The specific way of sacrifice is: put the carcass and jade on the firewood, and burn the firewood to raise smoke, indicating that it will tell the sky. "Li Zhou Guan Chun Da Bo": "Sacrifice the Heaven Emperor with a coffin, sacrifice the sun, the moon and the stars with real wood, and sacrifice the life of the middle school secretary with a sigh. Teacher Feng and Teacher Yu. " Notes to the Thirteen Classics: "Yan Yan's words." "The three sacrifices are all piled with firewood, or there are jade, which burns and smokes, and is reported to Yang." Sparse: "incense sacrifice."
People in the Zhou Dynasty held cigarettes to worship heaven, which was called "blessing" or "blessing sacrifice". Zhou Song Wei Qing, The Book of Songs: "The classic Xi of King Wen of Wei Qing, Zhao Qi." Note: "King Wen was ordered to start offering sacrifices to heaven." In other words, this ritual system began in Zhou Wenwang.
It can be seen that the so-called sacrificial ceremony, one is to light the smoke, and the other is that the smoke is the aroma. Sacrifice a cigarette to the gods, then this is the so-called "burning incense" in later generations.
This issue of incense has the following characteristics: first, the primitiveness of incense; Second, make a fire naturally, without utensils; The third is dedicated to sacrifice, that is, burning incense has not yet become a life. In the Ming Dynasty, Zhou Jia's "Fragrant City" quoted Ding Wei's "Tianxiang Biography" in the Song Dynasty, saying: "Fragrance has been used for a long time. So worshipping the gods can achieve purity. Three generations of worship, the first is Xin Jian, I don't smell it. "