法苑珠林 36.93

36.93

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.'