I. Wood Virtue Incense Prescription · Growing and Flourishing
- Core Herbs: Cassia twig, Sichuan pepper, dried ginger, pinellia, red bean, codonopsis, asarum, aconite, etc.
- Five Elements Imagery: Governs growth, smoothness, and benevolence, like wood in spring, full of vitality and stretching upward.
- Fragrance Changes:
- Initial Note: Pungent aroma to refresh the mind (cassia twig, asarum, Sichuan pepper), like sprouts breaking through the soil;
- Middle Note: Gradually becoming warm and mellow (dried ginger, codonopsis), like nourishment from sunlight and rain;
- Base Note: Calm and slightly sweet (red bean, aconite), with a solid foundation.
- Efficacy and Artistic Conception: Soothes the liver and relieves depression, elevates yang qi; dispels winter gloom and stimulates internal vitality and creativity. Regulates qi movement and relieves chest tightness and hypochondriac discomfort caused by qi stagnation.
- Applicable Scenarios: Refreshing in the morning, nourishing the liver in spring, before creative work, when feeling low, and when needing to boost confidence and motivation.
- Five Elements Correspondence: Wood generates fire, storing energy for heart fire.
II. Fire Virtue Incense Prescription · Blazing and Illuminating
- Core Herbs: Inula, rhubarb, mustard seed, alisma, yellow饴, tetrapanax, magnolia officinalis, etc.
- Five Elements Imagery: Governs warmth, ascension, and propriety, like fire in summer, bright and blazing, inspiring life enthusiasm.
- Fragrance Changes:
- Top Note: Clear and slightly bitter (rhubarb, alisma, inula), like clear spring water purifying the heart;
- Middle Note: Pungent and rising (mustard seed, magnolia officinalis), like flames soaring;
- Base Note: Gradually becoming warm and sweet (yellow饴, tetrapanax), with a融融 warmth.
- Efficacy and Artistic Conception: Warms and unblocks heart vessels, boosts spirit; dispels yin cold and dampness, stimulates enthusiasm and joy. Unblocks stagnation and guides fire back to its origin; improves poor blood circulation and relieves restlessness.
- Applicable Scenarios: Relieving fatigue in the afternoon, nourishing the heart in summer, social gatherings, when needing to boost morale or show vitality, and keeping out the cold in damp environments.
- Five Elements Correspondence: Fire generates earth, assisting spleen earth in transportation and transformation.
III. Earth Virtue Incense Prescription · Honest and Transforming
- Core Herbs: Licorice, cimicifuga, pinellia, astragalus, jujube, chicken egg yolk, ophiopogon, etc.
- Five Elements Imagery: Governs bearing, nourishing, and trust, like earth of the earth, bearing all things and nourishing everything.
- Fragrance Changes:
- Initial Note: Sweet and mellow (licorice, jujube, ophiopogon), like the aroma of mature grains;
- Middle Note: Clear and slightly pungent (cimicifuga, pinellia), like a breeze blowing across the field;
- Base Note: The aroma is harmonious, stable, and inclusive.
- Efficacy and Artistic Conception: Strengthens the spleen and stomach, benefits qi and produces body fluid; strengthens the acquired foundation, aids digestion and absorption, and supplements middle qi. Calms the mind and regulates all directions; stabilizes the mind, relieves excessive thinking, and creates a sense of security and belonging.
- Applicable Scenarios: Promoting digestion after meals, nourishing the spleen and stomach in all seasons, meditation and sitting quietly, family gatherings, and when needing to stabilize the mind or enhance inclusiveness.
- Five Elements Correspondence: Earth generates metal, nourishing the lung metal’s root qi.
IV. Metal Virtue Incense Prescription · Clear and Restraining
- Core Herbs: Dogwood, aurantii immaturus, moutan cortex, realgar, bupleurum, almond, yam, etc.
- Five Elements Imagery: Governs purging, convergence, and righteousness, like metal in autumn, clear and bright, resolute and decisive.
- Fragrance Changes:
- Initial Note: Clear and slightly pungent (bupleurum, aurantii immaturus, moutan cortex), like autumn wind bringing coolness;
- Middle Note: Gradually becoming slightly bitter and then sweet (dogwood, almond), like ripe autumn fruits;
- Base Note: Calm and clean (yam), with converging breath.
- Efficacy and Artistic Conception: Disperses lung and regulates qi, clears and restrains: Helps breathe smoothly, calms the mind, and clarifies thoughts. Soothes the liver and benefits the gallbladder, strengthens will: Relieves autumn sadness, enhances decisiveness and sense of boundary.
- Applicable Scenarios: Nourishing the lung in autumn, when focusing on work/study, when needing to clarify thoughts for decision-making, when needing to calm down during emotional fluctuations, and for space purification.
- Five Elements Correspondence: Metal generates water, guiding kidney water back to its source;
V. Water Virtue Incense Prescription · Moistening and Storing
- Core Herbs: Rehmannia, scutellaria, bupleurum, ephedra, coptis, atractylodes, sophora flavescens, akebia, etc.
- Five Elements Imagery: Governs cold, moistening, and wisdom, like water in winter, quiet and profound, nourishing all things invisibly.
- Fragrance Changes:
- Initial Note: Clear, bitter, and slightly cool (coptis, scutellaria, sophora flavescens), like a cold spring in a deep valley;
- Middle Note: Slightly pungent and penetrating (bupleurum, ephedra, akebia), like undercurrent water;
- Base Note: Gradually becoming sweet and moist (rehmannia, atractylodes), returning to quiet and profundity.
- Efficacy and Artistic Conception: Nourishes the kidney and yin, clears heat and relieves vexation: Nourishes the innate foundation, relieves deficiency-fire flaming upward, calms the mind and aids sleep. Promotes diuresis and clears stranguria, calms the mind and concentrates spirit: Helps eliminate dampness and turbidity in the body, creating a quiet and profound atmosphere.
- Applicable Scenarios: Calming the mind at night, nourishing the kidney in winter, deep relaxation in meditation, quiet reading in the study, when needing deep thinking or calming亢奋 emotions.
- Five Elements Correspondence: Water generates wood, sustaining the vitality of liver wood;
The Way of Incense Nourishment Lies in Harmony
The theory of Five Elements provides a theoretical framework for Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to explain the complex physiological and pathological connections of the human body (especially the five zang-organs system and their interrelationships), interprets the transmission rules of diseases, and directly guides diagnosis, the establishment of treatment principles, and specific therapeutic methods. Together with the theory of Yin and Yang, the theory of Five Elements constitutes the core philosophical foundation and thinking mode of TCM. It is an indispensable key to understanding TCM theories such as viscera-state, pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment, and its influence runs through the entire development process of TCM.