MODERN RITUALS

IN A SPECIAL SHOWCASE OF HOW THE TRADITIONS OF THE SONG DYNASTY ARE STILL DEEPLY RELEVANT TO CONTEMPORARY LIFE, OUR COLLEAGUES AT AD CHINA SPOTLIGHT TWO SCHOLARS WHO UNRAVEL THE MYSTERIES OF THE TEA CEREMONY AND INCENSE BURNING

INCENSE

Dressed in a Chinese short coat, with a folding fan and brocade bag in his hand and a small sachet hanging around his waist, Wu Qing is a Shanghai-based former interior designer with a doctorate of Fine Arts in Archaeology and expertise in the incense rituals of the Song dynasty. “As early as the pre-Qin period, Chinese people used incense for medical and edible purposes. Craftsmen in the Han dynasty even mixed Chinese pepper with building materials and used it to paint the walls along with mud.” These images capture Wu’s process of “playing with” incense. As the smoke rises from burning incense, it only takes a little while to fill the room with fragrance. The blended aroma of wood materials is original and clear, and the calming, familiar smell makes one feel as if they are hidden somewhere in the mountains. “The fragrance carries memory. When you enter a fragrant atmosphere, you find that the distance between our ancestors and us is not as large as imagined,” says Wu.

PHOTOGRAPHER JONATHAN LEIJONHUFVUD WRITER CHEN SANGYU STYLIST JUDY ZHU ASSISTANTS CHEN YIYU, JIN JIAYU

CULTURE