I studied architecture in France before, because I naturally became interested in life aesthetics because of reading design, I was exposed to a large number of handicraft products, and I also collected a lot of daily utensils. Slowly became good friends with many craftsmen, so I made an organization called Made Culture, through exhibitions and documentaries, etc., to trace the roots of some handicrafts or traditional brands, and also to find out how to make traditional handicrafts more contemporary and adapt to the current lifestyle. In 2020, I returned to Beijing and became interested in traditional perfumery, and at this opportunity, I met Mr. Zhang Fan, and learned that perfumery is also a rich category with culture, history and lifestyle, and such an interesting thing must be conveyed to the public, so we started a series of discussions about oriental perfumery.
Strictly speaking, I don't come from a family of incense, our family is more similar to a spice merchant. Our Zhejiang people run around a lot, my father went to Vietnam in the 90s of the last century to do business, bought some precious timber back to China, I followed him to Southeast Asia to those countries, in the process came into contact with agarwood, ears and eyes were affected. When I was in college, I studied Xi at Zhejiang A&F University, and although I was exposed to a lot of spices and woods during my time in school, I didn't know much about agarwood and Chinese perfume at that time. It wasn't until after graduation that he started the business of agarwood raw materials that he began to gradually embark on this road. Around 2012, at the invitation of the publishing house, I began to write some books in the collection, including agarwood, so I slowly entered into the excavation of the cultural value of these materials, and then gradually began to do some research on Chinese incense culture.
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From left to right: agarwood, incense, miscanthus salt, sandalwood.
Provided by Zhang Fan) I am a "second generation of incense" who inherits his father's business. My father was the first graduate after the establishment of the flavor and fragrance blending major after the country's reform and opening up, and after graduation, he worked in a state-owned enterprise and founded his own flavor company in 1994. When I was in college, my major was chemistry, and I was also preparing for **, and then I had an opportunity to officially enter the industry, which was to participate in the inspection of raw material production for my father, which touched me a lot. When I introduced myself to the group, I said that I was the second generation from a Chinese flavor company, and then many people enthusiastically responded, "I am also the second generation", but they were in their 60s and their beards were white. Those grandfathers are the second, third or even fourth generations of the flavor and fragrance family business, which shows how long the industry has a long history in the West.
In 2015, the official poster of the "ifeat study tour" that Feng Tianle participated in.
The fundamental reason that led Zhang Fan to oriental perfume is because of his understanding of wood, in fact, it is precisely because the core of oriental perfumery is wood. For example, we often talk about agarwood and sandalwood. The taste of agarwood produced in different origins and different periods is completely different. Aromatic plants grown in different climates determine different extraction methods. The humid regions east of the Himalayas produce more water-soluble aromatic plants that need to be boiled in water to release, such as tea on China's southeast coastThe dry regions west of the Himalayas produce more oil-soluble aromatic plants that need to be distilled, such as the Moroccan rose. Oriental incense is more derived from wood knots and herbs.
British perfume. 19th century.
Bottle height 115 cm, bottom diameter 63×4.8 cm.
Collection of the Palace Museum.
Agarwood carved peony pattern vase.
Clear. Collection of the Palace Museum.
It is carved from a whole piece of agarwood and the texture of the material itself.
The more we study the differences, or when we compare them, the more we find that there are more similarities than differences. The common thing finally comes down to the sense of smell. Returning to the sense of smell itself, that is the relationship between the sense of smell and people, or the relationship between people and nature.
From a technical point of view, the difference between Eastern and Western perfumery should be the application of distillation technology. Essential oils originated in Arabia in the 11th century, and plant extracts were extracted by distillation to obtain essential oils. Chinese plant extracts are usually made by frying and boiling in water. Essential oils are to the West, which is equivalent to traditional Chinese medicine to China, and they were the earliest health and medical supplies used to treat diseases. After the Crusades, Europeans learned techniques from Arabia, and around 1370 the prototype of modern perfume using alcohol as a solvent appeared. The earliest perfume was called "Hungarian water" and was dedicated to the Queen of Hungary. It is also a "small medicine" used to treat diseases, which can be taken internally or externally. For example, some problems such as migraine and some problems can also be used to take a bath.
Queen of Hungary St. Elisabeth.
Hungarian Water" perfume label.
Windsor soap. Windsor soap.
