The word "Shen" in the ancient saying "Shen Musk" refers to agarwood. Aquilaria sinensis is elegant and very rare, and has been listed as the first fragrance since ancient times.
Different from sandalwood, agarwood is not a kind of wood, but a special fragrant tree, which is a solid condensate of oil (resin) and wood components. But the wood of this fragrant tree itself has no special fragrance, and the wood is soft. According to the current research, several trees of Aquilaria of Daphne, such as Aquilaria malayi, Aquilaria Vientiane and Aquilaria India, can form Aquilaria.
Generally speaking, the greater the density of agarwood, the more condensed resin and the better the quality. Therefore, the ancients often divided agarwood into different grades according to whether it can sink into water: those that sink into water are called "submerged" incense; Secondly, those who are semi-floating and semi-sinking are called "stack incense" (stack, woven with bamboo), also known as "note (sound" fried ") incense" and "water incense"; Once again, a little enters the water and floats on the water surface, which is called "yellow ripe fragrance"
Because agarwood is naturally condensed, its size and shape vary greatly, so the ancients took many interesting names for its characteristics, such as: tooth incense (small in size, like a horse's teeth), leaf incense (thin in shape), chicken bone incense (with a gap inside, like a chicken bone), light incense (with a dry rock appearance, mostly used for display), and water pan head (large in size and good in texture).
The water tanks in agarwood are mostly less than ten centimeters in width and dozens of centimeters in length; High quality is generally dense and even as hard as rock; The surface is very uneven; Most of the colors are green, dark green, yellow, brown or black, the oil is dark, and the xylem is light yellow and white, mixed with various textures; Aquilaria sinensis with high oil content is often dark in color, moist in texture, easy to ignite, and even boiling oil can be seen when burning.
There are four reasons why water sinks into incense:
1. "Mature knot": After the tree dies, the roots and trunks fall to the ground or sink into the soil, and after years of wind and rain, they slowly decompose and shrink, leaving the condensate mainly composed of oil. For example, "Compendium of Materia Medica" said: "Old wood, rotten skin for many years, woody branches are not bad. Hard and black is also agarwood. "
Second, "knot": the fragrant knot formed when the tree is alive. Deep wounds are caused by external forces such as knives, axes, snakes and insects. The incense tree will ooze resin to protect itself, thus making incense near the wound.
Third, "falling off", the fragrance produced by rotting branches;
Fourth, "insect leakage" is the fragrance formed by the decay of trees by insects and bacteria.
Due to the shortage of resin glands in short-lived fragrant trees, it is generally only possible for fragrant trees to form agarwood for decades, and it takes many years from fragrance to maturity, so the top-grade natural agarwood is priceless.
As far as most agarwood is concerned, the darker the color, the denser the texture and the better the quality. However, this is only a general standard. Because of the complex causes of agarwood, many factors directly affect the quality of incense, such as the length of incense, the amount of oil, living trees or dead trees, so it is not enough to identify it only by appearance and physical indicators. The best way is to judge by the nose and the experience after smoking.
The output of natural agarwood is limited, and now it is mostly cultivated artificially. Often, some "wounds" are cut or drilled on the trunk of mature fragrant trees, or some fungi are laid. After a year or several years, agarwood will grow near the wound. The longer the year, the better the quality of the incense. But even if it is cultivated artificially, it usually takes more than 10 years to make incense.
At present, the main producing areas of agarwood are Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Hainan Island in China. Historically, India, Myanmar and other places have also produced a lot of agarwood, but due to a large number of logging, it is rarely produced now, just
Aquilaria sinensis still has its value. ? If you think you want a more durable agarwood you can think of, why not go up? Is it sweet? Where to? Respect.