Ancient spices are divided into two kinds: plant spices and animal spices. The former takes the roots, stems, leaves, skins or fruits of plants as raw materials to obtain fragrance substances, such as agarwood, white sandalwood, roses, cloves, cinnamon, peppercorns, etc., and the latter is mainly based on animal secretions and excrement, commonly used musk, ambergris, cat incense and beaver incense.
In ancient times, the use and circulation of spices was very widespread, why did the ancients like spices so much?
Above_Agarwood
The unique fragrance and scarcity of the spice itself highlight its preciousness and are sought after.
Among the many spices, agarwood is recognized as the "first of all incense".
Agarwood is a special substance of Ruixiang family plants, trees are damaged by wind and thunder, insects and beetle bites, fungi invade by gaps, The thin-walled tissue cells of Ruixiang wood, and the starchy substances stored inside undergo a series of chemical reactions to form a structure with decaying outer skin and balsam. After the incense, after years and months, the texture is tight, and it sinks into the water, so it is called agarwood. Agarwood has the effect of relieving pain, warming and stopping vomiting, and relieving breath and asthma, and is favored and valued by dignitaries and nobles.
The main production areas of agarwood are distributed in Hainan, Liangguang and Yungui and other places, Guangdong Dongguan specialty "Guanxiang", is a treasure in agarwood, since the Tang Dynasty has been listed as a tribute to the imperial court. Zhongshan is also known as "Fragrant Mountain" in ancient times because of the production of agarwood. Hainan agarwood, known as "agar", the crown of the world, the Northern Song Dynasty Prime Minister Ding Zhi was degraded to Hainan, authored the "Biography of Tianxiang", the book has "precious incense, the same price as gold." "Illustrating the precious scarcity of agar at that time.
Above_Ambergris
The only thing that can compete with agarwood is ambergris.
This yellow opaque waxy substance is composed of secretions from the digestive tract of sperm whales. After sperm whales prey on octopus and squid, the indigestible beak bones are wrapped in solids and spit out with secretions from the intestine. The freshly spitted ambergris is soft in color, and under the combined action of sunlight and seawater, it fades and hardens, and emits aroma.
The Song Dynasty scholar Zhang Shifu recorded a story of selling ambergris in the Book of Ke. One day, the servant saw a foreign trade merchant peddling two pieces of ambergris for three hundred thousand taels. This is the equivalent of three hundred million yuan. Emperor Huizong of Song's favored concubine Liu Shi sent someone to bargain for 200,000 taels, and the Lun family arrogantly extinguished the cabinet. At that time, the price of sixty kilograms of rice was only six hundred yuan, and the two dollars of ambergris could be exchanged for thirty thousand tons of rice.
The main reason why ancient spices are so important - spices have been integrated into the normal life of the ancients in every way.
Spices are widely used, from the emperors and generals to the common people, the use of spices has become the norm of life. In ancient times, the ancients collected various spices to worship the gods and sacrifice ancestors in order to purify the body and mind and channel the purpose of spiritual enlightenment. During the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, rouge powder made of spices appeared, and this custom gradually moved from the court to the folk.
Spices also have medicinal properties. During the reign of Emperor Huan of the Eastern Han Dynasty, he suffered severe bad breath. Every time shangchao reported on his work, Diao Cun's tone smoked Emperor Huan's desire to die. Unable to bear it, Emperor Huan gave him chicken tongue incense, and after his mouth, the bad breath immediately subsided, and the breath was like an orchid. Until the Ming and Qing dynasties, Shang Shu Hanxiang had always been an important official etiquette, and also had the intention of serving the king.
The aristocrats of the Han Dynasty had a tradition of burning incense and smoking clothes. There is a record in the "Old Records of Xiangyang Qi" that "Xun Lingjun went to the people's house and sat in the place of three days of incense". Xun Yu, an important adviser under Cao Cao, liked incense, and wherever he sat, the fragrance did not disperse for three days, and people gave him the nickname "Xun Lingxiang". Since then, small fresh meat with a double appearance, or an elegant person with unique talent, has been praised as a fragrant order.
It is beneficial to spice up the delicacies and despot them. Before the Ming Dynasty, the "three spices" represented by spicy flowers, ginger and zhuyi were important raw materials for food and beverage seasoning. Peppercorns are the first of the "three spices". It is an indispensable custom to drink peppercorns and pepper liquor made from cypress leaves during the New Year. According to statistics, in ancient foods, 22% of the dishes needed to be flavored by peppercorns, and in the Tang Dynasty, the proportion of dishes using peppercorns increased to 37%.
