Wen; Photo: Sun Bin.
Guanxiang is an agarwood treasure produced in Dongguan, Guangdong Province and named after the place, which is an evergreen tree belonging to the olive family. Light snow is the season of incense picking, and we have started a silent winter fragrance journey.
Dongguan's incense is sweet, the yield of the incense is small, at least more than 15 years to reach the standard, such as Xu Xiang is sweet enough, smell who tastes, make people feel good.
The most gratifying thing is that there is a more than 100-year-old Guan incense tree in the base, and the extremely valuable agarwood is also slowly forming incense this year, and the vitality is still luxuriant. Let's follow the camera to the Houjie base of the Dongguan Incense Civilization Research Association to find this fragrance in winter.
Yin Zhiqiang, the person in charge of the Houjie base of the Dongguan Xiang Civilization Research Association, the locals are fond of calling him Uncle Qiang, and Uncle Qiang led us to get busy at the base that day, and they wanted to take advantage of this year's precious good weather to pick this year's head incense.
Uncle Qiang said: Xiaoxue is the season of incense, the first one, because we have less rain at the end of the year, the temperature is suitable for incense, although we have to pick incense for more than a month every year, and it is always almost the Spring Festival.
The tree had been harvested ten years ago, and the rest of the canopy had been tied to reinforce, and the growth ability of the tree had been sharpened for ten years. After being traumatized by a natural person, in the process of self-repair, the resin is used by microorganisms over the years to produce extremely valuable agarwood. The spice undergoes a long growth and ageing process to bring out its intense aromas. Uncle Qiang said that in addition to the growth period, the growth and disposal process of the guanxiang tree will also affect the occurrence and quality of its aroma. The tree prefers red ground, mild and humid conditions, and is suitable for growing in fertile and well-drained soil. In the cultivation process, it is necessary to prune, fertilize, water and other treatment methods on a regular basis to ensure its normal growth and development.
Agarwood is a very valuable plant, and the process of making incense is very chaotic and the probability is very low. The ultimate possible cause of Qi Nan incense is even rarer. Some Shannons have picked agarwood all their lives and have never seen it once.
Uncle Qiang took us to the rare Qi Nan tree, we were fortunate to taste the Qi Nan agarwood foam he personally collected, the entrance will feel a sense of coldness, as if there is a clear stream from the mouth into the throat, giving people a fresh and comfortable feeling, the aroma of agarwood powder continues to spread, making people feel a kind of quiet and grasping, and then there will be a spicy and smooth feeling of spraying on the tip of the tongue, as if it is numb to electricity, and it will also prompt people to excrete a large amount of saliva, and then the taste of sweet and bitter.
This is a ten-year-old chinan tree.
Over the years, the agarwood industry has shown a gratifying change. Uncle Qiang innovated the agarwood grafting technology in the process, and the survival rate reached 80%, which greatly shortened the time for the agarwood tree to bear incense, and brought new momentum to the regression of the agarwood industry.
This is the chicken that Uncle Qiang raised in the agarwood garden, and the feed he eats is agarwood and food. And behold, every chicken grows fat and big, and its hair is shiny. Chickens raised with agarwood are called "agarwood chickens", and this form of breeding is gradually caused by the economic regression of the understory.
Agarwood is a well-known medicinal and edible homologous precious southern medicine tree species, which has a high economic price. Agarwood chicken soup stewed with natural Qi Nan wood, pork rib soup, and prawns made from Qi Nan agarwood leaves, not only have the characteristic umami meat quality, but also have a very high nutrient price. Agarwood chickens raised under agarwood trees, and chickens use agarwood leaves, weeds, insects, etc. as food, mobilizing a new characteristic breeding industry and adding a new source of income to the villagers. At the same time, chickens are raised in captivity in agarwood forests, and manure can become natural fertilizer for agarwood trees, which is conducive to reducing fecal pollution and improving human settlements. In the process of remediation of human settlements, the "Qi Nan Flying Phoenix" is raised in captivity under the Qi Nan tree, which can be described as killing multiple birds with one stone. Caused by the characteristics of the aquaculture industry.
