JOURNAL
Stories and knowledge from Chinese incense making.
We write about aromatic materials, traditional formulas, paozhi, blending, and the everyday work of making Chinese incense.
Subscribe to receive a short Journal digest about once a week, with new articles and occasional updates from YINN.
Sep 21, 2026
Why Chinese Incense Is About More Than Smell
Why do Chinese incense formulas include herbs that are not obviously aromatic? A close reading of Bi Wen Dan shows how scent, proportion and qi work together in traditional blended incense.
Sep 20, 2026
Time in Incense Making Is More Than Waiting
Forty minutes of incense-plaque sanding became a two-minute video. For this workshop batch, the first full sanding round may take more than twelve hours. Here is what resting, drying and maturation do.
Sep 18, 2026
Why Chinese Incense Is More Than Something to Burn: Daoism, Daoist Medicine, and the Forms of Incense
Daoism and Daoist medicine shaped more than ritual incense in China. They influenced aromatic formulas, material processing, wearable incense, incense pills, bathing aromatics, and the many physical forms Chinese incense can take.
Sep 17, 2026
Why Incense Plaque Dough Is Different from Stick Incense
Why incense plaque dough needs a different balance from stick incense: compare binder, hardness, moisture, resting time, fragrance release, and everyday water resistance.
Sep 16, 2026
From Qiangwei Formula to Incense Dough: How Wearable Incense Begins
See how aromatic powders, binder, and water become incense dough in a Qiangwei rose formula for wearable incense—ingredient roles, kneading steps, and the signs of a workable dough.
A Qiangwei rose formula for wearable incense, from separate aromatic powders to a cohesive incense dough. See how rose, black tea, borneol, jadeite powder, and nanmu gradually become one material for incense pendants and beads.
Sep 15, 2026
Why Bamboo-Core Incense Needs a Different Dough
Bamboo-core incense is not simply coreless incense with a bamboo stick inside. The bamboo changes the dough, binder, water content, forming method, drying, and burning structure.
Sep 14, 2026
From Qianjin Yifang to a Contemporary Chinese Aromatic Balm
A Tang-dynasty formula, twelve flowers, agarwood, pearl and jade. See how an old Chinese aromatic practice is reinterpreted as a contemporary balm.