Let's first clarify the most easily confused point.
Li Qingzhao's relationship with incense must be viewed on two levels: one is the incense she actually burned in her ci poems—ruinao (borneol), chenshui (agarwood), golden lion-shaped censers; the other is the 'incense' later generations created through her—Nalan Xingde's line 'gambling on books, the spilled tea fragrance' alludes to her 'Postscript to Jinshi Lu', which actually refers to tea.The former is physical, the latter is literary allusion—two different things. Only by clarifying this distinction can one understand Li Qingzhao's incense.
Key points
- The incense mentioned in Li Qingzhao's ci poems has concrete references: ruinao (borneol), chenshui (agarwood), seal incense, and censers include the 'golden lion' beast-shaped censer and the 'precious duck' duck-shaped censer.
- In 'Zui Hua Yin', 'ruinao burns in the golden beast' describes being alone on Double Ninth Festival, the borneol incense in the beast censer burning down bit by bit—a way Song people kept time.
- In 'Gu Yan Er', 'agarwood intermittent, the jade censer cold' is her late-life mourning work: incense stops, censer cold, things remain but the person is gone.
- 'Gambling on books, the spilled tea fragrance' comes from Nalan Xingde's 'Huan Xi Sha', alluding to the 'gambling on books and spilling tea' story in Li Qingzhao's 'Postscript to Jinshi Lu'—that is tea, not burning incense.
- In Song dynasty boudoirs, incense was mainly used in the form of incense balls, incense cakes, and seal incense, slowly heated over a fire separator, not burned directly with open flame.
Who pities the west wind's lone chill, rustling yellow leaves close the latticed window, lost in thought of past events, standing in the setting sun.
After wine, do not disturb the heavy spring sleep; gambling on books, the spilled tea fragrance—at the time, I only thought it ordinary.
— Nalan Xingde, 'Huan Xi Sha: Who Pities the West Wind's Lone Chill'
This poem was written by the Qing dynasty poet Nalan Xingde, collected in 'Yin Shui Ci'. A work of mourning. The last two lines describe his memory of daily life with his deceased wife: spring sleep after wine, gambling on books and spilling tea.
The allusion 'gambling on books and spilling tea' comes from Li Qingzhao's 'Postscript to Jinshi Lu', and is about her life with her husband Zhao Mingcheng at the 'Guilai Tang' in Qingzhou:
I have a naturally strong memory. After each meal, we would sit in the Guilai Tang and brew tea, pointing at the piled books and histories, saying that a certain event is in a certain book, volume, page, and line, and betting on who was right to decide the order of drinking tea. The one who was right would raise the cup and laugh, until the tea overturned into their bosom, and they could not drink after all and got up.
— Li Qingzhao, 'Postscript to Jinshi Lu' (excerpt; texts vary slightly among editions)
After a meal, brewing tea, pointing at a room full of books and making bets: a certain event is in a certain book, volume, page, and line; whoever guessed right drank tea first. The winner laughed so hard that the tea spilled into their bosom, and they didn't get to drink after all.
So that line 'spilled tea fragrance'—what is fragrant is the tea, not the incense in the censerTwo hundred years later, Nalan turned Li Qingzhao's happiness into his own regret. This is a literary transformation, not evidence for incense culture (香学).
Setting aside literary allusions, let us look at the actual objects in her own writings.
Thin mist and thick clouds, sorrow through the endless day,Ruinao fades in the golden beast. The festive day is again the Double Ninth; on the jade pillow and through the gauze curtain, the chill first seeps in at midnight.
— Li Qingzhao, "Zui Hua Yin"
"Ruinao" is borneol incense (a resin aromatic that was the precursor of borneol); a pure and noble aromatic commonly used by the people of the Song dynasty. "Jinni" is a metal censer cast in the shape of a suanni (lion), with incense smoke emerging from the beast's mouth. The verb in this line is "xiao" (fade/consume)—the incense is consumed bit by bit inside the beast-shaped censer. Song dynasty incense cakes and incense pills could burn for a long time; one censer from morning to night, and by watching the incense being consumed one could roughly tell how much time had passed. So "Ruinao fades in the golden beast" is not merely a description of scenery; it is writing about time: a person watches the incense burn out, and a day passes just like that.
Rising from sleep in the morning on a rattan bed behind a paper curtain, indescribable, no good thoughts.Agarwood intermittent, the jade censer cold, accompanying my feelings, clear as water.
— Li Qingzhao, "Gu Yan Er"
This poem is generally considered a work from after she crossed south and after Zhao Mingcheng's death. The four characters "chenxiang duanxu" (agarwood intermittent) are very bleak:the incense is still burning, but intermittently; the censer is still a jade censer, yet it is cold.The incense breaks off, the censer is cold, the feelings are clear as water—three things, each colder than the last.
