Li Shiliang

01 · Lineage & Regional School

He has mastered more than a thousand incense formulas handed down within his family and collected nearly ten thousand folk formulas, and has the capacity to research, develop and extend products independently. Within the regional tradition and school record of Chuantong Incense Making Craftsmanship in Xicheng, Beijing: Beijing is the centre of transmission of the medicinal incense making craft. Xing Liushi, the first-generation inheritor, opened the Zhonghua Medicinal Storehouse in the Deshengmen area in the late Qing and early Republic period, diagnosing patients on the premises while selling self-made incense; in the 1960s the third-generation inheritor Ma Guizhen moved to the former Xuanwu District, still making incense at home and distributing it to relatives and friends; by the generation of Li Shiliang it had reached the fifth. The roots of the craft lie in the incense formulas and the processing, while its setting is the workshops of self-production and self-use in the old city quarters; to this day the Huguosi and Dashilan areas still have dense concentrations of aromatic medicines and pharmacies. Li Shiliang learned the craft from childhood from his maternal grandmother Ma Guizhen and his mother Shi Yali, and from 2000 onwards pursued further study at several schools of Chinese medicine in China, obtaining the professional technical qualification certificate of international Chinese medicine practitioner. Xing Liushi, the first-generation inheritor of the traditional medicinal incense handed down in Beijing, opened the Zhonghua Medicinal Storehouse near Deshengmen in the late Qing and early Republic period, diagnosing patients on the premises while making and selling his own medicinal incense. In the 1960s the third-generation inheritor, Ma Guizhen, moved to the former Xuanwu District and continued to make medicinal incense at home, giving it to relatives and friends; the craft has now been passed down to the fifth generation within the family.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Hui ethnic group, born in August 1980 in Beijing. National representative bearer of Chuantong Incense Making Craftsmanship (medicinal incense making craftsmanship), a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. He is the fifth-generation bearer of medicinal incense making craftsmanship. Influenced from childhood by his maternal grandmother, Ma Guizhen, and his mother, Shi Yali, he inherited the family's medicinal incense making techniques. From 2000 he pursued further study at a number of Chinese medicine schools at home and abroad, systematically studying traditional Chinese medical theory, and obtained the International Chinese Medicine Practitioner professional qualification certificate. The medicinal incense he makes is processed strictly according to ancient methods; it is clean in quality, rich in variety and wide in use. In addition to family members, he has taken on a number of apprentices. He has been engaged as a special research fellow and lecturer by universities and Confucius Institutes and, linking the craft with health-preservation culture, promotes medicinal incense techniques at home and abroad. Within the documented technical tradition of Chuantong Incense Making Craftsmanship in Xicheng, Beijing: The craft of making medicinal incense is a component of traditional Chinese incense-making; it uses natural aromatic materials as its raw materials and was developed on the basis of family incense formulas and processing techniques handed down for more than a hundred years. Beijing is one of the main areas in which this craft is distributed. The traditional craft of medicinal incense making inherits more than two thousand years of incense culture; its finished products include incense pills, incense beads, incense cakes, incense powder, incense paste, perfume, stick incense, seal incense, sign incense, coil incense, pagoda incense, and raw aromatic materials in their natural state. The making of traditional medicinal incense strictly follows ancient incense formulas and production processes, including the selection of genuine regional medicinal materials, hand grinding, de-toxification of the aromatic medicines by the five processing methods, blending the incense according to the sovereign-minister-assistant-envoy hierarchy of the aromatic medicines, kneading the material by hand, shaping in moulds, drying naturally in the shade, removing the harsh nature and cellaring, and packing into boxes. The main processing methods include steaming, boiling, stir-frying, baking, roasting, quick-frying, simmering in ashes and soaking. The classification and making of traditional medicinal incense are fairly refined; because the incense formulas differ, the selection of materials, the recipe, the method of de-toxification, the blending, and the grinding and shaping techniques all differ as well. Blending is the core element: according to the pharmacological properties of the aromatic medicines they are ranked as sovereign, minister, assistant and envoy, so as to achieve the important effect of balancing the internal organs and curing illness. The craft uses entirely pure, natural and unpolluted precious mineral, resinous and plant (herbaceous and woody) materials, together with some traditional animal materials and renewable aromatic medicines; the incense produced has the effects of dispelling illness and evil, preventing disease and protecting health, promoting human health, strengthening immune function, and calming the spirit and improving the intellect. Traditional medicinal incense is closely linked to Chinese medicine culture; the documented history of medicinal incense already spans more than two thousand years, and numerous medical books and classics record the materials, formulas, production, use and methods of appreciating incense (incense art) for traditional medicinal incense and aromatic medicines. The traditional medicinal incense made by this heritage item can purify the environment, dispel illness and prevent epidemics, open the senses and improve the intellect, and strengthen immunity; it is an important part of Chinese health-preservation culture and has high medical value. In addition, medicinal incense is widely used in certain traditional Chinese festivals and traditional rites, so the heritage item has considerable social and cultural value. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Blending by sovereign, minister, assistant and envoy": Once a formula is set, the perfumes are allocated as sovereign, minister, assistant and envoy, weighing medicinal action and the organs affected rather than fragrance alone. "Preparing the drugs to remove their toxicity": Before entering a formula each drug is processed to remove its toxicity by steaming, boiling, frying, baking, roasting, simmering or soaking; the method changes both scent and effect as much as the dose does. "Kneading, moulding and ageing in jars": The blended mass is kneaded by hand and pressed into moulds as pills, cakes or beads, dried in the shade, then sealed in jars to mature until the scent turns mellow before it is put on sale. "A dozen finished forms": Besides pills, beads, cakes, powder, paste and perfume water there are stick, seal, stick, coil and tower incense and unprocessed aromatic materials, each form serving wearing, burning or medicating.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2018, Li Shiliang was announced in the fifth batch of national representative bearers for Chuantong Incense Making Craftsmanship, with Xicheng, Beijing as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Chuantong Incense Making Craftsmanship in Xicheng, Beijing: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2014 (batch 4), with Xicheng, Beijing as its declared area, and Beijing Dong TianYouXiangYe Culture Chuanbo Development Co., Ltd. as its safeguarding unit. Since the project was inscribed in the national inventory, its declared area and safeguarding unit have carried out documentation, transmission and presentation within the national safeguarding framework. Together, the inventory record and the project archive form the public documentary basis for the bearer’s transmission practice.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Li Shiliang · National Representative Bearer Archive