Evolution оf Censers within the Development of Incense Culture in China

Abstract

The article explores the history of the development of different types of censers used as part of China's traditional culture. The earliest evidence of the first censers being used as a type of ritual vessel can be found in records of the Western Han dynasty (206 BC-8 AD) burials. Through the meticulous analysis of the types, styles and functions of censers spanning over a course of more than two thousand years as China's incense culture developed, key trends of their evolution are explored. Furthermore, the article also studies China's active contacts with countries and regions located along the Great Silk Road which played a direct role in the formation and development of different varieties of these ritual vessels. Despite the long periods of prosperity and decline in the production of censers, reflecting the complex processes of historical and cultural development and the socio-political situation as a whole, the functions of censers in China remain quite widespread. Censers are used in religious rituals in Buddhist and Taoist temples, for domestic, sanitary and hygienic needs, and for medical and prophylactic purposes. Censers are an indispensable element of temple and park architecture, part of the richest Asian aroma-culture and a part of many kinds of arts and crafts, which use stories and images based on traditional values of Chinese culture. This shows the great stability of the multi-thousand-year-old Chinese civilization and the high adaptability of acculturation models within the conditions of long-term interethnic interactions.