法苑珠林 36.93

36.93

沈香。異苑曰。沙門支法在存廣州。有八尺㲩𣰆。又有沈香八尺版床。太元中王漢為州大兒。劭求二物不得。乃殺而藉焉。南州異物志曰。木香出日南。欲取當先斫壞樹。著地積久。外白朽爛。其心中堅者置水則沈香。其次在心白之間。不甚堅精。置之水中不沈不浮。與水平者。名曰𥴈香。其最小麁白者。名曰槧香。顧微廣州記曰。新興縣悉是沈香。如同心草。土人斫之經年肉爛盡。心則為沈香。俞益期箋曰。眾香共是一木。木心為沈香。

Agarwood (chenxiang). The Yiyuan states: 'The śramaṇa Zhidao [Zhi Fazai] lived in Guangzhou; he had an eight-foot wool rug and an eight-foot plank-bed of agarwood. During the Taiyuan era, Wang Han became a great magistrate of the province; Shao sought these two objects and could not obtain them, so he killed him and appropriated them.' The Nanzhou yiwu zhi states: 'Muxiang comes from Rinan. When one wishes to harvest it, one must first cut down the tree. Left lying on the ground for a long time, the outer sapwood rots away. The inner heartwood that is firm sinks when placed in water—this is chenxiang (sinking incense). Next is that which is between the heartwood and sapwood; not extremely hard or fine, when placed in water it neither sinks nor floats, remaining level with the surface of the water—this is called zhanxiang. The smallest and coarsest white part is called jianxiang.' Gu Wei's Guangzhou ji states: 'Xinxing County has nothing but agarwood trees, resembling tongxin grass. When the locals cut them down, after years pass the flesh rots away completely, and the core becomes agarwood.' The letters of Yu Yiqi state: 'All the various fragrances share a single tree; the core of the tree is agarwood.'