Sachets are created from small pieces of silk, which are embroidered with colorful strings in a variety of patterns according to papercutting designs.
Qingyang sachets symbolize blessing, auspiciousness, happiness, safety, peace, and avoidance of evil, disaster, illnesses, and misfortune.
[1] Many sachets are also filled with cinnabar, calamus, wormwood, and chrysanthemum, and they are commonly used as air fresheners, insect repellent, and protection against evil spirits.
Another accredits the sachet to the mythological doctor Qibo and to a passage in the Huangdi Neijing, which has been dated between the late Warring States period (475–221 BCE) and the Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE).
[1][3] More rooted in tangible history, the sachet appeared in the Warring States period as distinctive decorations worn as a clothing accessory as well as mosquito repellent.
Qingyang’s male officials and women from elite families wore sachets filled with traditional Chinese medicine rather than perfume.
[citation needed] Since ancient times, Qingyang’s dominant philosophical strongholds have been Confucianism and Taoism, and their various tenants appear symbolically and thematically in the designs of sachets.
Important Confucianist ideals are filial piety, strength-borrowing (achieving one’s objectives through the strength of others), the Five Bonds (ruler to ruled, father to son, husband to wife, elder brother to younger brother, and friend to friend), and the doctrine of the “mean” and “neutralization” (being impartial and in harmonious portion while dealing with the everyday).