The time and place of the story are very clear. In the fifth year of the Shaosheng era of the Northern Song (1098), Su Shi was banished to Danzhou (present-day Danzhou, Hainan area), and Su Zhe was banished to Leizhou. The brothers were separated by the sea, one on the south of the island, one on the peninsula. In February of that year, Su Zhe turned sixty.
The most solid material evidence of Su Shi's incense is the "Rhapsody on the Agarwood Mountain Figurine" he wrote in Danzhou: In the fifth year of Shaosheng (1098), for his younger brother Su Zhe's sixtieth birthday, Su Shi sent a mountain figurine carved from Hainan agarwood as a birthday gift, and composed a rhapsody to explain it — among all incenses, "only sinking grade alone comes close to the orthodox"; what Hainan (Danya) produces "truly stands out and is peerless." This was not a casual occasional piece, but a piece of incense culture(香学) literature with production-region judgment and evaluation standards.
Key points
- The "Rhapsody on the Agarwood Mountain Figurine" was written in Danzhou in 1098, composed by Su Shi for Su Zhe's sixtieth birthday, and is a rare "dedicated essay on agarwood" in the history of Chinese incense culture(香学).
- Su Shi's evaluation conclusions are clear: musk is "inherently rank," benzoin "is actually pungent"; only sinking grade agarwood is "close to the orthodox"; what Hainan Danya produces is superior, while the withered, decayed wood of Champa "is fit for cauldrons and smoking out mosquitoes."
- "Firm as gold and smooth as jade, with the bones of a crane and the sinews of a dragon. Only because the resinous fluid is sufficient within does it fill the grasp and weigh heavy" — these four lines speak of oil content and density, and to this day they remain the way to judge agarwood.
- Su Shi and Huang Tingjian, in poetic exchange, proposed "nose contemplation," elevating incense burning from sensory pleasure to a method of cultivating the mind — a watershed in the incense practices of the Song people.
- To reproduce the kind of "no single outburst of fierceness, but endless curling fragrance" in Su Shi's writing, use fire-insulated incense heating or low-temperature electric heating; do not burn it directly over open flame.
Su Shi's birthday gift was a "mountain figurine" carved from Hainan agarwood — the kind of small scholar's-studio ornament shaped after mountain peaks. The gift itself was precious, but more important was the rhapsody he wrote to accompany it.
The opening of the rhapsody first takes each of the various incenses to task one by one:
In ancient times, people used yun for incense, orchid for fragrance, aromatic millet wine for libation, fat and mugwort for burning, pepper for coating, and hui for perfuming…Musk has many taboos and is inherently rank; benzoin seems fragrant but is actually pungent.
— Su Shi, "Rhapsody on the Agarwood Mountain Figurine (Written for Ziyou's Birthday)," according to the Complete Works of Dongpo
— Musk has many taboos and its odor is inherently rank and fishy; benzoin smells like the fragrance of grain but is actually pungent. Su Shi's meaning is: both of these have been overrated. Then he comes to the point:
Only sinking grade alone comes close to the orthodox, fit to be paired with campaka and named alongside clouds. Moreover, the rare produce of Danya truly stands out and is peerless. Firm as gold and smooth as jade, with the bones of a crane and the sinews of a dragon. Only because the resinous fluid is sufficient within does it fill the grasp and weigh heavy. As for the withered, decayed wood of Champa, it is fit for cauldrons and for smoking out mosquitoes.
This passage contains three layers of judgment, which the shopkeeper thinks are still useful to people buying incense today:
After Su Zhe received it, he wrote "Harmonizing with Zizhan's Agarwood Mountain Essay," which contains an even more direct line:"Burn one zhu, and its fragrance covers the whole nation. What princes and lords buy it for, they do not count gold or silk."When one zhu (roughly 0.6 grams today) is lit, its fragrance can cover a whole city; princes and lords buy it without looking at the price. The two brothers echoed each other, nailing down the status of Hainan agarwood for good.
It wasn't that Su Shi only used incense after arriving in Hainan, but it was indeed only after arriving in Hainan that he wrote "Agarwood Mountain Essay."
Throughout his life—Huangzhou, Huizhou, Danzhou—he was banished ever farther. In Huangzhou he already had the habit of "burning incense and sitting in silence, deeply examining himself"; by the time he reached Huizhou and Danzhou—miasmic lands that Central Plains scholar-officials regarded as a road of dread—he was precisely in the core agarwood-producing region.Hainan agarwood was called "qiongzhi" in ancient times, and in the Song dynasty it was already a famous product of tribute grade, something Su Shi, being there in person, knew better than any book.
When he wrote of an afternoon nap, incense came to hand:
The sun shines on the winding corridor; at noon my pillow is bright; the water-sinking incense has burned away, and blue smoke lies across.
—Su Shi poem (titles vary among editions; this follows the quotation in the article "Dongpo Smells Incense" on the Hainan Provincial People's Government website)
Even for an afternoon nap he would light a burner of water-sinking incense (another name for agarwood). This wasn't display; it was daily life.
What truly set Su Shi's incense practice apart from that of ordinary literati was his several poetic exchanges with Huang Tingjian.
Huang Tingjian obtained a piece of Jiangnan "incense for the bedchamber" and wrote a six-character-per-line poem to send to Su Shi; Su Shi replied with "Two Poems Harmonizing with Huang Luzhi on Burning Incense":
Four lines of incense-burning gatha, carried by the wind across the southeast. This is not something hearing and thinking can reach; let the nose contemplate it first.
