"Then what kind of fragrance does Fourth Aunt, this 'Middle Four Harmony', have?"

The fourth aunt smiled and said: "It's just my joke. After all, Xiaosihe is a little lighter, which is a bit inconsistent with the orchid fragrance in the courtyard, so I added some flavor to Xiaosihe, taking advantage of its penetrating properties.

Let the 'Little Sihe' and the natural fragrance of orchids blend together and complement each other."

At this point, the fourth aunt tilted her head mischievously: "What do you think the spice added is?"

Zhou Zhi rolled his eyes: "Bao Zhao's "Zhongxing Song": Caiqi scatters blue musk deer, and the wind creates its own fragrance. The ancients have always liked to put blue musk deer side by side, and musk is also a commonly used penetrating agent in modern perfumes. I guess

The spice added by the fourth aunt is musk!"

"Elbow is really smart!" Fourth Aunt smiled and said, "It's exactly Musk."

"Cao Xueqin described the vigilant fantasy fairy: The fairy's clothes are floating in the air, smelling the fragrance of musk orchid, the lotus clothes are about to move, and listening to the strong general wearing a ring."

"The combination of musk and blue is also a common practice among ancient people."

"Then what is the fourth aunt doing now?"

"These are all incense utensils, yours is the stove, and the rest are the seal mold, ash press, incense spoon, incense shovel, incense sweep, and mat."

"The incense burner is the most common incense burner and comes in various shapes. For example, you have bought a Boshan burner, a barrel burner, and a tripod burner at the county cultural center."

"Metal furnaces are not afraid of heat, and their shapes are versatile. For incense burners made of other materials, quartz, crystal and other heat-insulating sand are often placed at the bottom of the furnace to prevent the furnace wall from overheating and bursting."

"Now I am smoking and roasting incense ash. The ash used for making incense seals is very important. If the incense ash is moist, it is easy to break the fire. If the incense ash has not been used for a long time and has become damp, you can use the charcoal baking method, or

The oven-baking method restores the dryness of the incense ash."

"This is called an incense shovel. Now that the incense ash is dry, we need to shovel the incense ash out of the furnace with the incense shovel, put it into this furnace, readjust it until it is soft and even, and then use the ash press to compact the ash, but be careful not to

You can press it too tightly, because the ash that is pressed too tightly will make the incense powder difficult to burn."

This is a meticulous and nurturing work. Watching a furnace of fluffy and messy incense ash gradually being scraped and gently pressed by the ash press under the skillful and elegant movements of the fourth aunt, it became extremely smooth, even the small scattered ash on the edge.

I didn’t let it go, and finally it became a little bit away from the furnace mouth and was extremely smooth. It was really a pleasing thing to see.

"The key to pressing the incense ash is to make it flat, but not too hard. After pressing it, you can put another layer on top of the incense ash and press it gently with the incense press." The fourth aunt explained while operating: "This layer

It should be softer than the bottom layer, and it doesn’t need to be too flat, because the incense seal will be put on it next, so that more oxygen can be supplied in time during the burning of the incense powder. Okay, you see, after the incense ash is beaten, this is it

Look."

"This is fun." Zhou Zhi smiled and said, "I think many of my female classmates will like it."

"Children still focus on their studies." The fourth aunt said with a smile: "But if you do well in your studies, you can do this in your spare time. It's good to cultivate them."

"The next step is to make the incense seal. This requires the use of a seal mold, an incense spoon, an incense shovel and an incense brush."

"This is what the seal mold looks like." The fourth aunt handed Zhou Zhi a strange metal plate with a complex pattern of auspicious clouds hollowed out in the middle.

Upon closer inspection, this complicated pattern is actually a single stroke, and the strokes do not cross from beginning to end.

"Most of the seal molds are made of copper." The fourth aunt waited for Zhou Zhi to finish reading, then took the seal mold over, pressed it on the incense ash, and then began to adjust it carefully: "Its function is to use the loose powder to seal the mold."

The shape is engraved on the incense ashes, so in Song Dynasty people's notes, multi-tube incense seals are called 'seal incense'."

"There are many types of seal molds. According to the material, they are divided into metal and non-metal. According to the handle, there are single handles and double ears. According to the pattern, there are simple and complex ones."

"Patterns generally have auspicious meanings. Beginners can just choose simple and generous seals that are easy to master."

Then the fourth aunt opened a porcelain jar: "Here, this is the Zhongsihe I mixed. Orange peel, lychee shell, citrus core, pear pulp, mixed with musk."

"Then it shouldn't be called Zhongsihe, it's five things."

"If you want to argue like this, you have to add orchid fragrance, it has to be six kinds." The fourth cousin rolled his eyes to defend his fourth aunt.

"It's okay to call it Six Gentlemen's Fragrance." The fourth aunt didn't care about the two men in front of her: "One is too penetrating and looks like a villain more than a gentleman; the other cannot be fragrant all year round, and there are always a few days.

, I will lose my companionship.”

Fourth cousin and Zhou Zhi looked at each other, women can be messed with?! This is called not caring?! Are you talking about you or me?!

I heard the fourth aunt continue to say: "If the seal mold is too complicated, it will look good, but it will have characteristics such as complicated seal characters, many turns, narrow seal mouth, and thin seal mouth, so the fragrant seal will be thinner."

"If you use incense powder with a relatively high oiliness, some retraction will occur when this type of incense powder burns, which can easily cause a fire break."

"The biggest trouble that beginners encounter is breaking the fire. This is because they are not familiar with the characteristics of various fragrant powders, lack seal-making skills, do not know how to control the density and thickness of fragrant seals, and do not choose suitable seal molds.

of."

While telling the story, the fourth aunt used an incense spoon to fill the mold with fragrant powder. Several times and in small amounts, the hollow seal lines of the seal mold were filled with fragrant powder bit by bit.

"Okay, the seal characters have been typed, and the next step is to start the seal characters." The fourth aunt said with a smile: "This step requires calmness, and the speed and movement of the hands are even and steady. If you are not careful, the delicate seal characters will be interrupted by shaking, resulting in all previous efforts being wasted.

.”

"For me, this step is the most difficult." The fourth cousin shook his head: "I can't play it."

"I guess that's a mystery," Zhou Zhi said, looking at the complicated seal characters in the furnace.

The fourth aunt smiled slightly, and gently flicked the lifting rod in the center of the seal mold with her hand, and lifted it out.

In the center of the incense burner, on the gray-white ashes, lies a complex pattern composed of brown incense powder, which is a series of four characters "Fu Shou Kang Ning". It is very beautiful.

"So simple?" Zhou Zhi couldn't help but be stunned: "This seal script is so beautiful!"

"Hahaha... don't be fooled by your aunt's actions." The fourth cousin smiled with pride and teasing: "You will know if you try it yourself when you have time some other time."

"what's next?"

"The next step is to burn the seal." The fourth aunt took out a thin stick of incense from an incense tube and ignited it on the pine cone carbon, and then used the spark to get close to the seal head of the incense seal. Although the two were very close, they were still

There was no contact, but soon the seal head of the incense stick was ignited by the heat of the sparks from the incense stick.

"Okay, this is the process." Fourth Aunt said, "It's a pity that your incense burner is missing a lid."
Chapter completed!