The spice was recognized by the ancient high society and established its status.
Spices can also act as political mediators. The Collected Works of Emperor Wu of Wei contains a letter written by Cao Cao to Zhuge Liang, the original text of which was "Now I offer five pounds of chicken tongue incense to show my subtle meaning." The chicken tongue was very precious, and Cao Cao's move was not disgusted with Zhuge Liang's bad breath, but implied that he could be an official in the same dynasty as Zhuge Liang and show his identity at the same time. Unfortunately, Zhuge Liang did not eat this set, and Cao Cao's horse ass slapped on the horse's leg.
In the first issue of "National Treasures", the "grape flower and bird pattern silver sachet" of the Shaanxi Museum attracted the attention of many people. This sachet endorsed by Yang Guifei, subject to the gravity of the ring and the gold cup, the spice is always kept in the bowl, the design is exquisite, the rotation is flexible, and the balance is free. Incense utensils represented by incense sachets, incense burners, and incense sticks gather many wisdoms of the ancients.
The Sikong Han Shou under Jia Chong, a major minister of Cao Wei, was favored by Jia Chong's younger daughter Jia Wu and secretly promised him. Jia Wupei has a western fragrance, and the aroma can last for a month. After Han Shou came into close contact with him, it lasted for a long time. After Jia Chong learned of this, in order to cover up the truth, he had to ration Jia Wuxu to Han Shou. Stealing incense has become synonymous with women's admiration for men or fornication with men.
Ni Zhan, one of the "Four Families of the Yuan", has a lonely and arrogant personality, has a wealthy family, and loves incense as fate. After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, Ni Zhan did not look down on the emperor who was born from this monk, and scattered his family wealth and returned to the hidden mountains and forests. However, Ni Zhan forgot to pay the tax before returning to hiding, and was hunted down by the tax collectors. One day, a strange incense wafted in the reeds, and the tax collector went away looking for incense and found Ni Zhan enjoying life with ambergris incense. The tax collector rushed up and successfully arrested Ni Zhan.
The literati's love of spices further enhanced their existential value.
Under the pursuit of the literati, spices have leapt from the material level to a symbol of spiritual pursuit. The Song Dynasty was the peak of spice culture, Su Shi, Huang Tingjian, Zhu Xi and others had a large number of poems written about incense circulated, in the "Listening to the Qin Tu", "Wenhui Tu", "West Garden Ya Ji Tu", "Bamboo Stream Burning Incense Map" and other paintings, incense burning has been a part of the life of the Song people.
The literati of the Song Dynasty liked Yanju to burn incense, and they used incense to meet friends and chant poems. Literati scholars set up a table to fight incense, observed the aroma style, incense mist form, and incense burning time, combined with incense and the surrounding environment, and evaluated various spices. Burning incense and lighting tea, arranging flowers, and hanging paintings became the "four elegant things" among the literati of the Song Dynasty.
Zhou Jiaxin, a beginner in the late Ming and Qing dynasties, spent more than twenty years immersed in the study of incense, and wrote a book called "Xiang Cheng", a total of twenty-eight volumes, listing various types of spices and their use methods, which was the collection of incense culture before the Ming Dynasty.
Tu Long of the Ming Dynasty summed it up: "The use of incense is the most pu. Hidden outside the object, sitting on the morality, burning it can purify the heart and please the gods. "Spices not only penetrate into all aspects of ancient life, but also cultivate and nourish the body and mind, resulting in a fragrant and idyllic lifestyle." Spices have departed from their original material forms and have risen to the spiritual orientation of cultivating temperament.
Spices played an important role in ancient religious sacrifices, beauty incense, food and beverage flavor, medicinal health care, etc. Folk equate spices with the quality of life, and the use of spices is officially used as a ceremonial system, and under the rendering of the literati, spices are a symbol of noble sentiments. Spice culture is the main point that has to be said in traditional culture. It can be said that the ancients relied on spices everywhere, and it is precisely because of this that the status of spices in ancient times will be so important.
Text: Count white as black
References: "Tianxiang Biography", "Keshu", "Xiangyang Qi Old Record", "Weiwu Emperor's Collected Writings"
The text was created by the History University Hall team, and the picture originated from the Internet and the copyright belongs to the original author