沈香 Chimhyang (침향)

Original, read line by line 東醫寶鑑 · Tangaek — Decoctions vol. 3

1. 性熱, 味辛一云苦, 無毒. 主風水毒腫, 去惡氣, 止心腹痛, 益精壯陽.

   Its nature is hot, its taste pungent - though one account calls it bitter - and it is non-toxic. It governs pungsu (風水, wind water) and toxic swelling, dispels noxious qi, halts pain in the chest and abdomen, augments essence, and fortifies yang.

   HomiclubChimhyang is the resin that builds up over years in the wounded wood of an agarwood tree. In the West it is called agarwood or oud, and it ranks among the costliest of all incense and perfume materials.

2. 治冷風麻痺, 霍亂吐瀉轉筋.

   It addresses numbness and paralysis from cold wind, and the vomiting, diarrhoea, and cramping of gwallan (霍亂, sudden turmoil).

3. 生嶺南交廣. 土人見香木, 必以刀斫成坎, 經年得雨水所漬, 遂結香.

   It is produced in Lingnan and in Jiao and Guang. When the local people find a fragrance tree, they always cut hollows into it with a blade, and after a year of soaking rain the fragrance forms.

   HomiclubDeliberately wounding the tree and waiting for resin to form is still the basis of agarwood cultivation. In Southeast Asia the method has shifted to drilling holes and inoculating the tree with fungus.

4. 其堅黑, 中實, 無空心, 而沈水者爲沈香. 浮水者爲煎香.

   The kind that is hard and black, solid within with no hollow, and sinks in water is chimhyang. The kind that floats is jeonhyang (煎香).

   HomiclubThe chim (沈) in the name means to sink. The more resin a piece holds the heavier it is, so floating a piece in water remains the first test for grading agarwood.

5. 煎香中, 形如雞骨者爲雞骨香. 形如馬蹄者爲馬蹄香. 雖沈水而有空心, 則是雞骨也.

   Among jeonhyang, the piece shaped like a chicken bone is called gyegolhyang (雞骨香) and the one shaped like a horse's hoof is called majehyang (馬蹄香). Even if a piece sinks, if it is hollow within it counts as gyegolhyang.

6. 燔之極淸烈. 《本草》

   Burned, its scent is exceedingly clear and keen. 《Boncho (本草)》

7. 沈香能養諸氣, 上而至天, 下而至泉. 用爲使. 《湯液》

   Chimhyang can nourish every kind of qi, reaching up to the heavens and down to the springs. It is used as a saayak (使藥, courier medicinal). 《Tangaek (湯液)》

8. 入湯磨刺服, 入丸散另硏極細用. 《入門》

   For a decoction, grind it and take it; for pills or powders, grind it separately until extremely fine before use. 《Immun (入門)》