Liaobuxiang
01 · Historical Records
As early as the Ming and Qing dynasties, Liaobu Town had already become a collection and distribution center for Guanxiang (Dongguan incense). Guanxiang can be classified into incense for imperial court use (recorded in 'Records of Guangdong Tribute Items in the Qing Dynasty Held in the Palace Museum'), incense for blessing and prayer (a folk tradition), incense used by scholar-officials (Song-dynasty literati ranked the use of incense among the four idle pursuits), and incense used by young women (namely nü'erxiang, 'daughter's incense', recorded in Luo Xianglin's 'A History of Hong Kong in Earlier Times'). The Liaobu Incense Market fully reflects the historical evolution of China's incense culture, and the commercial customs and incense-way ceremonies that developed in its trade provide an important reference for the study of the trading customs of special goods.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Liaobu Incense Market is a traditional commercial cultural space and custom that has continued in Liaobu Town, Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, with the trade of Guanxiang as its distinctive feature. Guanxiang is agarwood, also known as 'tuchenxiang', 'baimuxiang', 'nü'erxiang' (daughter's incense), 'yaxiangshu', and 'mixiangshu'; it is an evergreen tree of the Thymelaeaceae family. In the late Ming and early Qing period, Qu Dajun's 'New Words on Guangdong' (Guangdong Xinyu), volume 2, records: 'Eastern Guangdong has four markets ... one is the incense market, at Liaobu in Dongguan, where all grades of Guanxiang, raw and cured, are gathered.' Tan Ying of the Qing dynasty, in 'Poems on the Four Markets: The Dongguan Incense Market' (volume 3 of his 'Lezhitang Collection of Poems'), vividly depicts the bustling trading scene: 'The summer heat comes on but the incense farmers give it no thought; the daughters vie to seek out the clamor of the market.' As a commercial custom dealing in a special commodity, the Liaobu Incense Market has a number of distinctive features. First, it held a leading position in the trade. Any agarwood traded on Yaxiang Street in Liaobu is called 'Guanxiang'. Second, its sphere of influence is extremely broad. Its influence extended not only to Suzhou, Hangzhou, Beijing, and other places, but also as far as Southeast Asia and the Arab world, all of which is recorded in Luo Xianglin's 'A History of Hong Kong in Earlier Times'. Third, trading days were fixed. On the 1st, 4th, and 7th days of each lunar month, incense farmers went to Yaxiang Street to enter the market, carrying Guanxiang on shoulder poles and trading as itinerant merchants. Fourth, it had specific trading rituals. The incense farmers would enter the market only after worshipping the mountain god (the earth god); incense merchants had first to worship the patron god of the incense trade (Gandharva, enshrined in the Incense Temple on Yaxiang Street) before opening their shops; and if the Guanxiang was to be transported overseas, the sea goddess (Mazu) also had to be worshipped before setting sail. Fifth, it had well-developed trading rules. The market offered activities such as 'duxiang' (bidding for logs of Guanxiang), 'douxiang' (bidding contests between new and aged incense), and 'xiangxi' (competitions among Guanxiang from various places), as well as the 'Five Methods of Authenticating Incense': judging the authenticity of Guanxiang by observing its grain, smelling its aroma, asking about its soil, measuring its weight, and tasting its flavor. In addition, 'xianglao' (incense brokers) acted as intermediaries in transactions, using conventionalized secret words, hand gestures, and facial expressions to conclude or call off deals and earn a profit. Sixth, its applications were very wide-ranging. Local people bathe and burn incense at the birth of a baby, at weddings, and upon the death of a family member; at traditional festivals such as the Mid-Autumn Festival and the Spring Festival, they unfailingly light incense.
Offerings to the earth and the trade god
Before trading, growers offer to the earth god and merchants to the patron god of the trade at the incense temple; only then does the market open.
Offering to Mazu before the voyage
If the incense is to travel by sea, Mazu is invoked before the voyage begins; the risk of the open water leaves nothing to chance.
Five tests of the incense
Five tests are applied: observe the grain, smell, inquire the soil, weigh and finally taste; all five together give a verdict.
Auctioning raw logs and pitting old against new
There are two forms of bidding: auctions on raw logs, and contests between new and old incense, each with its own rules and prices.
The incense fair and the broker’s signs
The incense fair pits incense from different regions against one another; brokers conclude or halt deals through a customary code of words, gestures and expressions.
Traders coming on fixed market days
Growers carry their incense on the first, fourth and seventh days of the lunar month, hawking it along the street on fixed trading days.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Liaobu Incense Market takes Liaobu Town in Dongguan, Guangdong, as its core, where all grades of Guanxiang, raw and cured, are gathered; in volume 2 of his 'New Words on Guangdong' (late Ming, early Qing), Qu Dajun names 'the incense market' as one of the four markets of Eastern Guangdong, precisely here. Yaxiang Street was the place of trade; any agarwood sold there was uniformly called Guanxiang, so the name of the product came to be spread outward from the place of trade rather than from the place of origin, and its influence reached as far as Suzhou, Hangzhou, Beijing, Southeast Asia, and the Arab world. Its participants included local incense farmers, resident merchants, and itinerant traders from outside, and the network of transmission was open. The market convened on the 1st, 4th, and 7th days of each lunar month: the festival dates were fixed while people came and went, the rules of Yaxiang Street remaining unchanged for hundreds of years even as new arrivals appeared year after year.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The participants of the Liaobu Incense Market include local incense farmers, resident merchants, and itinerant traders from various places; its network of transmission is open in character, and it belongs to the category of collectively transmitted items.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。