of lines are collated against the Complete Tang Poems, Complete Song Poems, and other sources.
Facsimile cross-reference:The "original text" on this page is a compiled transcription (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 Xiang Cheng (28 volumes) in the Siku Quanshu edition on Wikisource、Facsimile scans of Xiang Cheng on Wikimedia Commons (PDFs of the National Library of China copy and others). This site does not fabricate ancient book layouts, so it provides authoritative public-domain facsimile external links instead.