Agarwood Six Records · Volume Five: Six-Colored Flames

Agarwood Six Records · Volume Five: Six-Colored Flames

One · [Modern · the Capital]

Late at night, Liu Zhiqiang was roused from sleep by a strange fragrance. The scent seemed to seep from somewhere deep in his bones—not heavy, yet like a fine needle, pricking into the far depths of his nostrils. He sat up and found Wang Wanshu awake too, standing at the window, her fingers tracing the broken edge of the incense seal "Record" (记) without her knowing it.

"You smelled it?" she asked.

"Yellow incense." Liu Zhiqiang nodded. "And... black incense. They are crying out at the same time." The Cry of Incense—a resonance crossing space and time among the six fragrances. The last time it had appeared on this scale was in the Yuanyou era (元祐), when an ancestor of the Liu family recorded it in Bianliang.

Wen Ye's call came at three in the morning. "The Quanzhou Shipwreck Museum has just confirmed it—the cake of Yellow Ranjatai raised from the water is genuine. At the same time, word has come from Mexico: the Black Ranjatai has been found in the Maya ruins of the Yucatán Peninsula. And—" He paused. "Interpol says Cole has already crossed the border, and he has the Green Ranjatai with him." Four fragrances in one city. Liu Zhiqiang's knuckles went white around his phone. Counting the Ranjatai in the Shosoin in Nara, five fragrances cried out together, and the whole pulse of incense beneath heaven trembled.

"The Jiuju are closing their net," Wang Wanshu said.

Two · [Modern · the Capital · the Liu Family's Agarwood & Sandalwood Shop]

At dawn, Liu Zhiqiang pushed open the shop door and found Liu Shengjingma already seated inside. He wore a gray-white kimono, and before him stood a celadon incense burner. There was no fire in it, yet a thread of very faint smoke—this was the "trial incense" he had brought, a kind of incense primer blended by the secret methods of the Jiuju, able for a time to suppress the Cry of Incense.

"Mr. Liu, good morning." Liu Shengjingma bowed slightly. "I have come in the Jiuju's name, to discuss cooperation." Liu Zhiqiang sat down across from him and did not touch the incense in the burner. "Cooperation with the Jiuju usually means the other party gives up everything." "This time is different." From his sleeve Liu Shengjingma drew a roll of yellowed silk and unrolled it—a surviving leaf of *The Manual of the Six Incenses*, in Huang Tingjian's own hand. "Look at this passage." *Six incenses in one brazier: the flame is bright as day; it lights the ages of old, and burns them all away. Gather them, and there is the Great Unity; scatter them, and each lives on. Yet after the Great Unity, the world will know no differences, and keep no memories. Shennong divided the incenses not because he could not bear to gather them, but because he feared to.*

Liu Zhiqiang's pupils narrowed slightly. This passage—in the Liu family's own copy of the manual, it had been blotted out with ink. He had never seen it.

"When Shennong divided the six incenses, it was not because he feared they would be abused." Liu Shengjingma's voice was very soft. "He feared they would be gathered. Gather all six, and the world achieves the Great Unity—that much is true. But the price is that once they are lit, the world of men will know no differences and keep no memories. Everyone will share one consciousness, one realm of incense. You, me, her—we all become one and the same." Liu Zhiqiang was silent for a long while. "And still you want to gather them?" "My sister died in Kosovo." For the first time a crack appeared in Liu Shengjingma's gaze. "If the world achieved the Great Unity, there would be no wars. No Kosovo, no Jiuju, no you and me. Is that not a good thing?"

Three · [Modern · the Capital · the National Museum]

Qu Huaisha's office was piled high with Chu bamboo slips and silk manuscripts. He was examining, with a magnifying glass, a bamboo slip unearthed from the Baoshan Chu tomb; on it was the character "orchid" (兰), and beside it a sacrificial symbol had been drawn.

