Chinese incense culture(香学) · Incense in the Three Teachings
Incense for sacrificial rituals
From sacrifices to Heaven to offerings to ancestors, incense is the medium that connects humans and deities; the term "incense fire" precisely conveys the meaning of unbroken sacrificial lineage.
Sacrificial rituals are one of the oldest origins of Chinese incense practices. Early people believed that smoke rising upward could reach the deities.
Incense of Sacrifice
- Sacrifices to Heaven and Earth: Sacrificing to Heaven at the Circular Mound, to Earth at the Square Pool, and at the altars of Soil and Grain—all involved burning incense to address Heaven.
- Ancestral temples: At the Imperial Ancestral Temple and family shrines, incense was burned on the first and fifteenth days of each lunar month to honor ancestors and continue the bloodline.
- Shidian and Xiangyin: Sacrifices to Confucius and the district drinking ceremony used incense to solemnize demeanor.
The Metaphor of Incense Fire
"Incense smoke" (xianghuo) refers both to the smoke of sacrificial offerings and metaphorically to descendants carrying on the rites and the Dharma lineage passing down (as in "incense smoke never ceases" and "continuing the incense smoke"). For the core position of incense in ritual propriety, see in detailConfucian incense burningandDaoist use of incense。