Chuantong Incense Making Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
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 · Core Techniques & Process
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.
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 · Regional Records & Related Items
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.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Chuantong Incense Making Craftsmanship · Chuantong Incense Making Craftsmanship · Chuantong Incense Making Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Li Shiliang (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, Hui ethnicity, born in August 1980, a native of Beijing. Representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage item Traditional Incense Making Craft (medicinal incense making craft). Fifth-generation inheritor of the medicinal incense making craft. Influenced since childhood by his maternal grandmother Ma Guizhen and his mother Shi Yali, he inherited the family craft of medicinal incense making. From 2000 he studied at a number of Chinese medicine schools at home and abroad, systematically learning Chinese medicine theory, and obtained the professional technical qualification certificate of international Chinese medicine practitioner. The medicinal incense he makes is processed strictly according to the ancient methods, and is clean in quality, rich in variety and wide in use. Besides 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, combining health-preservation culture, promotes and carries forward the medicinal incense craft at home and abroad.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Li Shiliang 05-2901
- Huang Ou 05-2902
- Lin Wenxi
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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