"The Jiuju have come to see me." He did not look up. "Liu Shengjingma." Liu Zhiqiang and Wang Wanshu exchanged a glance. "What did he say?" "He said that Shennong is a god of the land of Chu, that the people of Chu honored the orchid, and that the Ranjatai is therefore the mother incense. That much is not wrong." Qu Huaisha set down the magnifying glass and stood up. "But he missed one thing—the people of Chu honored the orchid in order to reverence the gods by division. In the *Nine Songs*, the offerings are to Donghuang Taiyi, the Sovereign of the East; Yunzhong Jun, the Lord within the Clouds; Xiang Jun, the Lord of the Xiang; Xiang Furen, the Lady of the Xiang; Da Siming, the Greater Master of Fate; Shao Siming, the Lesser Master of Fate... every god is different, and every offering is different. Qu Yuan would not have wanted a world in which everything is 'all the same.'" He walked to the window and looked at the traffic flowing along Chang'an Avenue. "The Jiuju honor the chrysanthemum, and would gather it to extinguish all difference. They think 'Great Unity' means everyone becoming one. But the Chu people's 'Great Unity' is that every one is different, yet each can reverence the gods from his own place. When Shennong divided the incenses, what he divided was not incense—it was place." *The orchid bears six colors; the flame has six shares. To divide is to reverence; to gather is to slow.*

Qu Huaisha wrote the line on a sheet of paper and handed it to Liu Zhiqiang. "I deduced this from the *Songs of Chu*. Give it to the Jiuju. Tell them: Qu Yuan would not have wanted a Lord of the Xiang without his Lady of the Xiang."

Four · [Northern Song · Bianliang · the Wen Family Incense & Medicine Shop]

The third year of the Yuanyou era. Autumn.

Huang Tingjian sat in the back hall of the Wen Family Incense & Medicine Shop, the manuscript of *The Manual of the Six Incenses* spread open before him. Wen Nuan brought over a cup of tea; he waved it away and pointed at the passage he had just finished writing.

"Shopkeeper Wen, look at this line." Wen Nuan leaned closer and saw what was written on the paper: *Six incenses in one brazier: the flame is bright as day; it lights the ages of old, and burns them all away. Gather them, and there is the Great Unity; scatter them, and each lives on. Yet after the Great Unity, the world will know no differences, and keep no memories. Shennong divided the incenses not because he could not bear to gather them, but because he feared to.*

"Mr. Huang, aren't the words 'fears to gather' rather too heavy?" Wen Nuan asked.

Huang Tingjian shook his head. "Not too heavy. I have searched through all the old slips of the land of Chu. The original text of Shennong's testament reads 'guard one's share, do not hoard the whole'—but there was another half-line after it, torn away by an ancestor of the Liu family. I spent three months piecing it together, and what I recovered is this: 'Gather them, and the world of men will know no difference; once the incense is spent, all is forgotten.'" He set down his brush and looked out the window. "The Liu family has guarded the six incenses for centuries, but what they guard is not incense—it is 'difference.' Only when people differ can there be memory. And only where there is memory can there be incense." Wen Nuan was silent. She thought of Wen An, her younger brother, who worked as a young hand in the Liu household; every time he lit incense he would close his eyes and say, "There are people in the incense."

"Then how should *The Manual of the Six Incenses* end?" she asked.

Huang Tingjian took up his brush and added a line at the end: "All who come after me: rather scatter than gather. Gather, and the incense dies; scatter, and the incense lives."

Five · [Modern · the Capital · The Night of the Cry of Incense]

On the first night that four fragrances stood in one city, the whole Capital smelled the strange scent. Some said it was osmanthus, some said it was sandalwood, some said it was a smell they had never encountered. Liu Zhiqiang stood on the roof of the Agarwood & Sandalwood Shop, watching a faint glow gather in the eastern sky—the light of the Cry of Incense, invisible to the eye, yet he could smell it.

"The second reading Liu Shengjingma spoke of may be true." Wang Wanshu stood at his side. "Gather all six, and the world achieves the Great Unity. But the price is... we will all forget who we are." "Are you afraid?" Liu Zhiqiang asked.

"Afraid." She reached out her hand; the broken edge of the "Record" seal glowed faintly in the night. "But what I fear more is that my father discovered this very thing back then—and that is why he was silenced." Liu Zhiqiang took her hand. The "Guard" seal and the "Record" seal came together, complete.

"When Shennong divided the incenses, what he divided was not incense—it was place." He was repeating Qu Huaisha's words. "The Jiuju want the Great Unity; the people of Chu wanted reverence through division. Our Liu family has guarded this 'division' for twenty-one generations." He lifted his head and smelled the Cry of Incense thickening in the air. The mother incense of the Ranjatai trembled in Nara; the yellow in Quanzhou; the black on the Yucatán; the green in Cole's hands. Four fragrances crying out together were like four mirrors reflecting one another, throwing back every difference in the world of men.

"Liu Shengjingma wants to cooperate," Liu Zhiqiang said, "but the precondition is—he must first admit that Qu Yuan would not have wanted a Lord of the Xiang without his Lady of the Xiang."

