Hainan agarwood since ancient times has a "top of the world" reputation, history is not lacking in Hainan ancient agarwood picking agarwood picture descriptions and written records, they are "knock root listen to the water sink deposit" the mysterious method silently continue the Chinese agarwood culture. 

 The picture of "Cultivating agarwood" in "Qiongli Customs”

      Qiongli customs" is a picture book depicting the production and life of the Li people on Hainan Island, now in the Hainan Provincial Museum. The album is a total of 15 pages, 33 cm in length and 30.5 cm in width, with the pictures on the right and the contents on the left.  

     The album introduces the production or life scenes of the Li people such as living, choosing a spouse by singing, marrying, gathering and feasting, fishing and hunting, farming, picking agarwood, rafting, picking vines, weaving, trading, ferrying,  passing arrows and solving problems.  

          After examination, the map was drawn in the late Qing dynasty, is the study of the Ming and Qing dynasties Hainan Li social production life of precious historical materials. Among them, the "agarwood picking" that is to describe picking of agarwood. 

        The right picture of "agarwood picking" painted Li people picking agarwood, according to the picture of Li people wearing "calf-nose pants-underwear", coiffure of clothing and attire characteristics, agarwood pickers should be Li Ha dialect men, sitting on the stone with a smoking man with a shirt should be the organizer of agarwood picking, the other three, or aid climbing trees to cut agarwood, or axe to knock the trunk of the tree to listen to agarwood, or sitting and resting.  

         Agarwood , bear in the ancient tree cave, growing in the deep mountains, sometimes hidden, its spirituality is unpredictable, seemingly do not want to be understood. People who know agarwood named agarwood boy, dozens of groups of people, built nests in the valley, together praying to the gods of the mountains, harvesting separately,encountering tigers and leopards and poisonous snakes, is almost inevitable. As well as access to the agarwood tree, agarwood can be on the roots of the tree on the trunk on the branches, the outside can not be seen, agarwood boy with an axe to knock on the roots to listen, you can know where the agarwood knot, break the tree can be taken out. This secret can not be passed on, and such as natural this kind of, not to let the agarwood in the dead after being buried. But the tree must be a hundred years to bear agarwood, and a hundred years after the beginning of the formation, inexhaustible. There is a reason for the rarity of agarwood." The poem is titled "A hundred years old tree roots in the deep rock, knocking on the roots to listen to the agarwood. 

       A detailed record of the whole process of knowing agarwood and collecting agarwood when the Li people went into the mountains to collect agarwood in the Ming and Qing dynasties.Agarwood picking is a very difficult but mysterious profession.It restores to us the mysterious method of collecting agarwood by "The ancients used an axe to knock on the roots of the agarwood tree and listen to it to know where the agarwood is knotted", which was used by the agarwood collectors in Hainan during the Qing Dynasty.  

      The local history of Hainan, there are many records about agarwood, and there are few records about how to collect agarwood, which provides precious first-hand information for restoring the ancient method of agarwood collection.

        The "Tang Materia Medica" is a record of agarwood, indicating that ancient China also once had agarwood from India, it can be seen that agarwood in the Tang Gaozong time or through the ship from foreign imports of goods. To the song dynasty, about hainan agarwood historical records and poetry as if springing up, about the hainan agarwood guest picking agarwood records also began to see in the historical books. 

      In the Northern Song Dynasty, Su Dongpo wrote about Hainan residents trading agarwood for their daily needs, as well as the local residents cutting wood to collect agarwood - the agarwood wood cut down, after several years of decay, the only heartwood left is agarwood. 

    Song Dynasty Zhang Shizheng's "weary travel record" of more detailed records: "agarwood wood, Lingnan coastal states more ...... Gai mountain people see the crooked branches must be killed with a knife , after a year to get rain soaked, so bear agarwood, and then sawed, scraping the white wood, its fragrance knotted spots, also called partridge spot , can be submerged, after a long time. In Qiong, Ya and other states commonly known as horn sink, they were taken from living trees, suitable for smudging with aroma. This shows that in the Song Dynasty, the era of Hainan people picking agarwood and trading with agarwood has begun. 

       By the Ming Dynasty, it was also mentioned in the Compendium of Materia Medica, which is basically the same as the description in the Song Dynasty.

         In the Qing Dynasty, the worship of the mountain gods was more prominent among those who entered the mountains to collect agarwood, and various ritual requirements were more frequent.Recorded in yazhou Annals of the Qing Dynasty:”Picking agarwood, must be in the deep jungle. Dozens of people go, sometimes you get it in one day or two days, or half a month to return empty-handed, probably have God. In this high autumn weather is clear, according to the size of the trees withered, there must be agarwood inside. Exploring by the moonlight, there is fragrance through the woods. Here is also that there is an ant's nest, two or three feet high. Along with the excavation, must get oil speed, Garnam and the like, and agarwood more. That root node settled in the soil, nourished under the agarwood, then the agarwood are underneath, his back with woody, so out of the soil. Often it is obtained."  It was also mentioned in the Cantonese New Language.

