For Chinese, incense is intimately connected to matters of faith, and it is easy to find incense shops that have been established for 100 years or more in Taiwan's historical towns. Located across from the parking lot of Lukang's Tienhou (Mazu) Temple, the Shihchinyu Sanfang incense shop is Taiwan's oldest. Established by Shih Fa, an immigrant from Quanzhou, it has been in the same family for seven generations. The current boss, Shih Chi-hsun, has a son, Shih Yeh-chih, who is preparing to take over. So the younger Shih will make it eight generations. The stories that have been passed down from one generation to the next in this legendary establishment are legion, but challenges remain.
Lukang residents aren't strangers to Shihchinyu Sanfang, which was established in 1756, 252 years ago. It stands out among incense shops for holding to the formulas passed down from the proprietors' ancestors and for continuing to make their incense by hand. The shop's adherence to tradition and its location in close proximity to Lukang's City God, Tienhou, Hsintzu and Three Mountain Kings Temples, where the incense smoke never stops swirling, has helped to create the century-old legend of
"Lukang incense."
This story begins with the very origins of incense itself. Shih Chih-hsun, the store's seventh-generation proprietor, notes that legend has it that the burning of incense dates to the lifetime of Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism. When it was hot and stuffy, devotees listening to his sermons found themselves becoming drowsy, and their body odor detracted from the ceremonial decorum. Consequently, believers were suddenly inspired to get some fragrant wood, cut it into small strips and place them in receptacles to burn. The aroma both kept people from dozing off and also masked the stink.
That's the way Indian legend tells it, but Chinese historical documents take a different tack. According to The Book of Documents, China's oldest historical work: "With fragrant incense, one senses the presence of the spirit." In ancient times, two or three millennia ago, the Chinese would "light incense to call forth the presence of the spirits." During worship, alcohol and meat weren't indispensable offerings, but incense was. But the "incense"-or xiang-that was burned during libation ceremonies in the era before the Qin and Han dynasties was quite unlike today's ceremonial incense. Rather, it referred to herbs, orchid petals and spices. It wasn't until the rule of the Wu emperor (265-316) during the Jin dynasty, when vassal states would pay tribute to the Chinese court with "exotic herbs," that xiang began to be worn or burned to ward off evil and illness, or used in herbal prescriptions to promote good health.
Making incense is both physically taxing and dependent on the weather. Thanks to a sense of cultural mission, the tradition of making incense has survived through two centuries. The photo on the facing page shows Shih Yeh-chih (right), the eighth generation in his family to work in Shihchinyu Sanfang. He is preparing to take over the business so as to keep traditions of incense making alive.