The answer first: the name "qinan" appeared much later than agarwood—it is mostly absent from Song and Yuan incense texts and only became common in Ming and Qing documents; it appears in various forms such as qinan, jianan, jianan, qinan, qinan, and qinan. In the twenty-eight volumes of Xiangcheng, Zhou Jiazhu does not devote a separate volume to qinan; related records are scattered among entries on incense products and incense formulas, and searches must use alternate names as clues. By the Qing dynasty, works such as Qu Dajun's Guangdong Xinyu·Xiangyu and Zhao Xuemin's Bencao Gangmu Shiyi provided relatively clear entries. To consult the original text, search by volume starting from the [Xiangcheng Annotated Translation General Contents](/pages/zhongguo-xiangxue/yizhu/index.html).
Key Points
- Qinan is a "later name": mostly unrecorded in Song and Yuan incense texts, it flourished from the Ming and Qing onward, with as many as six or seven alternate names.
- Xiangcheng does not have a separate qinan volume; it is regarded as the top grade within the agarwood system, not an independent incense material parallel to agarwood.
- Qing writers used names such as sugar knot, golden thread, and tiger skin for grading; accounts differ and represent summaries of local experience.
- The keywords ancient texts use to describe qinan are soft, moist, cool, and pungent, closely corresponding to today's sensory descriptions.
- Qinan belongs to the Aquilaria genus; wild populations are in CITES Appendix II, cross-border trade requires permits, and buyers should ask about the source first.
When reading ancient texts on qinan, the first hurdle is not the content but thename。
For the same thing, the literature contains at least these forms: qinan, jianan, jianan, qinan, qinan, qinan, and qienan. There are two reasons for this phenomenon: first, the word is very likely atransliteration of a foreign term(one theory derives it from Sanskrit or Malay terms for fragrant wood), and transliterations have no fixed characters; second, as ancient manuscripts circulated, copyists followed their own convenience, and variant writings accumulated.
This characteristic directly determines the search method:Searching only for the two characters "qinan" will miss more than half the material. When consulting Ming and Qing texts, search for jianan, jianan, and qinan as well. On this site's annotated volume pages, all places involving alternate names are noted in the collation notes for this reason.
Yes, but its position is not what many people imagine.
In the twenty-eight volumes of Xiangcheng, qinan is not an independent volume.Volume 1 covers agarwood-producing countries, Volume 2 covers sandalwood and frankincense, and Volume 9 covers ambergris—the incense products are organized by incense material, and Zhou Jiazhu places qinan within the agarwood system, regarding it as the finest category of agarwood rather than establishing a separate branch.
This treatment is worth pondering. It reflects a basic understanding of the Ming dynasty:Qinan is the supreme grade of agarwood, not a different substance apart from agarwood.. In today's market, qinan and agarwood are listed as two categories for sale, which to some extent is a commercial classification, not the classification of the ancients.
Then how to find it in the Xiang Cheng? Two paths: one is to read down along the agarwood entries in Volume One, paying attention to those passages with extremely high evaluations and special descriptions of aroma; the other is to look in the incense formulas from Volume Twenty-One onward—any formula containing the words "jianan" or "qinan" is a clue.
Qu Dajun, Guangdong Xinyu · Xiang Yu(early Qing) is a representative of local gazetteers of local products. Qu Dajun was a native of Panyu, Guangdong, recording the products of the mountains and seas of Lingnan; the volume "Xiang Yu" is devoted to agarwood, jianan, and other Lingnan aromatic materials. It broadly records their places of origin, properties, procurement, and grading, belonging tolocal people recording local products, with high credibility. (The above is a paraphrase of excerpts, not a verbatim definitive text.)
Zhao Xuemin, Bencao Gangmu Shiyi(Qing) has an entry for "jianan xiang", included in the materia medica system, recording its properties and medicinal uses. Materia medica books focus on nature, flavor, and function, which differs from the "incense appreciation" perspective of incense manuals—the same aromatic material is a medicine in materia medica books, a material in incense manuals, and life in literati notes, so when reading, one must be clear about which kind one is looking at.
Qing dynasty gradingThere is also a common set of statements that divides qinan into grades such as tangjie, jinsi, and hupi. Such names mostly come from local experience and commercial port habits, and different sources list them differently. In our compilation, we retain the original statements and note the discrepancies, without treating any one source's statement as definitive.
