The 67 incense recipes contained in the "Xiang Cheng" and "Chen's Xiang Spectrum" all use the "Jia Xiang" flavor, and most of them are concocted. We want to make incense according to the recipe, but we don't understand what incense is? The easiest way to do this is to look it up online and buy the ingredients. But this check does not matter, it turns out that Jia Xiang still has two faces!
Some people think that Jia Xiang is a shell snail [yǎn] contained in ancient texts, also known as "spawning child", water mica, taiji stone;
Some people refer to the Japanese incense material and believe that the incense is a kind of snail, that is, a round flake lid that seals the shell of the snail.
In contrast, these are two completely different substances, which can't help but make novices confused! Even the old incense friends who have been in contact with the incense for a long time are afraid that they still have different opinions about why the incense is! So today we will take a closer look at the true face of Jia Xiang!
<h1>Literature</h1>
If you want to explore the incense, you must look for the records of it in ancient books, and you may be able to find some clues.
1. "Incense Ride"
"Xiang Cheng" is a collection of Chinese incense culture before the Ming Dynasty, its content covers the "Incense Spectrum" and "Chen's Incense Spectrum", which is quoted by the side, and all the famous products related to incense medicine and various incense recipes are readily available.
Introduction of Koshin
In Book V there is a detailed account of the "Kosang":
Beetle, lice. The big one is like Ou, the side in front of it is wrapped up a few inches long, and the shell is thorny, and the incense is burned to make it beneficial, and the single burning is not good. A stream snail, the middle of the snails, the thickest taste is also. The raw Yunnan is as big as a palm, blue and yellow, four or five inches long, and it is used for burning ash. The Southerners also cook their meat, and now each incense is used for many purposes, which is said to be able to make incense and reunite cigarettes. It must be boiled to remove fishy and salivating, see the usage later.
Jia Xiang is only good from Guangdong, Hezhong Province is only wide, Jiazhou is also there, as large as money, grinding on the wood makes it hot, that is, the natural interest in the throwing wine is also, if the incense is even without the incense, it is replaced by a horseshoe shell, and its power is equal to the incense, and the tail is especially good.
Although there is not much text in this paragraph, it is a mixture of information, and the opening paragraph points out a sentence of "A fragrant, lily." ”
What is "Li"?
Li lí, the snail number of the Tang and Song dynasties, is also known as "Li", "Li", "Li Jiao" and other names. Old Book of Tang Music II: "Bei, Li Ye." Rong can count the liters, and blow it to the festival music, but also out of the southern man. ”
That is to say, it is a kind of snail, which is a snail with a frontal protrusion, a staggered shell surface, and a spiked snail.
Later, it was said that the incense is also called the snail, which belongs to the middle stream in the various snails, and the taste is the thickest, and once again it is pointed out that the incense is a kind of snail. The Song Dynasty "Bencao Tujing" records that the flow snail is a salamander. The lid of the salamander is particularly thick and calcareous.
Born in Yunnan, it is as big as a palm, blue and yellow, but the phrase "take the ash and use it" has a different interpretation because of a "take" word. It can be "selected", that is, the part to be taken, or it can be "taken out", that is, the part that is not taken. After it is another "靥" character.
Jing yè refers to the micro-vortex on the cheek, which is what we often call dimples. The vortex on the conch should refer to the recessed part in the middle of it, that is, the snail meat, which coincides with the "Southerners also cook their meat" as mentioned later. Don't take out the contents, the rest is used to make incense.
However, some people think that the "靥" here should be "three", which is called the lid or shell, and the soft part is retracted into the shell and then plugs the lid of the sealing shell. That is to say, instead of a snail shell, the snail cover is used as an incense, and both interpretations point to the snail's screw.
However, the reason for the ambiguity is the latter sentence, "If the incense is even without incense, it is replaced by a horseshoe shell."
The shell of a crab[hòu] is the shell of a crab-like animal with a blue-brown or dark brown body.
Through experimental studies, chinese horseshoe shell composition is 30% chitin, 60% protein, and ash and calcium content are very small. And in the snail rich in chitin components is the property of the screw cover, since it can be replaced by a horseshoe shell, naturally the active ingredient is similar, then some people believe that the screw cover is the first choice, the gray matter of the snail is not a fragrance.
Method of concocting incense
Since you can't find a clear answer from the introduction of incense, you may be able to spy one or two from the preparation method.
A fragrant system: A fragrance such as dragon ear is good, from the remaining small times also, take one or two first with charcoal juice a plate of boiling, and then with a sinking boiling, Fang Tong good wine a lamp boiled out, into the honey half a spoon stir-fry, such as gold.
Boil the yellow mud in water, make it transparent, then slice it, wash and dry it.
The ash charcoal is boiled for two days, and the net wash is boiled dry with honey soup.
A incense soaked in rice swill water for three nights, then boiled and fried until red foam, Yan boiling makes the swill clear as a degree, into a good wine with a lamp of frying, a long time to take out, with the cannon color red, more with good wine a lamp splashed on the ground, incense on the ground, pot cover a night to take out for use.
