My encounter with agarwood was by chance. Once when I went to a friend's place for tea, I accidentally smelled the scent of agarwood and was amazed at how comfortable it felt. My friend used aged Pu'er tea, brewed slowly over low heat with cold water using a silver or iron pot, adding agarwood into the pot. My friend said this is agarwood tea. He said in China's traditional culture, tea has the effect of calming the mind and invigorating the body, while agarwood has the function of regulating qi and opening the orifices. Agarwood tea combines the two for even better results. Tasting carefully, the tea flavor is rich and full-bodied, with the aroma of tea mixed with the scent of agarwood, making it indescribably wonderful. Since then, I have become obsessed with agarwood.
In 2011, at a friend's house in Nanjing, I had the opportunity to experience what China's agarwood incense culture is all about, which greatly broadened my horizons. The friends in Nanjing showed us the tools for appreciating incense: an antique eight-immortal table, with a complete set of incense burners and some small pieces of agarwood placed on it. As soon as we entered the room, a subtle fragrance wafted up, lingering around our noses and then filled the entire room... The friend used a pair of silver chopsticks to pick up a small piece of charcoal, lighting it with a spray gun. Using tools, he dug a small rectangular pit in the incense burner ash to bury the charcoal. The friend said that burying the charcoal should be just right; too loose and the charcoal burns too quickly, too compact and there might not be enough air, causing the charcoal to be "suffocated." Then, he cut a small piece of agarwood and placed it on a piece of silver foil, putting it inside the incense burner. After the main steps of pressing the incense ash, burning the incense charcoal, burying the charcoal, making the incense sinews, and fumigating the incense material, the fragrance of agarwood was released as it was smoked by the charcoal, and its ethereal scent rose. Following the friend's guidance, we began to appreciate the incense. Hold the neck of the incense burner with your left hand close to your nose, while covering the burner with your right hand. Take three slow breaths near the incense burner: the first is to remove any miscellaneous flavors; the second is nasal observation, imagining the interest; the third is to savor the aftertaste, affirming the intention. Before appreciating the incense, we thought we could clearly express any feelings or thoughts, but when we tried to do so, we found our vocabulary insufficient, just sitting there dumbly, feeling refreshed and as if entering a fairyland.
In the friend's view, the most important aspect of agarwood is its ability to cultivate emotions and nourish the spirit. Under the enveloping subtlety of agarwood's fragrance, people with different experiences and backgrounds will have different associations and feelings. There is nothing more important than sitting with a group of true friends to enjoy incense and tea. Fame, money, power... In the fragrance emitted by the century-old agarwood, everything is fleeting.
The friend said that China's unique incense culture has a long history. During the Song Dynasty, Chinese incense culture reached its peak, and "incense appreciation" was widely integrated into the lives of all social classes. High-quality agarwood is "worth ten thousand coins per piece," referred to as the "King of Incense." This trend continued through the Ming and Qing dynasties. However, the once glorious incense culture gradually faded from people's lives, especially after being swept away during the Cultural Revolution, almost disappearing entirely. The rare treasures of agarwood were gradually forgotten in the corners of history. As a valuable traditional Chinese medicine, only those studying traditional Chinese medicine knew about its medicinal value, while its other functions remained unfamiliar to most people. It wasn't until recent years, with significant improvements in people's living standards, that the long-lost agarwood re-entered people's vision.
Nowadays, agarwood incense culture has permeated various aspects of social life. Many enthusiasts of incense culture across the country actively organize various agarwood incense associations, open agarwood incense galleries, gather together to appreciate agarwood and enjoy incense, discuss incense culture, thereby inheriting and promoting China's profound and extensive incense culture.