From "ruinao" to "agarwood," from "golden beast" to "jade censer," from fading to intermittent—her incense declines along with her life. This is the most important thread in reading Li Qingzhao's incense matters.
Two other passages are often cited:
Incense cold in the golden suanni, turning over red waves, I rise and lazily comb my hair.
— Li Qingzhao, "Remembering the Flute on the Phoenix Terrace"
Seal incensehas burned out, the sun's shadow falls below the curtain hook.
— Li Qingzhao, "Man Ting Fang" (this line varies considerably across editions; cited for reference)
"Seal incense" is a method of pressing incense powder on stove ash into seal-script patterns and lighting it from one end; a single seal-incense coil has a fixed burning time and was the Song dynasty's "timer." This whole practice is covered in detail on this siteseal incense method, so I won't repeat it.
Li Qingzhao's incense practices were not an isolated case but a daily fixture in Song dynasty scholar-official households. A few key points:
| Item | Common practice in Song dynasty boudoirs | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Form of incense | Incense pills, incense cakes, incense seals | Single-origin agarwood was mostly sliced and filed; blended incense was made into pills and cakes |
| Burners | Beast burners (suanni), duck burners (precious duck), porcelain burners | Lidded, with smoke emerging from holes in the lid or from the beast's mouth |
| Burning method | Indirect heating (charcoal buried in ash, mica/silver leaf placed on top) | Incense material never meets open flame; smoke without scorching |
| Uses | Timekeeping, scenting clothes, calming the spirit, entertaining guests | Both practical and ceremonial |
The key lies in the two words "ge huo" (indirect heating through a barrier).What Li Qingzhao wrote — "xiao" (consumed away), "duanxu" (fits and starts), "shaojin" (burned out) — all describe slow depletion, not fierce burning. The people of the Song dynasty used charcoal fire,隔着 ash and mica sheets, to bake the incense gently; the temperature was controllable, the fragrance layers could emerge, and one burner could last several hours — only then could it "accompany my feelings like water," keeping one company through an entire day.
Recreating this experience today with an electric incense warmer is the easiest way: start at 90°C, spread a thin layer of agarwood powder, and slowly work up to 120°C. If you go too quickly above 160°C, the fragrance dissipates.
There is one detail that I think is where Li Qingzhao's writing about incense shows her greatest skill.
When earlier writers described incense in a lady's chambers, it was mostly warm: warm brazier, warm incense, warm bedding — they wrote of abundance and languor. Li Qingzhao goes the opposite way —Her incense is always cold, broken, burned out.
She uses the state of the incense in place of psychological description.This is the technique the ci form excels at: not writing the word "sorrow," but writing the incense breaking off.
After the southward migration, her book collection, her bronzes and stone inscriptions, and her homeland were lost one by one. That line in the Postface to Records on Metal and Stone — "over thirty-four years, how many were the worries and losses" — is the underlying note of all her incense matters. The incense in the brazier is cold because the room is no longer the room it once was.
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The shop always stocks Hui'an-style and Xingzhou-style agarwood powder and incense pills, which can be used for indirect-heating practice. If you're unsure whether your material is suitable for indirect heating, feel free to bring it to the shop — the shopkeeper will gladly check its authenticity for free and give you a temperature reference; if it's inconvenient to come in person, just call 400-809-1913.For more detailed methods, seeIntroduction to incense cultureandKey Points of Incense Appreciation。
No. This line comes from Nalan Xingde's "Huan Xi Sha · Who Pities the West Wind Blowing Alone" of the Qing Dynasty, collected in "Yin Shui Ci." The allusion of "gambling on books and spilling tea" in the line derives from Li Qingzhao's "Postscript to Jinshi Lu"—after meals at the Guilai Hall in Qingzhou, she and Zhao Mingcheng brewed tea and wagered on remembering the page and line numbers of books to decide the winner. The allusion is about tea and has nothing to do with burning incense.
Ruinao is borneol incense, also a type of resinous spice that is the predecessor of borneol flakes; it is mainly produced in Southeast Asia and was imported in large quantities during the Song Dynasty. Its scent is clear and cool with an obvious cooling sensation, belonging to the "clear" category, unlike the "sweet" and "moist" qualities of agarwood. In the Song Dynasty it was often blended with agarwood and musk in composite incense.
Two types appear in Li Qingzhao's ci poetry: the golden lion (a bronze burner in the shape of a suanni, with incense emerging from the beast's mouth) and the jade burner (a small burner made of porcelain or jade); in later incense catalogs, duck-shaped burners such as the "precious duck" and "sleeping duck" are also common. The forms are mostly small covered burners used for the slow fumigation of incense pills and incense cakes, different from the Ming and Qing three-piece Xuande burners.
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