Make bathing a pleasure".
packer'S Florida Water Soap is a combination of the purest and most delicate cleaning ingredients with refined vegetable oils and chemically pure glycerin.
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The British initiated a revolution in hygiene, advocated frequent bathing, and even invented the private toilet. The hygienic revolution gradually spread throughout Europe, and after 1880, private baths and toilets became almost universally available throughout Europe. In this context, the role of perfume in hygiene and epidemic prevention is weakened. In its place was the advent of soap, which replaced the unscented Marseille soap of the time.
Why is distillation technology popularized in the West but not in China?In fact, the distillation technology has been frequently introduced into China in the Song Dynasty, but the Chinese people have always used incense to smoke incense, and later became incense sticks and wood powder incense. The consensus between Zhang Fan and I is that with the Himalayas as a watershed, the summers in China's southeastern coastal areas are hot and humid, while the summers in the Arab and Mediterranean climates are hot and dry. The drier the place, the easier it is to get oil-soluble essential oils, and the drier the place, the easier it is to get water-soluble extracts.
Distillation. Incense over the fire. Lao Tzu playing the piano (detail).
Tang, Zhou Fang (biography).
Collection of the Freer Art Gallery.
When we say that perfume is a "foreign product", we are not only talking about the form of the product, but also about the smell, including the words corresponding to the taste. The use of objectified sensory vocabulary to accurately describe subjective feelings is itself quite Western. Distillation technology takes place in the cultural soil of the West, so the olfactory vocabulary of those basic fragrances also comes from the West, from their lives. So we don't memorize these basic words when we use them, because we haven't experienced them. Why do we feel that there is such a distinct cultural relativity in the field of incense?I think it's important to note that some flavors only exist in their environment. It's a cultural compartmental, but it's also a life experience compartment.
The order of importance of the senses is not the same in the East and the West. From Socrates to Plato and Aristotle, the foundation laid by this trajectory in the West is the "supremacy of vision", which is the starting point of Western thought, at least Greek thought. On this basis, the later Renaissance, especially the Enlightenment, laid the foundation for visual centrism. From a Western perspective, vision is active and exploratory. In China, on the other hand, there is a clear emphasis on the holistic physical experience in the cultural tradition. Our relationship with the world interacts on an interface of "five senses and six senses". Therefore, it can be said that the relationship between the Western system and the world is focused on "I want to observe you", "I want to understand you", "I want to change you", which is the process of subjectivity outward. The Eastern system, on the other hand, may place more emphasis on "encounter", participation, and blending. The senses of smell, taste, and touch are more important than sight in the East, especially in Chinese culture. Compared with the Western world, we have a cultural characteristic that places more emphasis on the overall "sense of body" and "recognition".
Spring boudoir tired reading picture (detail).
Clear, cold pieces. Collection of Tianjin Museum.
Coats Yanqing (detail).
Southern Song Dynasty, anonymous.
Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei.
The roots of incense burning in the quiet room.
Incense must be burned in the deep room of the curved room, the dwarf Zhuo stove is at the level of people's knees, the fire is set up with silver leaves or mica, made such as a plate shape to line the incense, the incense is not as natural as the fire, and there is no smoke and dryness. ”
Yan Zhiyue's "History of Incense" is quoted from "New Compilation of Incense Spectrum".
The difference between the perception and understanding of fragrance in the East and the West is fundamentally the difference between the two different cultures in how they observe and experience the world. But the two have a very similar development contextThe advent of perfumery was initially inseparable from religion, then cleansing, and finally to personal experience. In fact, it coincides with the law of the development of modern thought, from a big god to a small me. In fact, China has gone through a very similar process.
Bamboo stream incense burning
Southern Song Dynasty Ma Yuan.
The picture below is a partial picture.
The world of traditional Chinese incense is very rich and has a very long history, and the earlier incense vessels found now can be traced back to the Stone Age, and by the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the Chinese have a very clear context of incense, which was originally based on sacrifice. After arriving in the pre-Qin period, the use of incense began to become life-like, and there are many related records, such as the "Book of Songs", "Chu Ci" and other contents have relevant descriptions, people wear various aromatic plants in nature on their bodies, in order to seek spiritual and material needs. To this day, these Xi are still preserved in many villages and towns in the south.
Qingming Riverside Map" folk spice shop (partial).
Song Zhang Zeduan.