Ten thousand scrolls by a bright window, small characters; my eyes are blurry and see only mottled patches. One stick of incense burns out, the smoke gone, the fire cold; half a lifetime, the body aged, the mind at leisure.
The two words "nose contemplation" are Su Shi's invention. Buddhism has "eye contemplation" and "ear contemplation"; he placed the nose in the same position—incense is not for smelling for fun; it is for contemplation. The second poem is even more pointed: one stick of incense burns out, smoke gone, fire cold—corresponding to his own half lifetime of aging body while the mind instead grows idle. Incense here becomes a timer, and also a scale of the state of mind.
This system was later summarized by Huang Tingjian as "The Ten Virtues of Incense"; the eight characters "a friend in stillness, stolen leisure amid dust" grew out of this very lineage.
When reading "Ode to the Agarwood Mountain," I habitually read it as a Song-dynasty inspection note on goods.
| Su Shi's original words | What it says | How to use it today |
|---|---|---|
| Only because the resin is sufficient within, can it be grasped with weight in hand. | Oil content → density → sinking grade | First feel whether it has weight in the hand, then look at the resin lines. |
| Moreover, the rare produce of Dan and Ya / And the withered decay of Champa | Ranking of production regions | The three lines of Hainan, Hui'an, and Xingzhou differ greatly in price and fragrance. |
| No sudden fierce outburst, but endless lingering fragrance | The aroma is not harsh, is long-lasting, and has layers | Good agarwood "comes slowly"; anything that hits the nose all at once is mostly not right. |
The third sentence is especially important. Su Shi says this piece of agarwood "has no sudden fierce outburst"—it will not burst out all at once—"but endless lingering fragrance"—the after-notes continue without end. This is the same thing as what we today call the "layers," "returning sweetness," and "tail notes" of agarwood aroma.
The question is how to smell it.Lighting agarwood with an open flame carbonizes the resin instantly; what you smell is a burnt odor, and all the layers are burned away. To hear Su Shi's line "endless lingering fragrance," you need indirect heat incense (charcoal buried in ash, a mica sheet placed on top, the incense material never touching open flame), or a low-temperature slow bake in an electric incense heater, starting from 90°C and trying upward bit by bit. This isthe indirect heat incense methodthe old method described in it; Song-dynasty literati did exactly this.
Incense enthusiasts often bring agarwood they bought to the shop and say, "Why does it give off a burnt smell when lit?" Usually it is not that the incense is bad, but that the temperature was not controlled.If you are unsure how to heat the material you have or what temperature to set, you can bring the goods to the shop for a free look, or call 400-809-1913 and describe the appearance of the material to the shopkeeper; I will give a temperature range based on experience.
There are two more lines in "Ode to the Agarwood Mountain" that are rarely mentioned, but I think they are the most honest:
Always seeking resemblance in the vague, or the nose tires and one hears falsely.
It means: people always want to smell whether it is "like" some famous incense, and as a result the nose gets tired and hallucinations arise. This refers toolfactory fatigue and psychological suggestion。
Su Shi already admitted nine hundred years ago that the nose can deceive, so today's beginners need not feel embarrassed. On the market, tricks like "oil soaking," "line drawing," and "weight loading" specifically target the psychology of "wanting to smell something." The shopkeeper's four practical methods are written inAuthenticating Agarwood: Real vs. Fake, and those interested can compare and read along. One more reminder: agarwood belongs to the Aquilaria genus of the Thymelaeaceae family, and wild populations are listed in CITES Appendix II. Cross-border transactions require compliant documentation; buying goods with a clear source matters more than anything.
It was written in the fifth year of Shaosheng in the Northern Song dynasty (1098), during Su Shi's exile in Danzhou, for his younger brother Su Zhe's sixtieth birthday. The gift was a mountain-shaped ornament carved from a piece of Hainan agarwood. Su Zhe wrote "Reply to Zizhan's Ode to the Agarwood Mountain Ornament" in response; both pieces are collected in editions of the "Complete Works of Dongpo" and "Luan Cheng Collection" systems, with slight textual variations among versions.
Broadly the same meaning, but not entirely equivalent. Su Shi's phrase "only what sinks in water comes close to the orthodox" emphasizes the "orthodox" quality of the fragrance; "sinking in water" refers to agarwood that can sink in water, which reflects high oil content and high density. Today's sinking grade is a commercial classification based on density, with more quantified criteria. The two are closely related, but the standards are not fully identical.
Don't chase the words "wild Hainan" right away—prices are high and imitations are many. I suggest starting with mid-range sinking-grade material from the Hui'an or Sin Chew systems to first build up your sense of fragrance layers; once your nose recognizes what "boundless swirling fragrance" is like, then move higher. In-store, you can smell and inspect goods for free, with no obligation to purchase.
Explain your specific situation clearly, and we will give corresponding judgments and suggestions—sourcing, personal use, and authentication are all accepted.
Ask about agarwood-related questionsTwelve years of incense-selection experience compiled into a volume: examine oil lines, smell the fragrance profile, test sinking in water, identify producing regions—4 steps to judge agarwood authenticity yourself, so beginners can avoid pitfalls too. Sent as soon as you message on WeChat, free forever.
When adding, note "Authentication Manual" and the shopkeeper will send it to you personally
Or book a visit to the store for in-person incense appraisal →