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Study the Junyu language
Half of spring and autumn is still flavorful (typing a word)
There is a discipline specializing in smell, but it is a thing that is deeply infatuated with both ancient and modern times at home and abroad, and in different regions and eras, in different rooms and occasions, it often spreads out different wonderful.
It is written in the Eight Notes of Zunsheng that it is used for a wide range of purposes, and no matter what the nature of the mind, as long as you burn incense, you can be greatly benefited: the idler... Burning can purify the heart and delight; the elegant... Burning can be soothing; the warm... Burn to the far away from the devil; the beauties.... Burn with the heart of the heart.
Song Zhao Tuo's "Listening to the Qintu" Collection of the Palace Museum
In the Song Dynasty's "Biography of Tianxiang", there is a saying: "Incense is used from ancient times." The ancestors believed that the "burning sacrifice" method could communicate with the ghosts and gods, and the heavens listened, so they also believed that the aroma produced by the burning of incense was an offering that the ghosts and gods were willing to accept, and even now, when we worship the ancestors of the gods, we often burn a few sticks of incense.
According to the results of archaeological excavations, ash kilns have been found in the sites of Longshan culture and Liangzhu culture, which shows that as early as the Neolithic Age, people have begun to make special pottery fumigation ovens to burn incense. And its volume is not large, more likely to be used as a living utensils.
Bamboo strip pattern gray pottery furnace Shanghai Qingpu Fuquan Mountain Liangzhu cultural site excavated
In the relatively low productivity of the Shang zhou period, most of the spices used were artemisia, zeeland, fern grass and other herbs, considering the rare spices and the divine properties of the incense itself, incense was more used for rituals such as sacrifices. In the Zhou Li, we can see many records of bathing corpses with wine (pronounced chàng, a wine with aroma).
In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, people could use more herbs, so spices became more of a daily use, such as Qu Yuan's words on a large number of vanilla songs - Hu Jiang Li and Yan Xi, sewing Qiulan thought to admire.
Tang Hollow tangled silver sachets from the Shaanxi History Museum
In later generations, with the development of productive forces and the deepening of Sino-foreign exchanges, wood fragrance, overseas spices, etc. have also entered people's vision, starting from the Han Dynasty, and even have a variety of spices mixed and matched.
On the other hand, the production of incense is also flourishing, and the special utensils made for incense burning are represented by the Han Dynasty Boshan Furnace, which is known as the ancestor of the incense burner, and the posture of the stove is clustered with peaks, and every time incense is burned, light smoke drifts around, just like the mountain Lan Cage Peak, the beasts float, as if it is the legendary sea immortal mountain "BoShan".
Li Bai once wrote a poem praising this scene: "The incense in the Boshan furnace, the double smoke lingers in the purple xia". In addition, there are not a few utensils that are given additional incense adding functions, such as incense pillows, incense sticks, etc.
Hanbo Mountain Furnace Chuzhou City Museum Collection
In the Song Dynasty, incense culture developed to a peak, and the "Record of Dreams" wrote about the four idle things that were indispensable in the life of the Song people: "Burning incense and ordering tea, hanging pictures and arranging flowers, four kinds of idle things, it is not appropriate to tire the family." "Incense burning is even listed first.
At that time, it can be said that "all the alleys are fragrant", especially in the literati collective, such as Huang Tingjian, who claims to have a penchant for incense. Many celebrities also make their own incense, such as the "Spring Letter in the Snow" that Su Shi spent seven years making:
Shen tan is half a dollar for the end, the meat of the dingpi plum is reduced by half, the word of five grains of wood is picked, and the half of the two plain glass cypress musk is mixed, this fragrance is superior, and the fire of the silver leaf should be slowed. The smell of this fragrance is cool and calming to smell. However, it smells of flowers in the cold incense, so it is called Spring Letter in the Snow.
Qing Lotus Head Incense Collection of the Palace Museum
Today, let us go back to the Song Dynasty and smell the fragrance of the Song Dynasty.
fragrant
furnace
There are many shapes of incense burners in the Song Dynasty, including multi-legged incense burners, single-legged incense burners, long-handled incense burners that inherit the shape of the previous generation, and antique incense burners that have opened up new fashions, such as Ding-style incense burners, mane-style incense burners, guizhou incense burners and so on, which we are most familiar with today.
In many Buddhist paintings, especially in the Luohan diagrams, we can often see the figure of the multi-legged stove, mostly three-legged and five-legged, and the shape and decoration of the multi-legged incense burner were the most complicated in the Tang Dynasty, because Buddhism flourished at this time.
