The Scent of Time. A Study of the Use of Fire and Incense for Time Measurement in Oriental Countries

Bedini, Silvio A.

doi:10.2307/1005923

Cited by 11 publications

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“…The incense seal also served as time measurement in both China and Japan, where incense tablets or sticks were marked with the time divisions at certain intervals and put in a container or tray where the seal-character (shape of the incense trail when burned) would form. The burning of the tablet or stick would indicate the passage of the time (Bedini 1963). The prominence of agarwood in these important spiritual and time-keeping products is further evidence of how it was revered in China.…”

Section: Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Aromatics were a recurrent subject in literary works (Bedini 1994). For instance, in poetry, the phrase Bhundred-blend aromatics^(a paste formed with several ingredients, including resins such as agarwood and sandalwood) is commonly used (Bedini loc.…”

Section: Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(Bedini 1963;Brinkley 1902;McKenna and Hughes 2014). Small pieces have been removed from Ranjatai over time but only during prosperous occasions or for special tribute (Bedini 1994). Ranjatai continues to be located at the Shōsōin repository in Nara and is exhibited periodically.…”

Section: Japanmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some elements/components of this system are still used today. At this time, the six agarwood types were both rare and costly and mainly traded to serve as gifts to distinguished individuals (Bedini 1994). To this day, agarwood is held as sacred in the Kareki Shrine located in the northwestern shore of Awajishima (Whelan 2014).…”

Section: Japanese Gradesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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History of Use and Trade of Agarwood

López-Sampson

Page

2018

Econ Bot

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Aromatics originating from the resin-infused infected wood of the Aquilaria and Gyrinops genera have distinct and valued fragrances. Resin formation occurs as a response to internal injury and/or infections in the stems of the agarwood tree. The incenses and perfumes that are produced from agarwood have been valued for centuries and used by many cultures for spiritual, opulent, and aphrodisiac purposes. Agarwood is highly revered in the seminal texts of Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam. As early as 1400 B.C.E., agarwood was described as a fragrant product in Sanskrit texts, and in 65 B.C.E., Dioscorides detailed several medical applications for agarwood. Knowledge of human-induced agarwood formation was recorded in China as early as 300 C.E., where it was known that cutting into a tree would lead to a color change in its internal tissues within a year of the injury as a consequence of resin development. There is historical evidence of international trade in agarwood between the producing (tropical southeastern Asia) and consuming (Middle East, India, China, and Japan) regions of the world. Agarwood has been consumed primarily as incense with the burning of wood chips directly or as an important ingredient for powdered incense blends. The aromatic qualities of agarwood are influenced by the species and variety of the two genera, geographic location, its branch, trunk and root origin, length of time since infection, and methods of harvesting and processing. The subtle but numerous variations in agarwood properties led to the development of systems for product classification and description in several consumer countries. This paper reviews the uses and trade of agarwood and its social, political, and economic significance in human history.

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Section: Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Japanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Japanese Gradesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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History of Use and Trade of Agarwood

López-Sampson

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2018

Econ Bot

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“…… But combining this idea with relativity, one must conclude that the non-existence of space also implies the non-existence of time. The claim about the imaginary, surreal, even exotic nature of time is not new in philosophy and physics (Mach, 1893; MacTaggard, 1908; Bairlein et al, 1962;Bedini, 1963;Barbour, 2001;Anderson, 2004;Rovelli & Vodotto, 2014). Of course, there have always been, too, physicists defending the real existence of time, even so real to define such a quantum variable as the chronon (Lévi,1927;Yang, 1947; Caldrola, 1980;Farias & Recami, 1997) with the idea in mind to reconcile special and general relativity with quantum field theory.…”

Section: Planck's Equation About Quantum Energy Is Another Example: Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

Yet another time about time … Part I: An essay on the phenomenology of physical time

Simeonov¹

2015

Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology

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This paper presents yet another personal reflection on one the most important concepts in both science and the humanities: time. This elusive notion has been not only bothering philosophers since Plato and Aristotle. It goes throughout human history embracing all analytical and creative (anthropocentric) disciplines. Time has been a central theme in physical and life sciences, philosophy, psychology, music, art and many more. This theme is known with a vast body of knowledge across different theories and categories. What has been explored concerns its nature (rational, irrational, arational), appearances/qualia, degrees, dimensions and scales of conceptualization (internal, external, fractal, discrete, continuous, mechanical, quantum, local, global, etc.). Of particular interest have been parameters of time such as duration ranges, resolutions, modes (present, now, past, future), varieties of tenses (e.g. present perfect, present progressive, etc.) and some intuitive, but also fancy phenomenological characteristics such as "arrow", "stream", "texture", "width", "depth", "density", even "scent". Perhaps the most distinct characteristic of this fundamental concept is the absolute time constituting the flow of consciousness according to Husserl, the reflection of pure (human) nature without having the distinction between exo and endo. This essay is a personal reflection upon time in modern physics and phenomenological philosophy.Keywords: space, time, consciousness, physics, mathematics, philosophy, phenomenology. ___________________________________________________________________ PrologueSpace and time are particularly modalities of human consciousness. Whereas space can be realized through our eyes and limbs, time remains elusive to our minds and still bothers philosophers since antiquity (Dyke & Bardon, 2013). In the beginning of the 20 th century science made a crucial switchover. Time was spatialized 1 . Until then the world was threedimensional. With the Special Relativity Theory (Einstein, 1905;Minkowski, 1909) the concept of time became the fourth dimension 2 and an integral element of the new physical worldview. It caused confusion among many of Einstein's contemporaries, and not only with its relativistic dilation in the well-known equation with the speed of light ť = t (1-(v/c) 2 ) ½ .1 It could be argued that time was spatialized earlier. Though time and space were separate for Newton (something that Einstein challenged), the clock time he assumed was laid out like space and was devoid of the dynamism of Bergsonian durée, (Bergson, 1912;Čapek, 1961). 2 It was Laplace who treated time as just another dimension equivalent to space, and thereby paved the way for the development of relativity theory as it came to be understood (but not as Čapek, following Bergson, understood it).This notion of relativistic time appeared wrong and unnatural, not without good reason, since:• Time is ineffable, eluding science and mathematics: it can only be grasped through intuition and shown indirectly and partia...

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Sundials in China

Proverbio¹

Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures

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The Scent of Time. A Study of the Use of Fire and Incense for Time Measurement in Oriental Countries

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

History of Use and Trade of Agarwood

History of Use and Trade of Agarwood

Yet another time about time … Part I: An essay on the phenomenology of physical time

Sundials in China

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