Page 473 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

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doctrine for the most speedy attainment of enlight- Parcel-gilt silver sandalwood incense burner
enment; it was safely tucked away out of sight, and stand
doubtless in a secret ceremony, before the main
3
Censer: height 29.5 (nYs), diam. 24.8 (9 A),
ceremony began. During the persecutions of 842-
weight 6.4 (14 Vs)
845, the Chongzhen (Famen) Monastery, as the 1
monastery outside the capital most closely associ- Stand: height 3 21 (S /*), diam. 43.5 (17 Vs),
ated with the court, was allowed to survive un- weight 8.9 (19 A) to 869 CE
Tang Dynasty, dated by inscription
scathed; the fact that the four fingerbone relics From the pagoda of the Famen Monastery at Fufeng,
are almost identical in shape and size (varying Shaanxi Province
between 37 and 41 millimeters) makes it tempting to
suppose that some of them had originally been Famensi Museum, Fufeng, Shaanxi Province
enshrined elsewhere and brought to the imperial
Houston and San Francisco only
monastery for safekeeping. In 603, under the Sui
1
dynasty, relics were sent from the capital to be This impressive censer and its stand were found in
enshrined in pagodas throughout the empire. Such the center of the inner chamber. Both are described
relics, like the images that were disseminated in the on the inventory stele among the very first of the
same fashion by the Sui emperors, and that share a 122 objects dedicated by Emperor Yizong in 873 CE:
common style, must have been made to a rigorous "an incense burner and stand together weighing
common specification. RW 380 Hang." An inscription incised on the underside
of the censer confirms the identification: "In the
1 The seven objects form Kegazawa's Group A in his very tenth year of Xiantong [869 CE], the Wensiyuan
thorough analysis of the relic groupings (1996).
2 These identifications are made here for the first time. made an 8-cun (8-inch) silver gilt decorated incense
Previous reports have identified the skirt with a much burner with stand and hanging rings, together
larger fragment of embroidery, densely embroidered with weighing 380 Hang. Craftsman Chen Jingquan;
lotus flowers (Famensi 1994, 72). Wang Yarong (Wang 1988,
27) and Wang Xu (Wang and Hu 1998, 205) called the Administrative Assistant of High Rank Wu Hongque;
2
jacket a banbi (half-sleeve), but this term is not found Commissioner Neng Shun." The numerals i, 3,
anywhere in the inventory stela; the pi'ao of the inscrip- and 4 are engraved on the lid, body, and stand,
tion— a lined jacket — corresponds exactly to the jacket
recovered from the crypt. respectively.
3 Excavated in 1987 (FD 5:044-7); reported: Shaanxi 19883, 7. Incense and fragrances were common offerings
4 There are different opinions regarding which was the in Buddhist worship; the smoke from the burning
principal relic: The yellow bone relic in its jade coffin and
crystal sarcophagus; or the white jade relic, with the seven incense would waft through the air just as the
stars of the Great Bear carved inside, enshrined in the teachings of the Buddha spread through the world.
eightfold set of caskets. I-mann Lai, personal communica- Incense burners were a common item as early as
tion.
5 For a discussion of the iconography, see Han 1998. the Han dynasty (206 BCE -220 CE). Long before
A further detailed analysis of the iconography is in prepa- that, during the Shang dynasty (c. 1600-1100 BCE),
ration by 1-mann Lai, doctoral candidate at the School burnt offerings were made to the ancestral spirits
of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
and to Shangdi, the Supreme Ruler. At that time,
the vessel of the greatest importance for such offer-
ings was the ding, or tripod bowl. Ding vessels, in a
variety of materials, were to become the chief altar-
vessel in Buddhist ceremonies as well. During the
Tang dynasty, however, a five-footed form of incense
burner seems to have been favored. On the evi-
dence of Buddhist silk paintings from Dunhuang,
the censer on the altar in front of the Buddha was

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