姬每与余静坐香阁，细品名香。宫香诸品淫，沉水香俗。俗人以沉香著火上，烟扑油腻，顷刻而灭。无论香之性情未出，即著怀袖皆带焦腥。沉香坚致而纹横者，谓之“横隔沉”，即四种沉香内革沉香纹者是也，其香特妙。又有沉水结而未成，如小笠大菌，名“蓬莱香”，余多蓄之。每慢火隔砂，使不见烟，则阁中皆如风过伽楠，露沃蔷薇，热磨琥珀，酒倾犀斝之味。久蒸衾枕间，和以肌香，甜艳非常，梦魂俱适。

The Appreciation of Incense

My concubine often sat quietly with me in her fragrant bedchamber to sample or judge famous incense. The so-called “palace incense” is seductive in quality, while the popular way of preparing aloeswood is vulgar. The ordinary people often set aloeswood right on the fire and its fragrant fume is soon put out by the burning resin. Thus not only has its fragrance failed to be brought out, but it also leaves a smoky, choking odor behind around one’s body. The hard quality with horizontal grains called hengkoch’en has a superb fragrance, being one of the four kinds of aloeswood, but distinguished by having horizontal fibers. There is another variety of this wood, known as p’englaihsiang, which is the size of a mushroom and conically shaped, being not yet fully grown. We kept all these varieties, and she burned them on top of fine sand over a slow fire so that no actual smoke was visible. Its subtle perfume permeated the chamber like the smell of chianan wood wafted by a breeze, or like that of dew-bedecked roses, or a piece of amber rubbed hot by friction, or of fragrant liquor being poured into a horn cop. When bedding is perfumed by this method, its fragrance blends with that of the woman’s flesh, sweet and intoxicating even in one’s dreams.