As one of the four ancient civilizations in the world, China is one of the earliest countries in the world to use incense.
After thousands of years of practical selection, there are four kinds of incense materials that are the most popular among Chinese, namely agarwood, sandalwood, ambergris and musk, collectively known as the four major incense materials of "sandalwood dragon musk".
Among the four major incense materials, musk and ambergris are both incense materials obtained from animals.
Among them, musk is a dry secretion in the glandular sac of the male body of the roe deer. In the past, obtaining musk meant hunting the roe deer and removing the glandular sacs; this led to a massive hunt of the roe deer, a sharp decrease in number.
Nowadays, the incense roe deer has become a national protected animal, and it is impossible to hunt the incense by hunting the incense roe deer. However, people have developed a way to take incense alive, which can obtain musk without harming the life of incense.
Ambergris is the secretion of sperm whales, because it fails to digest the beak bone of squid and octopus, it will form ambergris after it is solidified with the secretions in the intestine, forming ambergris.
These two incense materials also have similar characteristics. The first is in appearance, both are not good-looking. Also known as ambergris, ambergris is washed off the coast after years of steeping in salty water, and at first glance it is no different from the reefs by the sea.
Musk, on the other hand, is obtained by cutting open the glandular sacs of the roe deer, which is dark brown or black particles that look a lot like animal feces. In fact, in terms of fragrance, the reason why ambergris can become the perfume fixer is because the fragrance of ambergris is very stable, but the other side of stability is the lack of change.
Although agarwood and sandalwood are the same plant spice, because of the different ways of incense, agarwood is far rarer than sandalwood.
To put it simply, agarwood is actually a mixture of oil and wood, and only after the tree is injured does it secrete oil and is infected by a fungus, and it has the opportunity to mellow into a real agarwood under the action of time and environment. Its incense is extremely difficult, so it is very rare, and even rich people use it very fondly.
Sandalwood trees only need to grow to a certain age, and the resin glands will naturally mature and secrete sap with aroma. Especially in the core of the wood, the sap secreted the most during the growth process, so the taste is the best, and people take the incense from this part.
Because sandalwood can be incense without injury, sandalwood is relatively common.
If you look at it from the price point of view, then there is no need to compare, the vaguely expensive agarwood is far behind the sandalwood. However, in this way, it is judged that agarwood is better than sandalwood, which is inevitable that some of them will be invincible, so we will compare one to two kinds of incense materials from other aspects.
Since it is an incense material, the most important thing is of course the fragrance. As one of the four famous incense, sandalwood naturally tastes very good. Its fragrance is very elegant and lofty, with an innate sense of religious solemnity, so it has been used in Buddhism since ancient times.
At the same time, sandalwood is also a kind of "bright incense", the diffusion of the aroma is very strong, and its taste can quickly fill the entire Buddhist hall after the open flame is ignited.
However, its disadvantage is that the type of odor is single, and the layering is not strong.
Agarwood, the crystallization of a tree that is placed on the ground and born later.
Its fragrance smells natural, comfortable, light and layered.
The wonderful and varied fragrance of agarwood has been loved by people since ancient times, and we can find people's praise for it in various relevant literature.
In terms of medicine, agarwood is a precious medicinal material that can save lives, and has a obvious and immediate effect on relieving the weakness of the heart.
Therefore, agarwood is called "the first of all incense", and it is worthy of incompetence!
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