A fragrant piece of cement soaked for three days, take out the drying, brush off the mud, put into a plate of slurry water, boil dry for the degree, put in a good wine lamp, boil dry in the silverware, stir-fry to make it yellow.
Aroma and boil to remove the film, good wine to boil dry.
The incense is ground to remove the discord, and the color of the flax paste is yellow, then washed with honey soup, and the incense should be used less.
There are 7 kinds of concoction methods in "Xiang Cheng", and the most mentioned words are "boiling" and "wine".
If it is considered to be shelly beetle, these processes are cleaning and disinfecting, so that the shell becomes clean and removes miscellaneous odors. The incense is mixed with a gray snail, which can reduce the combustion temperature, and it is speculated that the aroma of the incense material can be better maintained.
It seems more reasonable to think that the incense here is a snail. The active ingredient to be retained in the snail is chitin, one can play a moisturizing effect on incense pills and incense cakes, and its water locking effect can reach 1300%, which is often used in the preparation of modern cosmetics; second, chitin can be broad-spectrum antibacterial, which plays a positive role in the storage of incense.
But in addition to the chitin we want in the snail, there is a lot of protein, protein burning taste is not good, there is a bad smell of burnt odor, even after concoction, it is difficult to reduce the smell of this combustion, is one of the most fatal shortcomings!
summary:
The record of jia xiang in the "Xiang Multiplication" is only a written description, and there is no clear illustration. The Chinese characters are broad and profound, and there is often a phenomenon of multiple meanings of words. At the beginning, it is clear that the incense belongs to the shellfish, but it is disputed that it can be replaced by a horseshoe shell. Therefore, starting from the preparation method, the purpose of the processing is to retain the enhanced function, but the snail is difficult to achieve the scorched odor generated when the protein is burned, so the concoction should also be for the shell screw.
2. "Nanzhou Foreign Object Chronicle"
The Chronicle of The Strange Objects of Nanzhou was written by The Taishou Wanzhen of Danyang during the Eastern Wu Dynasty of the Three Kingdoms, danyang is the city of nanjing today, and because of its geography, it has the opportunity to contact the Chinese that have been spreading across the sea in Southeast Asia all year round. Learn about many exotic customs, anecdotes, and more. Subsequently, the collected material was compiled into a book.
There is also a record of the incense in this book:
The one who is incense is as large as Ou, and the side in front of him is straight, several inches long, and the shell is thorny. Its three, miscellaneous incense burned yifang, alone burned is smelly. Nowadays, it is rarely used by doctors, but it is used only by those who combine incense.
In this book, it is clearly stated that the incense is a snail, and now most doctors do not use it, but use it for incense, indicating that it should have been used in medicine, then look for evidence from the medical books!
3. Ancient medical texts
Tang Dynasty "New Cultivation Materia Medica": Jia Xiang, raw In the South China Sea, Li is as big as a small fist, blue and yellow, four or five inches long, take three burnt ashes for it, and the southerners also cook their flesh, and it does not harm Yiye.
Song Dynasty "Materia Medica": Jia Xiang, born in the South China Sea, present-day Lingwai, Fujian Coastal Prefecture and Mingzhou are all there, and the sea lily is also hidden.
Song Dynasty "Materia Medica": A incense, good energy pipe cigarette, and Shen, sandalwood, dragon, musk used well.
Song Dynasty "Lei Gong Cannon Burning Theory": All envoys (Jia Xiang) must be boiled with raw thatch incense and soap horn two flavors for half a day, but they are wet, pounded in the stone mortar, and sifted through with a horsetail sieve.
The Ming Dynasty "Compendium of Materia Medica, Jie Er, Conch" (Collective Interpretation) quotes Su Song Yue: Conch is the flow snail, the three are known as Jia Xiang, born in the South China Sea, in the present-day Lingwai, in the coastal prefectures of central Fujian and Mingzhou, or only in Taizhou is preferred.
Qing Dynasty "Experience Fang": Jia Xiang cultivation method, no limit, first boiled with loess mud water for a day, bathed in warm water, the second time with rice swill or ash juice boiled for a day, according to the previous bath after the honey wine boiled for a day, and then bathed, and appointed.
Many medical texts clearly state that the incense is the snail of the flow snail, that is, the shell of the snail.
After discussion, the answer to what jiaxiang is is very simple, from beginning to end, from ancient times to the present, there is only this kind of jiaxiang called "jiaxiang". However, because of the "foreign monks are good at chanting the sutra", some incense friends only understand some of the incense materials of the Japanese incense path, so they regard them as authentic, completely denying the local incense materials, and there is a tendency to completely negate the incense that is called "spawning son" and "water mica".
This argument is only to prove that the incense is indeed a shell incense, not a snail, not shaped like a dragon ear, or the incense contained in ancient books.
Sometimes the answer is too simple for us to believe, that is, to chase after the end of the end and lose our hearts.