The culture of Chinese use of spices has a close relationship with traditional Chinese philosophy, one of the most importantThe underlying logic is the idea of "harmony between man and nature", that is, advocating the harmonious coexistence of man and natureChinese a lot of art, life, and spiritual content are inseparable from this, if man and nature can not be in a state of balance, then this thing will not work, such as traditional Chinese medicine, many people say that Chinese medicine is not effective, if the medicinal materials used in Chinese medicine are not natural, not authentic, not enough years or not enough medicinal properties, then no matter how high the doctor's skills, it is useless. The same is true for harmony and incense, so if you ask a Chinese perfumer to add leather fragrance or some synthetic fragrance, he is very disgusted and repulsive, because this is afraid of his cognition, his aesthetics, and the reason for this is that he wants to follow the "unity of heaven and man". The unity between man and nature, without the distinction between subject and object, because man is part of nature, and this concept falls on the aroma is also very important. For example, the smell of osmanthus made by Chinese style and incense will be fused with Longjing tea, called osmanthus Longjing, a combination of flowers and tea, it is a natural combination, it is a taste that is easy for Chinese to accept.
The other layer is the relevance of incense culture and aesthetics. This is also from the pre-Qin period, and gradually began to prevail in the Tang and Song dynasties. The first is the visual beauty of Chinese incense, such as incense through the fire, incense seals, wearing incense sachets, etc., which are the most conventional forms of incense in China, which are closely related to the aesthetics of life. At the same time, the Chinese also have a strong tolerance in the process of using incense, and can use incense when hanging paintings, arranging flowers, and meditating, once incense is integrated with etiquette and life aesthetics, it forms what we call ancient Chinese aristocratic incense.
Agarwood Ruyi.
Qing Dynasty. Collection of the Palace Museum.
Green glazed incense burner. Surname.
Chengdu Huatong Museum.
Incense has such a meaning in China, representing the affluence of life, and only after affluence will there be spiritual pursuit, and incense will be used. For example, when we say "scholarly family", the word does not necessarily mean that the family is very educated, but it must mean that the family is very wealthy and has status, because books and incense are both aristocratic things. Therefore, after the beginning of the Silk Road in the Han Dynasty, some precious spices came from the Western Regions: such as agarwood, sandalwood, frankincense, etc. Therefore, from the Han Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, the court has left records of the use of these spices. In this regard, the use of incense represents an aristocratic aesthetic and lifestyle.
Chinese incense developed to the literati class, about the Tang and Song dynasties. The literati also emphasized the use of incense to clean as in the West, but cleanliness in China does not simply refer to the removal of defilement in space, but also has the function of purifying the heart. In terms of the form and function of the literati using incense, for example, burning incense when writing and playing the qin is used to keep the heart pure. The life aesthetics of the literati using incense emphasizes that the literati reminded themselves of a higher moral standard through incense. I think the core of the literati in the East is very restrained, because of this restraint, the smell of the East is mostly adducted. Agarwood and sandalwood, for example, are very adductive. For example, Tibetan incense, some of its raw materials are smelly and bitter. But the Chinese will have this kind of "trial suffering" plot, which can alert themselves and make their hearts not chaotic and clean.
Listen to the piano (detail).
Northern Song Dynasty Song Huizong Zhao Ji
I have always believed that if we were to describe the smell of the East, it would be inseparable from the archaeological process. Regarding perfumery, our country has left a lot of literature, but smell cannot only exist in words, which may be the biggest consensus of the three of us. Only by understanding the "past" can we talk about the "future". Otherwise, the Orient can only be explained through others. In fact, there are quite a few attempts at "Oriental" incense in the West, and many of them are their imaginations, which are inevitably full of misinterpretations.
I think"Spirituality".It's a keyword, and another keyword is"Life".。How to look at the aesthetics of life, this is a particularly big cultural difference between the East and the West. Starting from Kant's so-called "Critique of Pure Reason", he once asserted that "all incense is stinky", and the basic logic of this sentence is to say that beauty is contemplated. However, because the sense of smell is too individualized, there is no way to reach a consensus between subjects, so there is no way to carry out the aesthetic activities or aesthetic value judgment of the sense of smell. Chinese literati, from the Wei and Jin dynasties to the Tang and Song dynasties, were very particular about the aesthetics of life, or regarded life as an aesthetic experience. I think the biggest difference between Eastern and Western literati is that Westerners prefer to ponder, while Easterners pay more attention to feelings.
