China is the world's largest producer of natural flavors and fragrances. There are about 7,000 varieties of spices in the world, and more than 1,000 kinds of spices are produced in China. The history of spice application is also developed along with the progress of human civilization. Ancient civilization countries such as Egypt, Persia (now mainly Iran), China, India, Greece are the earliest countries that use and record spices.

Spice development process

Spices were widely used before the Tang Dynasty

● China has been using cosmetics such as fragrance powder and rouge in the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties. From the Shang dynasty onwards, we can find some of the instruments used for making and processing spices, such as incense burners and smoky balls, among the excavated relics. Before the Tang Dynasty, it has been used in ink, metal foil, honey, etc., as well as using spices to make charm.

After the Han Dynasty, with the expansion of incense in the palace, foreign tributes of exotic fragrances began to be used. In the early Han Dynasty, rare foreign spices were introduced into China, but the empresses of the Han Dynasty did not use spices easily because of their frugality. After the Han Dynasty, fragrances were introduced to China through the Western land transportation trade and the influence of the exchanges with foreign countries, but the amount of fragrances that could be carried was extremely limited due to the long and arduous journey.

The Tang Dynasty is an important stage in the history of Chinese incense culture

The Tang Dynasty laid a solid foundation for the maturity and completeness of the incense culture after the Tang Dynasty, and was a stage in the history of the development of Chinese incense culture that could not be ignored.

There were many varieties of fragrances in the Tang Dynasty, and all the foreign fragrances were introduced and known to the Tang people. According to statistics, there were mainly varieties of incense, wisteria, elemi, camphor, heliotrope, benzoin, java, frankincense, myrrh, clove, green wood, patchouli, jasmine oil, rose perfume, tulip, amazon, and descending incense.

Spices were the native tribute products of many states and counties in the Tang Dynasty, of which musk was the most common native tribute product. However, most of the spices, especially the best quality spices, were mainly traded by Hu merchants in China.

"Silk Road" allowed Chinese spices to be shipped to the West

After the Sui and Tang dynasties, the southern sea trade flourished in the 12th to 14th centuries during the Southern Song and Yuan dynasties. The counterpart of the land-based Silk Road was the sea trade route via Quanzhou, where imported goods were mainly spices and medicines. With the opening of the Silk Road, some spices, such as camphor and chewing incense, were also shipped to the West.

● but to the middle of the 19th century, the sea opened up, European science and technology is increasingly developed, they use organic chemical methods to manufacture synthetic spices, and then use the fragrance technology with a mixture of flavors, to export.

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