The ancients used incense almost all the time in their lives, just like the fragrance of orchids and crocuses, the elegance of agarwood and sandalwood, ambergris and musk noble, decorated the elegant life of the literati. Among all the incense, agarwood is the first, the most respected. However, there are many people who use incense in poetry, but it is rare to use incense as a text, and Su Shi's piece "The ode of Agarwood Shan Zi" is one of the best. The whole piece is based on double lines, with elegant rhymes, and although there are only a few words, there is a chapter inside.  

      This piece "The ode of Agarwood Shan Zi" was written during Su Shi's time in Danzhou. Danzhou is today's Hainan Island, which was still uncivilized and barbaric during the Northern Song Dynasty, but it was rich in products, unlike the Central Plains. Su Shi was relegated to this place and was able to "eat 300 lychees a day" and enjoy the finest Hainan agarwood, leaving this masterpiece of agarwood. 

      Su Shi had a very deep relationship with agarwood, his life love to play agarwood , but also their own blend of agarwood recipes, leaving a lot of writing agarwood poetry. This piece, "The ode of Agarwood Shan Zi", was written in his later years. He spent his life reading all kinds of incense but only loved agarwood, which shows the high quality of agarwood. Many of the descriptions in it summarize the characteristics of agarwood with great precision, which still inspire people today.

  Original article:

    The ancients used rue as fragrance and orchid as aroma. In order to get fragrance, they opened up the wine of Yu-zheng (herbal wine), burned a kind of spice made of paste and grass of Xiao-ai, painted the wall with pepper clay, burned herbs with fire, put herbs on clothes, and decorated the door with calamus grass. Musk more evil and no fishy taste, trees seem to have the aroma of grains and the actual pungent smell. We lament that we know too little, and that it is the nature of things that distracts our wisdom and often turns our minds upside down. Every time we seek to get what seems to be true but is actually wrong, sometimes the nose smell but can not distinguish. Only incense is close to the right taste, and it can coexist with the flower of Chan (a kind of flower).

     Besides, incense is a specialty of Hainan, in fact, more than many incense. Not only its hard as gold, its moist as jade, and it is similar in nature, crane bones and dragon tendons. Submerged through the oil-filled body, the head although slender, but in the hands of a heavy weight. Look at those dead and decaying incense wood in Vietnam, it should be used to burn pots and pans, smoke mosquitoes. Small and exquisite incense hill, the high risk of the situation is loved. There is as on Mount Hua backed by the green sky, there is as small lonely straight into the clouds. I use it as a congratulatory gift to congratulate you on your birthday, as a sign of my generosity. You face the wall every day to study, do you still want to go home to farm? 

      Fortunately, it can be placed in the book case, with a light fragrance smoked with your scarf. It does not have a strong smell, but an endless fragrance. Don't just drink the longevity wine served by Dongpo, but also taste the wild specialties of Hainan Li people.

      Su Shi's cultivation was not only in literature, but also in Buddhism, so he used Buddhist concepts in his writings many times, instead of referring to daily life. Su Shi was very modest, mocking himself for his lack of wisdom and being caught up in the "color, sound, fragrance, taste, touch, and methods", but agarwood, unlike other things, has achieved the effect of almost introducing the right path, and can be used to blend incense with tulip as an aid to practice.  

      Although Su Shi was relegated to Hainan, but can taste Hainan good agarwood, so the praise of Hainan agarwood is very high, Hainan produced agarwood with other spices are different, transcendent, its texture is not only as hard as gold, and like beautiful jade as oily, its appearance is firm and jagged, rich in spirit, as if the crane bones dragon tendons. In fact, is not only a description of the virtues of incense, but also a metaphor for the virtues of a gentleman. Su Shi uses the praise of incense to sharpen his brother and be a gentleman scholar with a firm character and transcendent spirit.

A gilt agarwood mountain in fufeng Famen Temple, Shaanxi province, together with buddhist relics

        What about Vietnam's earth sink agarwood? It is suitable for burning fire to do cooking, smoky mosquitoes only. In fact, is Vietnamese agarwood really like Su Shi described such "unhelpful"? Of course not, for example, Vietnam's most famous riped bear agarwood (It refers to the incense tree's resin secretion due to its own pathology, that is, without the intervention of other external forces.) - Fusen red clay, in line with Su Shi described the "Look at those dead and decaying agarwood in Vietnam", if used to burn rice and smoke mosquitoes is really a waste. Here is just a metaphor, to highlight the quality and status of Hainan incense.

The picture of Li people picking agarwood

      Su Shi gave his brother Su Zhe a Hainan agarwood mountain crafts as a congratulatory gift, which looks like a small rockery with a rugged natural shape and is quite interesting to play with. In a humorous and flirtatious tone to encourage his brother, do not depressed, to give you this agarwood mountain crafts, you place it on the small table at the head of the bed, so that its fragrance drenched your bed table, its stretches.

      Su Shi's writings are celebrated for their wit and humor. This "The ode of Agarwood Shan Zi", through a letter, praises the incomparable quality of Hainan incense on the one hand, shows Su Shi's optimistic and positive attitude towards life, and encourages his brother to enjoy his spiritual life, maintain his gentlemanly character, and pursue a transcendent realm in a funny tone. Sitting silently and quietly reading this ode, let us understand Su Shi's spiritual world, experience the friendship between brothers, taste Hainan incense contains quiet and introspective quality.