摘 要：
调香作为人类感官文明的重要载体，其发展轨迹折射出不同文化对“嗅觉”这一隐秘感官的理解与重塑。本文以历史比较的方法，考察中国与西方两大调香传统的发展脉络：中国调香肇始于先秦祭祀，成型于汉、唐，鼎盛于两宋，以“合香”为核心，浸润着“以香明志”的人文精神；西方调香源于古埃及与两河流域的宗教仪轨，经古希腊、罗马的世俗化，由阿拉伯人完成蒸馏术革命，最终在文艺复兴后以法国格拉斯为中心，发展为现代香水工业。本文以技术史与文化史相结合的方法重新审视，提出三点判断：第一，中外两种传统在原料体系、工艺路径、合香技术上有异曲同工之妙。第二，中外香品在形态上的差异并非简单的“技术有无”——中国早在宋代《陈氏香谱》中已大量记载蒸馏取香之法，其未走向液态化生产是原料体系、焚香路径依赖、蒸馏术应用领域转向、乙醇溶剂传统缺位等多重因素共同作用的结果。第三，二十世纪以来，伴随原料的全球化采购、工艺的相互借鉴与文化的相互渗透，中外调香已从历史上的“分流”走向当代的“融合”——这从产业层面验证了“殊途同归”的论点。
关键词：调香史；合香；香水；蒸馏术；脂吸法；中西比较；殊途同归
Abstract:
As an important carrier of human sensory civilization, perfumery’s developmental trajectory reflects how different cultures have understood and reshaped the elusive sense of smell. Using a historical-comparative method, this paper examines the developmental threads of the two great perfumery traditions of China and the West. Chinese perfumery originated in pre-Qin ritual sacrifices, took shape during the Han and Tang dynasties, and reached its zenith in the two Song dynasties, centered on “blended incense” (hexiang) and imbued with the humanistic spirit of “using fragrance to express one’s aspirations.” Western perfumery originated in the religious rites of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, underwent secularization through ancient Greece and Rome, was revolutionized by the Arabs through distillation, and finally—after the Renaissance—developed into the modern perfume industry centered on Grasse, France. Reexamining this history through a combined lens of technological and cultural history, this paper advances three propositions. First, the two traditions share remarkable parallels in raw-material systems, technological pathways, and blending techniques. Second, the difference in physical form between Chinese and Western fragrances is not simply a matter of “technological presence or absence”—China had already extensively recorded steam-distillation methods for extracting fragrance in the Song-dynasty Chen’s Manual of Incense; that it did not develop toward liquid production was the combined result of multiple factors, including the raw-material system, path dependence on incense-burning, the redirection of distillation technology toward other domains, and the absence of an ethanol-solvent tradition. Third, since the twentieth century, with the global sourcing of raw materials, the mutual borrowing of techniques, and the interpenetration of cultures, Chinese and Western perfumery has moved from historical “divergence” toward contemporary “convergence”—verifying the thesis of “different paths, same destination” at the industry level.
Keywords: History of perfumery; Blended incense (hexiang); Perfume; Distillation; Enfleurage; East-West comparison; Different paths same destination
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