The Olfactory Sense of a Poet: Expression of Aroma in the Poetry of Huang Tingjian

Huang Tingjian(1045-1105), a famous poet of the Song dynasty, not only produced many poems which bear all the signs of true innovative genius, achieving a new level of poetic expression, but also engaged his art in many different directions, always in accordance with the predominant interests of the moment, and these constitute the best example of a way in which a great intellect, with remarkable powers of acquisition and liberty to grow in free luxuriance, sends its roots into various soils and draws from them the constituents of its sap. In this paper, we concentrate our discussion on the relationship between the poet and Oriental aroma culture. Although there has been much interest in this question, and several writers have reported that Huang Tingjian was accomplished in concocting perfumes, there appears to be a void in the particular expression of his sense of smell in his works. Smell has an important influence on the whole of our emotional nature and indirectly upon expression of all kinds. In classical Chinese literature, poems on the subject of smell started to appear during the Han and Wei Dynasties, and in the Tang and Song period a great deal was written on the same theme. The perfumes in said poems were either merely background in a larger picture, or ostensible description, with scarcely any foundation in sincerity of feeling; but appreciating aromatic pleasure and entering into his inmost thought, the poet Huang Tingjian was intoxicated with his love of aroma, and represented his sensations in verse. "The solitude of a poet, " quoth he, "in the aromatic mist, was absolute." In the works of Huang Tingjian, the fragrance of flowers and herbs disturb, infatuate, or tranquillize the human heart, and the poet became intoxicated by these fragrances, deeply introspecting on his true feelings, his body and mind alike while reposing greedily in delicious quiet. Another important point to note is an anecdote regarding Huang Tingjian which states that one day the poet walked into the mountains in autumn, turning a problem over and over in his mind; no sooner had he smelt the penetrating perfume of sweet-scented osmanthus than an epiphany belonging to the Buddhist tradition came to him. It was smell that renewed more fully his heart and impelled him to pursue his life enthusiastically. The well-known profound knowledge and scholarship of Huang Tingjian have been favorite topics for analysis regarding the question of what fundamentally distinguishes the methods of his poetry. It is not only erudition, however, that makes a poet of him, it is a keen sense of smell by nature which delights in vigorous and beautiful thinking as well. At the same time, Huang Tingjian was at once powerful and delicate, excelling at what he proposes, executing what he conceives, and by means of giving expression to the sense of smell, bringing several new dimensions to the art of poetic discription.