China News Service, Lanzhou, May 21 (Reporter Feng Zhijun and Gao Ying) "Ignite an ancient Dunhuang incense, the rising clouds of smoke linger, and the clear and soothing aroma makes people refreshed, as if traveling through a thousand years." In order to make the thousand-year-old incense "hidden" in Dunhuang frescoes and documents, the fragrance of life in modern times, Lanzhou incense maker Lu Wen frequently went to Dunhuang for more than ten years to find "incense prescriptions", and communicated with experts and searched for Dunhuang documents, etc. According to historical records, five or six types of Dunhuang ancient incense are restored every year.
"At present, the ancient incense recovered from the fragments of the Dunhuang Sutra Cave is very popular in the market. The monthly sales can reach at least more than 100 pieces, and some popular products are in short supply." The fifth generation of incense making skills in Jiayuguan City, Gansu Province Lu Wen, the inheritor of the inheritance, recently introduced to reporters from China News Agency and China News Network that over the years, she has traveled all over the Dunhuang Grottoes, including the Mogao Grottoes, and saw countless murals with various styles of incense burners and incense offerings. However, the burning incense picture of "smoky smoke" also appeared in my mind, which inspired a strong desire to restore the ancient incense.
The picture shows Lu Wen demonstrating the ritual of burning incense.
Photo by Gao Ying
However, it is not easy to restore the ancient fragrance of Dunhuang thousands of years ago. First of all, it is necessary to search for "prescriptions" from Dunhuang documents. However, a large number of Dunhuang documents unearthed in the Dunhuang Bible Cave were scattered as early as a hundred years ago. In many overseas places, if you want to find and consult a large number of fragments related to incense making, you need to "search all over the world".
In recent years, with the continuous deepening of exchanges between the Dunhuang Research Institute and many overseas cultural and museum institutions, some Dunhuang documents have been "returned" in digital form, including high-definition fragments involving "fragrant spectrum", which makes the "recipe" for restoring ancient fragrance even more become complete.
With the help and support of many experts from the Dunhuang Research Institute, the Dunhuang antiques produced by Lu Wen often become popular, whether it is the study room, the Qinguan tea house, or the elegant collection of meditation, or the office at a desk, they all match it. .
Lu Wen used a "Dunhuang Yinzhi Incense" as an example. This incense recipe dates back thousands of years. In ancient books, it is the tribute incense of Yinzhi Kingdom, but most of the records are only words, so it can only be based on the incense maker. With extensive experience and repeated debugging, the recovery of incense recipes is time-consuming and labor-intensive.
In order to highly restore the aroma recorded in the ancient books, we must strive for perfection from the beginning of the selection of materials, and even the processing tools are made of the objects mentioned in the ancient recipes.
"The incense of Dunhuang has a quiet smell, and it can penetrate into the body and mind invisibly. Its ingredients include sandalwood, zhengzhen, agarwood, benzoin, clove, etc., and it will become more and more fragrant with time." Lu Wen said, although every time Deciphering Dunhuang incense recipes is very surprising, but the process of making incense is complicated and complicated, and it takes up to a year for some incense to be picked and processed.
The picture shows Lu Wen teaching and training the students.
Photo by Feng Zhijun
However, compared with the cumbersome process of making incense, it is the most difficult process, including the analysis of fragments, the arrangement of mural materials, the search for documents, and the comparison of historical basis.
"There are Chinese, Tibetan, as well as Sogdian, Qiuci, Uighur, Xixia and other written records in the remains of Dunhuang documents. The analysis and research process is time-consuming and energy-consuming, and the progress of restoring ancient fragrances is relatively slow." Lu Wen said.
Every summer, Lu Wen has to start busy looking for and procuring raw materials for making incense, and Lanzhou and surrounding areas, which are dominated by dry climates, have become a "treasure of medicinal materials" for restoring ancient fragrance. It makes the restored ancient fragrance more authentic.
"Since the epidemic prevention and control, incense with calming and calming effects has become more and more popular, and Dunhuang incense culture is also rapidly attracting fans." Lu Wen said that in recent years, many people have developed a taste for traditional incense culture by purchasing ancient incense. She has a strong interest, from the experience of making incense products to the ritual burning incense etiquette, hundreds of incense culture lovers have come here. "Millennium Fragrance".
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