Sandalwood Ritual Purple Aura Jiangzhen Incense | Chinese Herbal Blend - 1.06 oz

Twenty-five hundred years ago, an old man rode westward on a water buffalo, unhurried. His name was Li Er, honored by the world as Laozi. At seventy, with the realm in chaos, he simply left. Yin Xi, the keeper of Hangu Pass, was a man who could read the heavens. One day, he saw purple vapors gathering in the east, stretching thirty thousand li, shaped like a flying dragon. He knew at once: a sage was coming. Days later, the aged man came riding on a water buffalo. Yin Xi begged him to leave some words behind. Laozi sat for a few days, wrote five thousand characters, and departed — never to be heard from again. Those five thousand characters became the Dao De Jing. The phrase "purple aura from the east" became a byword for auspicious arrival.

And the name Jiangzhen — "summoning the true" — carries a double meaning. It refers to jiangzhen xiang, the most revered incense in Daoist ritual. The Taiqing Jade Register calls it "the sacred incense for offering to the Heavenly Emperor" — when burned, its smoke rises straight as a pillar, and legend says it draws cranes to circle overhead.

Daoist incense rules were far stricter than most imagine. Ancient scriptures explicitly forbade burning sandalwood, frankincense, or benzoin on the ritual altar, calling them "foul, toxic, and violently pungent." The Celestial Law of the Supreme Void even prescribed: a Daoist priest who violates this rule shall have three years subtracted from his lifespan! Bai Juyi, at least, knew better. He wrote of his friend the Daoist Zhu: "All day long, nothing to do by the window — only burning one stick of jiangzhen incense." No sandalwood, no agarwood — just a single stick of jiangzhen, clean and clear.