Incense Powder Ingredients: From the Ancient Formula "Xiao Sihe" to Orchard Harmony
If you are wondering where incense powder ingredients can begin, the short formula known as Xiao Sihe gives a quietly surprising answer: not necessarily rare aromatic woods, but orange peel, lychee shell, fruit kernels, and fruit remnants. The Ming-dynasty compilation Xiang Sheng records this recipe in just a few lines, showing how ordinary materials can be written into a documented incense formula; Rinleaf's Orchard Harmony takes that thread and brings it gently to the wrist.
Four Blends and Xiao Sihe, a second recipe beside the costly one
Xiang Sheng, volume sixteen, first lists "Four Blends": one liang each of agarwood and sandalwood, and one qian each of borneol and musk. Right next to it, the same text records "Xiao Sihe": orange peel, lychee shell, quince kernel or pear remnants, and sugarcane remnants, "equal parts, ground to powder."
Read the two recipes side by side, and the contrast is clear. The first gathers agarwood, sandalwood, borneol, and musk; the second shifts the eye toward modest materials from the orchard. What makes Xiao Sihe worth pausing on is not that it dresses the ordinary as something rare, but that it takes a different choice seriously: a material's worth in an incense formula depends not only on how rare it is, but on how it sits inside a complete recipe.
Meng Hui, in her essay "The Forgotten Fruit Incense," notes that the Xiao Sihe passage was copied from the Song-period Chen Shi Xiang Pu by Chen Jing; other recorded formulas such as Wen Si Xiang also list orange peel, lychee shell, and quince kernel, so these materials are not isolated to Xiao Sihe alone.
Two versions, differing by a single kernel
The Chen Shi Xiang Pu as we have it today reads "cherry kernel," while Xiang Sheng reads "quince kernel or pear remnants." Meng Hui, comparing other incense formulas, found that quince kernel does appear elsewhere as an incense material, while cherry kernel has no parallel record. On that basis, she judges the "quince kernel" preserved in Xiang Sheng the more plausible reading.
This is not about forcing an old text into a single answer; it is about letting a small kernel become visible again. When reading older incense formulas, the variation between versions is itself information: it tells us that a single line of ingredients may have traveled a long way through copying and re-copying.
Ordinary materials do not mean anything goes
What makes Xiao Sihe easy to love is the care with which it writes down things that could easily be overlooked. But the old formula leaves only the ingredient names and the short phrase "equal parts, ground to powder," with no modern guidance for handling fresh fruit peel.
Ordinary does not mean that modern kitchen scraps can be applied directly. What the formula offers, instead, is a way of looking at ingredients: first check whether a material has actually entered a recorded formula, then look at how it sits with the others to make a complete fragrance, rather than choosing only by the word "rare."
From a burnable historical formula to a wearable Orchard Harmony
Orchard Harmony is not an exact recreation of Xiao Sihe; it is a modern wearable piece inspired by its choice of materials. Rinleaf combines lychee shell, aged tangerine peel, orange peel, and pear peel, then adds ginseng, angelica root, frankincense, Szechuan lovage, Nanmu powder, and other botanicals, so that light citrus peel, soft orchard-fruit notes, and gentle botanical warmth settle into a single bracelet.
The finished piece uses beads of about 12 mm, made up of 12 botanical scent beads, one white accent bead, and gold-tone spacers. The deep brown beads rest close to the wrist, while the white one reads like a small breath of morning light that has wandered in from the orchard. What it carries forward, in the end, is still the most quietly moving thing about Xiao Sihe: ordinary plant materials, treated with care, can be made into something worth wearing out the door.
You can view the full ingredient list, the design notes, and the current page status on the Orchard Harmony product page, or keep browsing the Rinleaf scented-bracelet collection to find a piece that sits closer to your own wardrobe and scent preference.
Frequently asked questions
What is Xiao Sihe?
Xiao Sihe is a documented historical incense formula. The materials recorded in Xiang Sheng include orange peel, lychee shell, quince kernel or pear remnants, and sugarcane remnants, with the instruction "equal parts, ground to powder."
Does Xiao Sihe only use fruit peel and kernels?
Not exactly. The formula lists orange peel, lychee shell, and quince kernel, alongside pear remnants and sugarcane remnants, so the more precise description is that it uses a mix of fruit peels, shells, kernels, and other remnants.
Is Orchard Harmony an exact recreation of the historical formula?
No. Historically, Xiao Sihe is a burnable incense formula; Orchard Harmony is a modern scented-bead bracelet inspired by its choice of materials. The two use different formulas and serve different purposes.
Can fresh fruit peel be used directly, following the old formula?
The old formula offers no modern guidance for handling fresh peel, so a usable preparation cannot be read off the phrase "equal parts, ground to powder" alone. What Xiao Sihe offers here is an ingredient thread, not a kitchen-scrap tutorial that skips verification.