Song Lu Xinzhong, "Sixteen Arhats and Ashido"
The multi-legged furnaces of the Song Dynasty basically followed the fashion of the Tang Dynasty, but most of them were porcelain stoves, such as the five-legged lavender furnace with a lid excavated from the pagoda base of the Jingzhi Temple in Dingxian County, Hebei Province: lotus button, furnace lid gaolong, circular round seat, and five beast foot pavilion standing, quite Qingjun.
Northern Song Dynasty Ding kiln white glazed five-legged smoker
The shape of the single-legged incense burner is often more like a cup, and it is often mistaken for a lamp. Because the shape is relatively simple and the production is relatively simple, it is especially popular in the folk, but it is relatively rare in the court.
There are also popular one-legged incense burners in aristocratic society - lotus incense burners, such as Li Song's "Luohan Tu", Zhao Tuo's "Listening to the QinTu" and other ancient paintings, there are lotus incense burners. This is a kind of goblet incense burner with the theme of lotus flowers, and its mouth is the mouth of the flower, and the whole is like a blooming lotus flower.
Song Li Song "LuoHan Tu"
The long-handled incense burner is a kind of pre-Buddha offering, and buddhist murals often have scenes of flying heaven or offerings holding this furnace, and holding a long-handled incense burner during the worship of the Buddha can express their piety and sincerity. This kind of furnace was first called "birdtail furnace" because of its tail shape, the Tang Dynasty was also called "line furnace", and the long-handled incense burner of the Song Dynasty was closely related to the lotus incense burner.
Southern Song Dynasty Jin Dasheng "Sixteen Arhats Ashido Venerables" (partial)
There is also a very interesting traditional incense burner, the bionic incense burner, that is, an incense burner made in the shape of an animal. The choice of animals is not limited to the birds and beasts that exist in reality, and the legendary beasts such as phoenix birds and foxes are also among them.
Because the Buddhist scriptures compare the Buddha to the lion among men, the Tang people, who are deeply influenced by Buddhist culture, love the lion furnace the most; while the Song people prefer the common images in secular life such as cranes, mandarin ducks, and ducks, and the lotus flowers and Boshan things that originally had religious overtones have also weakened their religious meaning on song ware, and are more widely used as aesthetic elements.
Northern Song Dynasty Li Gonglin's "Wei Mo Yan Jiao Tu" (partial) Collection of the Palace Museum
The emergence of antique incense burners is closely related to the reform of the ceremonial system and the trend of antiques at this time, such as The words of Lü Dalin: "Look at its instruments, recite its words, describe as if to follow the legacy of three generations, such as seeing its people." "The retro trend of the Song Dynasty swept through the whole society from top to bottom, the official compilation of "Xuanhe Bogutu", and the folk have "Archaeological Map", "JiguTu", "Golden Stone Record" and other works to trace the ancients.
Northern Song Dynasty "Xuanhe Bogutu" book shadow
Transplanting the shape of the bronze artifact to the incense burner can be described as a delicate innovation, on the one hand, the internal space of the bronze artifact itself is enough to circulate the gas and have the practicality of the incense burner. The broadening of the material and the transformation of the shape design by the skilled craftsmen also make the bronze ancient ware better play its role as an incense burner.
On the other hand, its classical and solemn shape and wind bone are exactly what the literati and doctors pursue and love, so that burning incense, whether it is accompanied by piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, or to help a nap and sleep, can give people an additional sense of spiritual satisfaction.
Southern Song Dynasty "Huaiyin Summer Map" Collection of the Palace Museum
Ding-style incense burners such as Li Song's "Listening to Ruan Tu", with four-legged square incense with a belt of mud to support the Ding-style incense burner, depending on its skin, or made of copper, the shape of the instrument is quite similar to a piece of Yiding in Lü Dalin's "Archaeological Map".
Liu Songnian's "Autumn Window Reading Yitu" also has a Ding-style incense burner, which resembles a ceramic, with a Bagua pattern on it, with one more ear at the folding edge than in "Listening to Ruan Tu", and the three legs are shorter and more outwardly skimmed.
Southern Song Dynasty Liu Songnian "Autumn Window Reading Easy Map" Liaoning Provincial Museum Collection
In addition, the shapes of mane, 奁, and gui are also quite popular, and Wu Wenying's words include: "The ancient mane is fragrant, the official pot flowers are changed, and the spring is good at four o'clock." In the Song Dynasty's paintings such as the "Xiyuan Yajitu", "Female Filial Piety Sutra", and "Bamboo Burning Incense", there are images of such artifacts.
Song "Bamboo Burning Incense", collection of the Palace Museum
affair
Incense is a series of application activities derived from the theme of incense, such as incense making, incense burning, selling incense, making flowers and fruits tea wine with incense, etc. You know, the song people's application of incense is not just about burning incense.
