Xiangcheng (Incense Multiplication), Volume 21: Incense Formulas I (Sihe Incense)
Sihe incense is the earliest model of the traditional blended-incense "sovereign-minister-assistant" structure.
Volume 21 · Incense Formulas I (Sihe Incense)
Original Text (Compiled)
Sihe incense: agarwood, sandalwood, borneol and musk in equal parts, blended with refined white honey, and sealed for seven days. Another method: agarwood and sandalwood as sovereign, borneol and musk as assistant; refine the honey and skim off the foam, then form into pills the size of Gordon euryale seeds. When burned, the aroma is clear and far-reaching, growing sweeter and more intense with time.
Vernacular Translation and Notes
Volumes 21 to 25 are devoted to incense formulas. Sihe incense is the most classic literati blended incense: agarwood, sandalwood, borneol and musk in four equal parts, blended with refined white honey, sealed and stored for seven days so that the fragrances blend together. The text points out the "sovereign-minister-assistant" structure of blended incense—agarwood and sandalwood as sovereign (main fragrance), borneol and musk as assistant (diffusing fragrance)—which is precisely the core compatibility concept of traditional blended incense. Formed into pills the size of "Gordon euryale seeds" (qianshi), when burned the clear qi is distant and grows sweeter the longer it is kept.
Notes
- Sealing (窨): sealed storage to allow the fragrances to blend.
- Gordon euryale seed (鸡头实): qianshi, here used to describe the size of the incense pills.
- Sovereign-minister-assistant (君臣使): the compatibility of blended incense, with the main fragrance as sovereign and the diffusing fragrance as assistant.
Collation Notes · Edition and Editorial Notes
Edition basis:The transmitted text of Xiang Cheng (Incense Multiplication) is based on the Ming Chongzhen-era printed edition as its ancestor; today we see the Wenyuan Pavilion Siku Quanshu edition, the Siku Huiyao edition, and various Qing manuscript copies. This compilation uses the commonly circulated collated edition as its base text, with reference collation against the Siku edition.
Collation for this volume:Records Fourfold Blend Incense as well as Junzi Incense, Small Fourfold Blend, and others; this formula takes agarwood, sandalwood, borneol, and musk as its framework; the various incense manuals differ slightly in proportions, and they are listed together here.
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; for character-by-character comparison, please consult authoritative public-domain editions:Full text of Xiang Cheng (twenty-eight volumes) in the Siku Quanshu edition at Wikisource、Facsimile scans of Xiang Cheng at Wikimedia Commons (PDFs of the National Library holdings and other editions). This site does not fabricate ancient book layouts, so it substitutes authoritative public-domain facsimile external links.