It would be no stretch to say that these xiang pu—these compendiums from a thousand years ago—were part of the evolution and development of encyclopedic volumes, leading up eventually to the contemporary bodies of works that we know today such as Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia. The fervor of the Chinese literati to collate and arrange information into volumes of reference works led to mammoth imperial encyclopedias such as Yongle Encyclopedia (Ming Dynasty) and Siku Quanshu (Qing Dynasty).

While Hong Chu's xiang pu is of a much humbler scale than these later encyclopedia works, it reflected the same careful attentive care to detail. The xiang pu reflects the importance of incense in the old times, and that the ancestors were analytical and had high demands towards the use of this daily necessity. The simple but detailed method that Hong Chu employed in editing and arranging the Xiang Pu would satiate an incense lover's curiosity and hunger for absorbing more incense-related information.

The four meanings of incense

Inspired by Hong Chu's approach in his xiang pu, Dr. Liu concluded her presentation by highlighting to the audience the four meanings of incense: "Incense connotes happiness, greetings to our ancestors, Buddhism practice and purification in human's nature." Perhaps the main point is that incense highlights the nature of being "Chinese" and a better person. It is fundamental to the Chinese identity to not forget one's roots and to respect the contributions ancestors made in the past. "We love our ancestors; it is believed that incense works as a medium for us to communicate with our forbearers between Earth and heaven," noted Dr. Liu. "It symbolizes filial piety and the respect we want to show our ancestors."

Incense not only plays a vital role in connecting the old and young generations in one line, but also helps us in becoming a better person. "It helps purify our superfluous desires and negative energies away from our minds", said Dr. Liu. For outsiders, incense to them may just be an ordinary air-purifier; however, to Chinese, the implied meanings that incense works just go too far beyond from this.