Li Susha

Li Susha was a grand Persian merchant who presented Chinese Emperor Jingzong (r. 824-827) with enough rare, fragrant agarwood from Southeast Asia to build an entire pleasure pavilion. The expensive agarwood was otherwise used only in small quantities for incense and medicine. The quantity of the gifted wood tells us that Li was massively wealthy and in control of a large trade operation to be able to make such a valuable gift. Li was probably also well connected with the eunuchs, who arranged for what many at the time considered a decadent gift.

The Confucian historians of the Tang dynasty describe the 820s as a time of major government corruption while the Emperor Jingzong is seen as a politically inept, fun-seeking teenage emperor dominated by several thousand self-serving, factionalized eunuchs. The Emperor Jingzong was murdered as a result of eunuch infighting in January 827.