The most stable words used by the ancients to describe qinan aresoft, moist, cool, pungent. Comparing them with today's incense appreciation terminology, one finds that the ancients' noses were quite accurate:
| Ancient text wording | Ancient meaning (paraphrase) | Today's corresponding description |
|---|---|---|
| soft | Texture soft and moist, cut like mud with a knife, unlike ordinary agarwood which is hard | Qinan has a soft, glutinous texture; a fingernail can leave a mark |
| moist | Rich in oil, glossy on the cut surface | Extremely high oil content, oily cut surface |
| Cool | Cool sensation on the tongue or near fire | Cooling note — a distinct cool sensation when heated on the burner |
| Spicy | A pungent, piercing aroma on first smell | Strong projection; the top note is sharp, then turns sweet |
| Sticky | Sticky to the teeth when chewed; crumbs can be rolled into a ball | Qinan crumbs can be kneaded into a ball — a common identification method |
"Soft" and "sticky" are the two criteria on which ancients and moderns most agree.However much oil ordinary agarwood contains, its texture is still wood; because qinan's oil and wood fibers are combined differently, it feels closer to wax or paste. These two criteria are more practical than any adjectives, and the hardest to fake — oil-soaking can change color and specific gravity, but not structure.
Three reasons.
First, drift of names and referents.The scope of a transliterated term shifts over centuries. "Qienan" in the Ming dynasty and "qienan" in the Qing do not necessarily refer to exactly the same grade of goods.
Second, port naming.In the Qing dynasty, ports such as Guangzhou and Quanzhou were collecting and distributing centers for incense materials; to distinguish grades, merchants coined a large number of category names. Once these names entered the literature they carried local color, and readers elsewhere could easily fail to match them.
Third, inconsistent grade terminology.The Song-dynasty set of terms — chen, zhan, huangshu, shengjie, shujie — is one system; sugar knot, golden thread, and tiger skin are another. Mixing the two systems is normal in Ming and Qing incense books.
When reading, the safest approach is tofirst determine the level from context, then look at the word. The same "golden thread" may be top grade in one book and middling in another.
To be honest, what can help isthe way of judging, nota price standard。
What the ancient texts teach you is: first look at the softness and moisture of the texture, then smell the cool resonance and the burst of fragrance, and finally observe the lingering scent and layers. These three remain the most reliable sensory path today. Conversely, what the ancient texts cannot help with is pricing—the Ming-Qing saying of "no less than a hundred thousand per liang" was a Song-dynasty sigh over ambergris and has no reference value for today's qinan(kyara) market; the market changes every year.
And one more thing must be said:Qinan(kyara) belongs to the agarwood genus of the Thymelaeaceae family, and its wild population is listed in CITES Appendix II; cross-border trade must go through customs clearance with a permit certificate.When buying, ask one more question about the source and documents—legitimate channels can produce them; if they can't, no matter how attractive the price, don't touch it. Among the qinan(kyara) currently on the market, planted qinan(kyara) accounts for a very high proportion—planted material itself is nothing to be ashamed of, and the price is affordable, butit must be sold at the price of planted material, passing it off as wild top-grade material is another matter.
If you have a piece on hand and can't tell whether it's qinan(kyara) or high-oil agarwood, you can bring it to the store and we'll take a look for free; if it's inconvenient to come, call 400-809-1913 and send detailed photos. If we can tell clearly, we'll say so on the spot; if we can't, we'll say plainly that we can't—on this point, we hold the same attitude as when making annotated translations.
No. The Xiang Cheng, in twenty-eight volumes, is organized by incense material, incense matters, incense formulas, and incense writings. The incense products section is structured around incense materials, and qinan(kyara) does not have a separate volume; related records are scattered among the agarwood-related entries and the incense formulas in the latter half. When searching, one must also use variant names such as "qinan, jianan, jianan, qinan, qinan" etc.
Much later than agarwood. Song and Yuan incense manuals mostly do not record the name "qinan(kyara)"; it became common only in Ming-Qing literature, and was written in as many as six or seven ways, very likely because it is a transliterated term with no fixed characters. The early Qing Guangdong Xinyu · Xiang Yu and the Qing Bencao Gangmu Shiyi already contain relatively clear entries for "jianan incense."
Yes, and it is one of the most practical criteria. Because of the different way the oil combines with the wood, qinan(kyara) has a soft, glutinous texture—a fingernail can leave a mark, and incense crumbs can be rolled into a ball. This differs noticeably from the woody feel of ordinary agarwood and is difficult to imitate through oil-soaking, weight-pressing, and similar methods. But it is not the only criterion; ultimately one must still judge comprehensively by cool resonance, burst of fragrance, and lingering scent.
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