As mentioned earlier, the use of incense is very closely related to Buddhist culture, but in fact, not only do people use incense to express piety during the worship of the Buddha, but also at the birthday party of Lao Jun held every year in Tianqingguan, people also use incense:
Burn ten thousand lanterns for the holy fasting and pray for the blessings of the people. The priests looked up to the incense and came and went countless times. The monks and nuns of Changming Temple and various religious academies outside Chongxin Gate, the construction of the Buddha's Nirvana Victory Society, the listing of banners, the offering of all kinds of fragrant flowers and fruits, the famous paintings and calligraphy, the setting up of rare toys, the solemn dojo, the gathering of spectators, and the endless day.
According to the "West Lake Old Man's Prosperity Record", the incense is to use the thumb, index finger and middle finger of the right hand to pick up a small handful of incense powder, lift it to the eyebrow, perform the eye-catching ceremony to the recipient, and then put the incense powder back into the incense vessel.
Of course, the habit of using incense for sacrifices that people have had since ancient times did not change during the Song Dynasty. Song Dynasty sacrifices include two types: suburban sacrifices and regular sacrifices, of which suburban sacrifices have higher specifications.
The suburban festival is a ritual of the Heavenly Son's sacrifice to heaven and earth, the previous burning sacrifice was to dig a deep pit to burn spices and sacrifices, and the Song Dynasty suburban sacrifice was to use a larger incense burner. It is often at the end of the ritual that a person puts all the spice offerings into the furnace and burns them.
The regular sacrifice is a daily sacrifice to the temple of the Ghost God Sect, and some of the undesirable things will also use incense for the sacrifice, Song Renzong has no children, so he set up the Great Ceremony of Asking for Sons, and the Heavenly Son Three On Incense. In the event of a disaster, people will also burn incense and pray, such as the Song Dynasty Xianping second year of the folk drought, people will also set up incense cases to pray for rain.
As an indispensable thing in the life of the nobility, incense also played a more important role in the daily life of the nobility, such as the Song Dynasty nobles' banquets and drinks required four divisions and six rounds, and there was a fragrant medicine bureau in the six innings - "specially in charge of medicine plates, incense balls, fire boxes, incense cakes, waiting for calls, all kinds of strange incense and decoction soup medicines." In Yang Wanli's poem, there are also "the master is more afraid of incense and tasteless, and the sinking water dragon saliva is used as a companion to burn."
There are more fantastic ideas for the use of incense in secular life, according to the "Incense Spectrum" and other documents, people will also add incense to the wine to make fragrant wine, the Northern Song Dynasty famous wine Is added to the Asteraceae plant wood root fragrance, lamb wine, snowflake wine and other famous wines are the same.
The spice shop in the "Qingming River Map"
In the "Qingming River Map", which reflects the life of the Northern Song Dynasty, in addition to the obvious spice shops, we can also see two small stalls with brands "Drink" and "Fragrant Drink" in front of the stalls, which look like a low-priced drink.
This is a kind of drink made of adding incense, which was made in the Tang Dynasty, such as in the "Miscellaneous Records of the Great Cause": the Zen master also made five-spice drinks, the first agarwood drink, the second clove drink, the second sandalwood drink, the second Zelan incense drink, the second sweet pine drink, all have other methods, mainly incense.
The fragrant drink stall in "Qingming on the River Map"
"West Lake Old Man Prosperity Record" records many Song Dynasty drinks, of which spleen drink, Da Shun san, sweet bean sugar, etc. are all fragrant drinks, these fragrant drinks are mostly used in summer, can dispel heat, quench thirst.
In addition, spices are also used in the medical field, "Compendium of Materia Medica" in the wood department has many records of the efficacy of spices; boudoir is also a place of extremely expensive spices, in addition to the aforementioned incense, its skin care products, cosmetics to add spices, dress handkerchiefs to use incense, and strive to be fragrant everywhere.
Song Su Hanchen makeup beautiful female figure
Literati life is not much more than the boudoir, ladies love skin care and makeup, literati add spices to tea ink and other things, fragrant tea recipes abound, but there are also literati dislikes, such as Cai Xiang "afraid of its true fragrance".
Xiangmo is what the literati are chasing, pan gu in the Song Dynasty once sold incense ink in the Great Xiangguo Temple, and its ink "incense through the muscles and bones, grinding to the end and incense does not fade", not only the price is not high, he also often sends ink to support poor students, so it is called ink immortals.
Incense is a thing for the gods, but also a thing to help, or a pleasant thing, the Song people have a pot of incense, and there are new incense in the world.
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