In ancient China, incense could be used as a medicinal herb to dispel filth and immunity and refresh the mind; in banquet celebrations, people would burn incense in solemn ceremonies to pray for goodness; the incense used in the sacrifice ceremony placed great expectations on "borrowing the merits of cigarettes and inviting the gods to the netherworld", while the burning of incense in the examination hall when the ancients entered the military examination hall meant a very high courtesy. Incense from the form of incense, incense, incense, incense, incense, incense, incense cone, incense powder, incense pills, special incense, original incense and other varieties. From the material, it is divided into incense and one-sided incense. Traditional ancient method of hand-made incense, material selection and technique are quite exquisite, need to go through incense, cleaning, drying, grinding, incense, mud, mud, molding, yin drying and other processes, each kind of incense produced is full of the ingenuity and enthusiasm of the artist.
A family of incense makers
There is a Sharp Dragon Xiangtang on Yanjia Road in Hangzhou, and the small storefront is furnished with various systems and dynasties of incense making tools and incense utensils, and the faint fragrance reveals full of simplicity and elegance. Jiang Rui, the owner of the xiangtang, talked to us about his fate with xiang.
Jiang Rui was born in a family of incense makers, the mother clan Fucha set a yellow flag for the Manchus, once made incense for the palace internal affairs office, in 1916, Jiang Rui's grandfather was born, inheriting the incense-making skills of his great-grandfather, and then passed on to Jiang Rui's mother, and then passed on to Jiang Rui has been passed down for four generations. "I was born in 76, and I was separated from my grandfather, and I was also making incense, just like the inevitability of the underworld."
Jiang Rui's hometown is next to the Tokyo Mausoleum, is the earliest royal cemetery of the Manchu Qing, the grandfather's house and the cemetery is only separated by a wall, in Jiang Rui's impression, at that time the family was still undertook the burning of incense for the ancestors, and later due to the changes of the times, many incense parties have not been preserved, so that it has passed to Jiang Rui's hands, there are very few.
Play the road of incense
Growing up under the influence of incense, Jiang Rui has a different feeling for incense since childhood, Jiang Rui frankly said, "I belong, there is one, I want to play it to understand the people, Shen Tan Dragon Musk, Agarwood ranked first...", so, starting from Agarwood, Jiang Rui took the incense brand given to him by his mother, visited various agarwood production areas, and the road of incense appreciation was more than ten years.
Jiang Rui made a single square incense, only taking a taste of agarwood, so the requirements for the incense maker's ability to identify incense are relatively high. "The heart of the tree, the bark, the roots, and the incense it bears are different; some are injured by lightning, some are bitten by insects, and the incense of different ways will be different, some are sweet, some are cool...". After summarizing years of experience, Jiang Rui formed a unique set of incense making techniques.
It seems to be an ordinary incense stick, starting from the selection of materials, both to consider the cost, but also to balance the fragrance, but also to achieve a certain thickness of alcohol, the process is quite exquisite, the choice of water, the proportion of adhesive, the dry humidity of the incense mud, the thickness of the incense, will affect the quality of the incense. In the process of Jiang Rui's selfless incense making, the whole house was filled with the smell of agarwood, creating a melodious and quiet atmosphere, as if the whole world had calmed down.
Jiang Rui is a person with a personality, watching the network sell fake agarwood tens of thousands of orders a month, so he thought of opening a perfume shop that only sells genuine products, "are grandfathers, a bit of chivalrous spirit, I also like to look at Jin Yong, I think someone should unveil the pole, shout a voice, I sell the real products..." As a result, after a year, I did not sell fake goods, but I could not hold on.
Friends with incense
At the suggestion of a friend, Jiang Rui declared the success of the intangible cultural heritage, which also gave him more confidence to persevere, "just like when I was about to drown half to death, someone threw you a lifebuoy, and I struggled to climb to the shore."
Now the online store is still open, dozens of sales a month are barely strong, Jiang Rui laughed at himself, "treasurer, small two, customer service, operation, art, delivery, all sitting in front of you, are me...", Jiang Rui frankly said that it is difficult to do culture, but it is also very interesting to do culture, you can get to know all kinds of people, whether it is Xiaobai or scholars, Jiang Rui is willing to share his feelings and experiences on incense.
Incense culture is involved in a wide range of knowledge, including art, traditional Chinese medicine, archaeology, kiln mouth, poetry and other aspects, Jiang Rui while constantly improving himself, but also in the promotion of incense, spread incense culture, and incense friends in the process of communication and exchange to summarize experience, to incense friends.
On this trip to find incense, we saw the persistence of a craftsman in traditional culture; we saw the stubbornness of an online seller who was determined to fake the truth; we saw a middle-aged man as calm and elegant as agarwood; and we saw the spirit of incense culture that has not changed for thousands of years.
Traditional craftsmen who create for ingenuity
Click "Watching"