{"id":95139,"date":"2026-10-23T18:36:59","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T10:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=95139"},"modified":"2026-10-23T18:36:59","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T10:36:59","slug":"the-history-of-chinese-incense-from-ancient-rituals-to-fragrance-as-craft-enjoys-revival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=95139","title":{"rendered":"The history of Chinese incense, from ancient rituals to fragrance, as craft enjoys revival"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\u201cMany people, when they first smell Chinese incense, describe it as smelling like Chinese medicine,\u201d says Shanghai-based incense master Sun Na. \u201cAnd it\u2019s true, the classic Chinese incense we\u2019re talking about is primarily medicinal in character.\u201d<\/p>\n

She points to a spherical censer, a vessel designed to burn incense. \u201cIn winter, you could put it under the blankets to scent and warm the bedding,\u201d she says. \u201cIf you had trouble sleeping, calming herbs could be added. This is what we call zhi wei bing<\/em> \u2013 treating illness before it arises.\u201d<\/p>\n

We are sitting in the Tang Xiang Cultural Space on Xikang Road in Shanghai\u2019s Jingan district, surrounded by centuries-old incense burners. Most are from the Ming<\/span> (1368-1644) and Qing<\/span> (1644-1911) dynasties, but some date back to the Western Han period (206BC-AD9).<\/div>\n
According to Sun, early Chinese incense served practical purposes. Ancient Chinese text The Rites of Zhou<\/em> records the practice of burning mangcao<\/em>, or Japanese star anise (Illicium anisatum<\/em>), to kill insects, and in southern China, the use of mugwort<\/span> to keep pests away during the rainy season.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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\u201cMany people, when they first smell Chinese incense, describe it as smelling like Chinese medicine,\u201d says Shanghai-based incense master Sun Na. \u201cAnd it\u2019s true, the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[5434,107,12996,15669,3990,2284,32072,12907,5709],"class_list":["post-95139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-ancient","tag-chinese","tag-craft","tag-enjoys","tag-fragrance","tag-history","tag-incense","tag-revival","tag-rituals","wpcat-33-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/95140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}