I’m recently reading a book originally written in Song Dynasty, and its name is 新纂香谱 (literall

I’m recently reading a book originally written in Song Dynasty, and its name is 新纂香谱 (literally new-compiled incense score). It’s about Chinese incense culture, so I get the inspiration to post something.唐代银薰球 (Picture 1 2 3 4), the Silver Censing Balls in Tang Dynasty(618-907), also called Bedclothes Censer, appears spherical since its outer skin is a combination of two hollow hemispheres. When it is opened, you will see two concentric rings and a semicircular container. The key to the production of the balls is that the shell, inner rings and the container share the same center of the sphere, that is to say, there are concentric balls and concentric rings, and their axes of rotation are orthogonal. Therefore, there is interaction between the axes of all orthogonal rings. Coupled with the effect of the container’s own weight, the opening of container placed with lighted incense wood will keep horizontal no matter how it rotates. In this way, the incense wood will never leak out and you never need to worry about the potential fire disaster. This is an ingenious invention.汉代博山炉 (Picture 5 6 7 8), Boshanlu in Western Han Dynasty(b.c202-c.e 9), is considered a typical innovation of this period. They were incense burners in the form of mountain peaks rising over waves, symbolizing the abode of the Immortals.These are two representative objects of Chinese incense culture. In next post I will introduce an interesting and graceful way in which ancient people do incensation. -- source link

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