            It also has a more detailed description of the purchase of agarwood:"The one who bought agarwood first sacrificed to the mountain god, and secondly gave it to the chief of Lai. So open the mountain, with the place of vine circle, and agree with the Lai people: one day or one or two months. Start with the day of catching agarwood. Lai people can be familiar with the identification of agarwood. Pointing to the tree with agarwood, that felled. agarwood to be shared equally." And "agarwood is produced in the mountains, even the Li people do not know its value. Outside people just buy it, with cattle, wine and other items to taste together, and then others began to develop the mountain. The more agarwood is produced, the more the Lai people do not regret. If the mountain are no more, you can not find other valuable." 

     Other documents recorded in the process of agarwood collection are similar, no more than the agarwood collectors have to meet dozens of people into the mountains to collect agarwood, first worship the gods of the mountains, before you can split up to find agarwood, agarwood collection. Tigers, leopards, snakes and insects are common in the woods, and the working environment is very harsh. Good luck if a day or two to pick agarwood to return, there may be in the woods for half a month to find still empty-handed and return. 

     Knowing how to identify the agarwood agarwood agarwood with the axe hit the trunk of the tree, with the sound can be identified where the agarwood knot, "Cai Xiang Tu" recorded in this kind of agarwood identification method, read other historical materials are not contained, and "Cai Xiang Tu" said "this secret can not be passed on to other people", it is clear that its mystery. If foreign merchants to buy agarwood in the mountains of the Li people, must first worship the gods of the mountains, request permission from the clan leader, before you can go into the mountains with the locals to pick agarwood.  

     When the Li people go into the mountains to collect agarwood, they usually mark the agarwood tree they cut, either by tying a thatch or carving a mark to show that the tree is already owned by someone and no one else will come back to take possession of it, a custom that is said to have disappeared in the Li settlements until the 1970s.  

   Wounds left on the tree after artificially cutting agarwood                                                    Fragrance picking

    Now, after thousands of years of natural agarwood has been rare to see. Through fieldwork, the agarwood collectors will now choose the age of more than eight to ten years, the trunk diameter of more than 30 cm of the tree, 1.5-2 meters from the ground on the trunk, along with a number of cuts, about 3-4 cm deep, to be its secretion of resin, after several years, you can cut agarwood.  

     The new wound caused by cutting can still continue to produce agarwood. Or about 1 meter from the ground on the trunk, cut into 3-6 cm deep, about 3-10 cm in diameter, several small mouth (commonly known as "open agarwood door"), and then with the agarwood strain filled with agarwood door, and then plastic wrap the wound, a few years later can be collected agarwood.    

   Dead aquilaria sinensis tree, sometimes can also find agarwood, this agarwood because of the older, high fat content, better quality, but the production is not much. After picking the agarwood, use a knife to remove the part that does not contain resin, and then shade dry the finished product.

   There is no shortage of people driven by high profits, in order to get agarwood and at all costs wantonly cut down the agarwood trees. Whenever a strong tropical storm or typhoon comes, the artificially cut agarwood tree will be very easy to break, once the conduit of the agarwood tree to transport nutrients is cut off, the life of the agarwood tree will be completely ended. In a strict sense, such people do not know how to pick agarwood, can not be called the real sense of the agarwood, but only the agarwood thieves. 

   From the history can be seen, since the Song Dynasty, agarwood flourished, at that time Hainan agarwood production area is mainly the ancient Limusandong (now Qiongzhong and the surrounding areas), with its quality tops the world, became the court's most beloved tribute. Qiongzhong is located in the central region of Hainan, in the tropical rainforest area of 19-20 degrees north latitude, the average annual rainfall of 2445 mm, relative humidity 80-88%, very suitable for the growth of agarwood trees.  

    As Hainan listed agarwood as the "fourth tree" and vigorously promoted the development of agarwood industry,, suitable for the output of the top agarwood Qiongzhong County jumped to become Hainan agarwood quality planting base. Based on the unique natural environment and resource advantages, many companies have developed and built the agarwood plantation in Qiongzhong County, including 6 billion yuan investment in the Grand View agarwood Company "100,000 acres of agarwood industrial park" is the largest investment, the highest amount of the project. 

      At the same time, Great View Agarwood Company also cooperates with the Institute of Tropical Biotechnology of the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences to carry out comprehensive cooperation with the "Research Institute of Agarwood Industry" as the platform. The Institute of Tropical Biotechnology and its "Hainan Provincial Key Laboratory for Research and Utilization of Natural Products of Li Medicine Resources", "Hainan Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center of Agarwood" and Great View Industry Base enter into this platform at the same time, to start from the breeding of good seeds, planting and management, maintenance, disease and pest control, agarwood technology research, new product development and so on.