The price of agarwood in the annals, since ancient times, agarwood is the exclusive product of the royal nobles, and the Song Dynasty spread the mortal world to have "one or two agarwood and one or two gold", and in the Ming Dynasty, it became "an inch of agarwood and an inch of gold". Looking at the international price of agarwood in this world, it has been dozens of times or even higher, and the increasingly scarce and irreplaceable medicine and health costs of agarwood make it more and more valuable.
The flowers, fruits and bark of the fragrant tree can be used as medicine. Its flowers have the effect of invigorating qi and blood, and are used to treat menstrual irregularities, dysmenorrhea, postpartum abdominal pain and other symptoms. The fruit has the effect of warming the kidneys and absorbing qi, and can be used to treat deficiency and asthma. The bark has the effect of relieving pain and dissipating cold in warmth, and can be used to treat chest and abdominal distension pain, stomach cold and vomiting and other symptoms.
In addition, the wood of the Guanxiang tree is heavy, durable, and beautifully textured, so it is also the origin of high-quality wood. At the same time, the leaves and flowers of the guanxiang tree also have a definite price to appreciate.
Uncle Qiang paced back and forth at the base, and finally chose the Guanxiang tree in front of him that had been fragrant as the first incense of the year. This is a wild tree that has been planted for 25 years to produce a good fragrance, and it should be about 13 catties.
Agarwood has a wide range of use costs. It is used in the manufacture of high-grade spices, medicinal herbs, and wood. In traditional Chinese medicine, agarwood is used to regulate the body's internal organs, soothing emotions, improving bedtime, and anti-aging. In addition, agarwood can also be used to make handicrafts such as bracelets and Buddhist beads.
The tree is harvested in its entirety, and the process of making it from wood to incense is just now. Break it into a cut of pieces, planing the white wood, and then wait for it to dry a little, dry a little bit, and then use all kinds of things to hook out the layer of white wood little by little to leave it fragrant.
From broken roots, rain, flowers, brightness, seedlings, light snow, and incense. Uncle Qiang informed us that there are more than 30 processes in all the processes from seed selection and incense picking, to incense refining, cellar incense, incense combination, incense, and incense making.
Planing a piece of incense, it is true that this is a good knife work, pick a clean, pick a piece can have more than 10 minutes, roughly 20 minutes. Thirty years of planting trees, five or six years of incense, behind this wisp of winter fragrance is the accumulation of time, but also the payment of craftsmen, it is because of the inheritance and improvement of skills by generations of Shannon, this special fragrance belonging to Dongguan can be continuous for thousands of years.
Use all kinds of things to remove the white one, leaving agarwood, a small piece of it takes a few hours or repeated ability to finish, the white wood fragrance is fortunate to be at this price, we plant incense every year, pick incense every year, raise seedlings every year, plant it every year, and the tree can be sprouted after cutting, and a few years later it will still be a fragrant garden.
Uncle Qiang's more than 20 years of exploration and planing have finally yielded gratifying benefits.
Guanxiang is a valuable Chinese herbal medicine, with a special smell and medicinal effect, and has always been one of the treasures of Chinese medicine.
After years of hard work and exploration, the Guanxiang tree has finally been cultivated and coaxed into useful use, and has made intense contributions to the local economic regression and the study of traditional Chinese medicine. I hope that in the future, the research and use of Guanxiang tree may continue to regress profoundly, and make greater dedication to traditional Chinese medicine and human health. In addition to the economic cost of the guanxiang tree, its ecological cost cannot be ignored. The Guanxiang tree not only has the price of appreciation, but also purifies the air, connects water and soil, regulates the weather, etc., and has a tense effect on improving the ecological situation and cherishing human health. Therefore, in the future regression, we should pay attention to the ecological cherishing and coaxing of the Guanxiang tree, and realize the harmonious regression of economy, ecology and society.
China Times: Sun Bin and Dongguan.