Six · [Modern · the Capital · Liu Shengjingma's Choice]

The next day, Liu Shengjingma came again to the Agarwood & Sandalwood Shop. This time, he brought with him the cake of Green Ranjatai.

"I stopped Cole." He set the incense on the table. "The green is here. The yellow is in Quanzhou, the black in Mexico, the Ranjatai in Nara. Four fragrances plus one mother incense—all in our hands." Liu Zhiqiang looked at the cake of green incense and did not reach for it. "Have you made up your mind?" "I thought about it all night." Liu Shengjingma's voice was very calm. "You were right. After the Great Unity, there is no Lady of the Xiang, and no sister of mine. She died in Kosovo, but the reason she was herself is precisely that she was different from everyone else. If the world achieved the Great Unity, she would not exist." He paused. "But there is still one thing I want to verify. When Shennong divided the incenses back then, was it 'not bearing to' or was it 'fear'? If it was fear, what was he afraid of? If he feared that 'gathering them means the world of men will know no difference,' then we should guard our shares. If it was something else..." "If it was something else," Liu Zhiqiang took him up, "then it is for us to judge for ourselves." He picked up the Green Ranjatai and set it beside the incense burner. "In *The Manual of the Six Incenses*, Huang Tingjian wrote it plainly: 'All who come after me: rather scatter than gather. Gather, and the incense dies; scatter, and the incense lives.' He was a man of the Northern Song. He never lived through Kosovo, but he knew this—there are people in the incense. Gather it, and the people are gone." Liu Shengjingma was silent for a long while. "Then... cooperation?" "Cooperation." Liu Zhiqiang nodded. "But on one condition: you and I together will scatter the four fragrances. The yellow returns to Quanzhou, the black to Mexico, the green to the Middle East, and the Ranjatai stays in Nara. Each back to its place, each guarding its share."

Liu Shengjingma put out his hand. "Agreed." The moment the two hands clasped, the Cry of Incense stopped all at once. Five fragrances returned to their places; the world of men had its differences again, and its memories.

Seven · [Northern Song · Bianliang · Huang Tingjian's Final Stroke]

When Huang Tingjian wrote the last character of *The Manual of the Six Incenses*, snow began to fall outside the window. He set down his brush and said to Wen Nuan: "If anyone of the Liu family's descendants should ask, tell him—when Shennong divided the incenses, what he divided was place. And if the Jiuju come, tell them as well: Qu Yuan would not have wanted a Lord of the Xiang without his Lady of the Xiang." Wen Nuan nodded. Looking at that scroll of manuscript, she knew it was not merely a manual of incense; it was a testament.

"Mr. Huang, where should this manual be hidden?" "Hidden in the incense." Huang Tingjian smiled. "Where the incense stays, the manual stays." He walked out of the Wen Family Incense & Medicine Shop, snow settling on his shoulders. From a distance came the sound of oars on the Bian River, and the bell of the Daxiangguo Temple. He knew that several hundred years from now, someone would follow the scent and find this place.

Eight · [Modern · the Capital · Coda]

Liu Zhiqiang handed the Green Ranjatai to Wen Ye and told him to arrange for its return to the Middle East. Wang Wanshu stood at the door of the Agarwood & Sandalwood Shop, watching Liu Shengjingma's car disappear around the corner of the street.

"Do you trust him?" she asked.

"No." Liu Zhiqiang said. "But I trust incense. Incense remembers everything, and it tells everything apart. Whether he lied or not—the incense knows." He turned and went back into the shop, and lit an ordinary stick of sandalwood. As the smoke rose, he smelled flames of six colors—blue, green, purple, black, yellow, and white. They were in the incense, and in the heart.

"Guard one's share, do not hoard the whole," he said softly. "Shennong's testament—the Liu family has kept it for twenty-one generations. It cannot be broken at me." Outside the window, the lights of the Capital came on one by one. Not one lamp was like another; behind every window were different people. Smelling the incense, he knew: this is the world of men.

Six incenses divide into six colors; each of the six colors is different.

Gathered, the flame is bright as day; scattered, the fragrance fills the sky.

— *Agarwood Six Records*, Volume Five, to be continued · next: Volume Six, "Scattering and Gathering"

> This is an original serialized story from *Agarwood Six Records*; characters and plot are fictional. Common knowledge of agarwood and aromatics herein is compiled from public materials and does not constitute investment or medical advice.