Xiāngpǔ 香譜
Treatise on Incense by 洪芻 (Hóng Chú, 撰)
About the work
A two-juàn Northern-Sòng monograph on incense — the foundational text of the xiāngpǔ 香譜 genre in the broader pǔlù tradition. The work is divided into four classes: xiāng zhī pǐn 香之品 (varieties of incense — the raw substances: sandalwood, agarwood, frankincense, etc.); xiāng zhī yì 香之異 (the rare-and-unusual incenses recorded in pre-Sòng literature); xiāng zhī shì 香之事 (incense-anecdotes from history); xiāng zhī fǎ 香之法 (recipes for compound incenses). Attribution to Hóng Chú follows Zuǒ Guī’s 左圭 Bǎichuān xuéhǎi 百川學海 inscription and the Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì, but the Sìkù editors raise doubts (see the tíyào).
Tiyao
We submit that the Xiāngpǔ is in two juàn; the old recensions do not give the compiler’s name. Zuǒ Guī’s Bǎichuān xuéhǎi inscribes it as the work of Hóng Chú of the Sòng. Chú, zì Jūfù 駒父, was a man of Nánchāng, jìnshì of Shàoshèng 1 (1094), and during Jìngkāng held office up to Jiànyì dàfū (Grand Adviser); he was banished to Shāméndǎo, where he died. The Xiāngpǔ of his is recorded in the Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì. Zhōu Zǐzhī 周紫芝’s Tàicāng tímǐ jí has a postface “Inscribed at the End of Hóng Jūfù’s Xiāngpǔ” which says: “The Shěn family of Lìyáng — the Jiànyì family — was anciently called the largest book-collector; the Xiāngpǔ now circulating in the world was the Jiànyìgōng’s own compilation. He was reckoned to have gathered all the incense-affairs that all the various authorities had recorded. Yet to view what Hóng Jūfù has now compiled — Shěn had not got one or two in ten. I, in Fùchuān, made the Miàoxiāng Liáo (Wondrous-Incense Studio); Yǒngxīng Guō Yuánshòu wrote a long verse, after which the Guìchí magistrate Mr Liú Yǐng exchanged five rhymes with me — back and forth ten compositions — using a great number of incense-affairs; there were still one or two incense-affairs not recorded in Jūfù’s treatise.” So contemporaries esteemed Chú’s treatise as above Shěn Lì’s [now lost] treatise.
However, Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì states that Chú’s treatise “gathers ancient-and-modern incense-methods, including Zhèng Kāngchéng’s Hàngōngxiāng, the Nánshǐ ‘Xiǎozōng xiāng’, the Zhēngào ‘Yīngxiāng’, the Concubine-Qī ‘Compelling-Carriage Incense’, the Táng Yuán Bànqiān incense — the recorded matter is quite comprehensive. But the Tōngdiǎn records the use of shuǐchén xiāng (sinking-water aloeswood) in successive ages’ Heaven-sacrifices — and he alone omits this.” The present recension does have a shuǐchén xiāng entry, and the Zhèng Kāngchéng and other items mentioned are not present. Compared to the Tōngkǎo, the recension has one more juàn than Chú’s treatise. So it appears not to be Chú’s work. Shěn Lì’s [lost] treatise has long been untransmitted. The Shūlù jiětí has Hóushì Xuāntáng xiāngpǔ 侯氏萱堂香譜 in two juàn, but we do not know which age — could this be the present book? Its book is divided into four classes: varieties of incense, strange incenses, incense-affairs, incense-methods — also quite comprehensive, sufficient as a resource for verification. Submitted Qiánlóng 46 month 10 (1781).
Abstract
The work is the standard source for Sòng-period incense literature, regardless of the question of who exactly compiled the surviving recension. The four-class structure (pǐn, yì, shì, fǎ) became the model for later xiāngpǔ, including the much-expanded Chén Jìng Chénshì xiāngpǔ (KR3i0016) and the Míng Zhōu Jiāzhòu 周嘉胄 Xiāngshèng (KR3i0017).
The compositional date depends on the attribution: if Hóng Chú is the author (per Sòngshǐ Yìwénzhì and Zhōu Zǐzhī’s contemporary testimony), the work was composed in his active period c. 1094–1126 (he died on Shāméndǎo during the Jìngkāng banishment). The Sìkù editors’ doubts about the attribution — based on internal-evidence discrepancies with the Cháo Gōngwǔ description and with the Tōngkǎo recension — point to the possibility that the surviving text is one or more layers of editorial accretion-and-reduction on the original Sòng work. Modern scholarship has generally retained the Hóng Chú attribution while acknowledging the textual problems.
The work is a major source for the early-Sòng adoption of Southeast-Asian and South-Asian aromatics into the Chinese cultural-religious economy: it gives extensive information on chénxiāng 沈香 (agarwood, Aquilaria), tánxiāng 檀香 (sandalwood), rǔxiāng 乳香 (frankincense, from Arabia and Sūmǎlǐ — = Somalia), mòyào 沒藥 (myrrh), lóngnǎo 龍腦 (Borneol camphor), shèxiāng 麝香 (musk), ānxī xiāng 安息香 (gum benzoin), and dozens of others, together with their geographical origins, trade-routes, and pricing. The work is one of the principal sources for the early-Sòng maritime trade with the Indian Ocean economy.
Translations and research
- Bedini, Silvio. 1994. The Trail of Time: Time Measurement with Incense in East Asia. Cambridge UP. Major treatment of incense-clocks; uses Xiāng-pǔ extensively.
- Schafer, Edward H. 1963. The Golden Peaches of Samarkand. Berkeley: U California Press. Foundational treatment of pre-Sòng aromatics imports; cites Xiāng-pǔ for Sòng counterparts.
- Yáng Zhīshuǐ 揚之水. 2017. Liǎng-Sòng xiāng-pǔ jí xiāng-shì-shī kǎo 兩宋香譜及香事詩考. Běijīng: Wén-wù chū-bǎn-shè. Standard modern study.
- Liú Yīnghuá 劉穎華. 2011. Sòng-dài xiāng-pǔ yán-jiū 宋代香譜研究. Shànghǎi shī-fàn dà-xué doctoral thesis.
Other points of interest
The work’s section on xiāng zhī fǎ (compound-incense recipes) is the principal source for the Sòng tradition of héxiāng 合香 (blended incense) as practiced by the literati class — including the famous Lǐhé qīngyǔ recipe ascribed to Wáng Wéi, the Cuìxiāng recipe ascribed to Sū Shì, and the Yīngxiāng (Cherry Incense) recipe from the Daoist Zhēngào. These recipes circulated widely in SòngYuánMíng literati culture and form the basis of the modern revival of Chinese incense-art.