Among the fragrance classifications, there is a category called "Oriental incense", which is actually the imagination of early Westerners for the mysterious East, and also reflects the mentality of Westerners at that time that "the world is so big, I want to see it". Until the 80s of the last century, Oriental culture was always an object of appropriation of Western perfumes, containing all kinds of imaginations. To some extent, incense represents a rebellion against reason. Sometimes we smell some oriental incense from the West that is particularly heavy, greasy, and sweet.
I think the contemporary age is necessarily more personal. This kind of personal expression is also something we can try in oriental fragrances. Because it is more artistic, more inclined to convey personal feelings and experiences, not like a complete restoration of the camera, but like a painting, the perspective of the description depends on the life experience of the author.
We do all the industries of traditional culture, and modernization is to do: the first part, we must first put aside the old-fashioned and rigid way of inheritance, Chinese traditional culture gives us content, but does not require us to be the same. Just like no one stipulates that Kung Pao Chicken must be added with cucumber or peanuts, each recipe will be a little different, so there must be room for improvement. At the same time, we should also pay attention to grasp the balance, not to change it to be very different from the traditional incense, nor to do it high and low, so the modernization of traditional culture is a process that needs to be slowly run-in. Fortunately, modern technology can meet the technology that classical and incense cannot complete, and we will also use more "non-Chinese" elements such as iris and ylang-ylang, which is the modernization of traditional incense. What we can do is make sure that the kernel is in line with the kind of Chinese kernel I want to do. The second part is the visual improvement, we can have the integration of contemporary design elements, so that its appeal is more diverse. The content of incense can also be visual, auditory and tasteful, and it can be dynamic, such as exhibitions. In the end, the concept should also be contemporary, many concepts of Chinese incense are very classic, such as "the unity of heaven and man" is a concept that the Chinese attach great importance to, at least it has not fallen behind until now, and it is still a very cutting-edge idea.
The series of exhibitions we are curating is about the relationship between modernism and perfumery. We want to make perfume so that everyone can experience it in person, and our mission is to build up olfactory memories in everyone's minds and help them understand it more deeply. In addition, we also plan to do an exhibition on oriental perfumery in France next year, and display the research results of oriental perfumery to France.
Ancient recipe restoration. When I was studying perfumery, I realized that the fragrance industry is now centered on the West, so I became interested in oriental incense, and then I did the "Oriental olfactory aesthetics library" to discover and explore Chinese scents in classics, life, and nature. When Chinese incense culture develops naturally, we feel that the sense of smell is not only an object of appreciation, but also a medium to perceive the world, which can adjust our perception of the world and life. In fact, most contemporary Chinese perfumers have this awareness, but their own expressions may be different. From the perspective of "how smell relates to our lives", we don't need to worry too much, as long as we pass on the culture well, and then make some of our cultural autonomy, it is already very instructive.
Whether it is the incense of the West or the qi of the East, it is not a necessity for food, clothing, housing and transportation, but it makes people live elegantly in different time contexts and spatial contexts. In fact, since ancient times, from the East to the West, people have longed to create dreams and reconcile illusions with various plant fragrances, perhaps just because people poetically inhabit the earth. We are fortunate to live in such a time, where both ancient and modern are available, and East meets West.
We are looking for traditional life wisdom, quaint taste, and exquisite folk art in contemporary times, and reproduce, promote, and inherit them with a sense of awe, hoping that they will continue to be sustained in the circulation of iterative updates, just as Oriental incense returns to the life of today's people with the wisdom of the ancients in the rise of the fragrance industry. We have never stopped thinking about "how to live better", so now, it is time to leave the screen, return to the earth, return to the "unity of heaven and man", return to the atmosphere of spiritual life with more feelings, and let the fragrance of the world take us to ten thousand artistic conceptions.
Planning丨Jinliang Studio.
Written by Manning Hao.
Coordinate Ovelar
Poster design by so creative studio
Operate Tiffany
WeChat design by mika zhang
Part**Courtesy of Li Yawei, Zhang Fan, Feng Tianle.
Through the three sections of new aesthetics of folk art, new industry of folk art, and new sustainability of folk art, we continue to observe and record the emerging new forces of the domestic folk art industry, explore the creation concept behind the craft and the application of spiritual heritage in contemporary production and life, and inspire the possibility of "folk art" returning to the scene of contemporary life.
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