Ding Wei's Tianxiang Zhuan (Biography of Heavenly Incense)
With a single work, Tianxiang Zhuan, he elevated Hainan agarwood to "Number One in the World"—the foundational work of incense culture literature.
Ding Wei, a chancellor of the Northern Song dynasty, was banished in his later years to Yazhou (present-day Sanya area, Hainan). Living in a miasmic land and personally witnessing agarwood's source, he wrote Tianxiang Zhuan, which discusses agarwood's varieties and qualities in detail.
Core Views
In this work, Ding Wei was the first to advocate that "Hainan agarwood is unsurpassed in the world," classifying agarwood into "Four Names and Twelve Forms"—a systematic grading that pioneered agarwood appraisal.
Status in Literature
Tianxiang Zhuan is one of the earliest surviving monographs on agarwood, and together withIncense Culture Sages' brief biography of Ding Wei andAgarwood Studiesit is passed down in continuity, and is also seen inDetailed textual research on incense manuals。