The Study On Form Of Incense Burners In The Song Dynasty

Incense burners or censers are vessels made for burning incense. Till now we’ve found quite many incense burners produced or depicted in images during the Song Dynasty that vary in form. Some of their forms descended from the Tang Dynasty or even earlier; others were newly created at that time; and they became the models for almost all the incense burners made afterwards.Among the objects of this research, the excavated incense burners are the emphasis, with those conserved in traditional collections, shown in images or referred to in historical literature being minor materials. The incense burners in the Song Dynasty are thus classified in terms of form, and the process of their transformation throught time is clarified. Having specifically collected the chronological information, we can furthermore reveal the relation between time and the form of incense burners and the different directions of their development. If dividing these incense burners into’gold and silverware system’ and ’bronzeware system’accoriding to the origins of form, we may conclude that the former was replaced by the latter during mid or late South Song Dynasty, which may be pertinent to the new way of burning incense and the contemporary background.