The Agarwood Pavilion and "Qingping Diao"
"Explaining the endless sorrow of the spring breeze, leaning on the railing north of the Agarwood Pavilion" — a single pavilion of agarwood inspired three immortal verses by Li Bai.
The Agarwood Pavilion was a pavilion in the Xingqing Palace of Tang (Chang'an), said to be built of agarwood. Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and Consort Yang admired peonies and summoned Li Bai to compose poems; Li Bai wrote three stanzas of "Qingping Diao," the second of which reads "Pray, who in the Han palace could compare? Only the lovely Feiyan leaning in her new attire," and the third concludes with "leaning on the railing north of the Agarwood Pavilion."
Incense and the Prosperous Age
Naming a pavilion after agarwood shows how the High Tang valued incense as precious and esteemed it as elegant. This allusion appears in many poems, resonating withPoems on Incense、A Study of Agarwood.