Answer first: In volume twelve of Zhangwuzhi, "Incense and Tea," Wen Zhenheng discusses incense burners, and his core position is to "separate connoisseurship from daily use"—the ancient vessels of the Three Dynasties and Qin and Han, the ding and yi, and the porcelain burners of the Guan, Ge, Ding, Longquan, and Xuan kilns are for connoisseurship only; what is truly good for daily use is a Xuande bronze burner and the like. His general principle for discussing vessels is "prefer the ancient to the contemporary, prefer the plain to the clever, prefer frugality to vulgarity." He combines incense and tea into one volume because they are one thing: incense is not a display for pure offerings but a daily long thing (changwu). These three principles still work well today when choosing a burner.
Key points
- Zhangwuzhi has twelve volumes; the final volume, "Incense and Tea," discusses incense and tea together, and the aesthetics of incense vessels are concentrated in this volume.
- Wen Zhenheng distinguishes "connoisseurship vessels" from "daily-use vessels": ancient ding and yi and famous-kiln porcelain burners are for appreciation, while Xuande bronze burners are for daily use.
- The three principles—prefer the ancient to the contemporary, prefer the plain to the clever, prefer frugality to vulgarity—are the general outline for discussing vessels throughout the book.
- The matching idea of the "three items of burner and vase" (incense burner, incense box, and spoon-and-chopsticks vase) complements Tu Long's Seven Essentials of Burning Incense.
- Today one need only choose a burner according to three standards: determine the material by use, determine the size by space, and determine the craftsmanship by budget.
Wen Zhenheng (1585–1645), courtesy name Qimei, was a native of Changzhou (present-day Suzhou) and the great-grandson of Wen Zhengming. The Suzhou literati of the late Ming were the earliest practitioners of the term "life aesthetics"—gardening, arranging vessels, flower arrangement, incense appreciation, and tea drinking all had to have a rationale, and Zhangwuzhi is the textbook of this discipline.
"Changwu" comes from A New Account of the Tales of the World and refers to "superfluous things." What the book writes about is precisely all superfluous things: dwellings, flowers and trees, water and stones, birds and fish, calligraphy and painting, tables and couches, implements, placement, clothing and ornaments, boats and carriages, vegetables and fruits, and incense and tea—twelve volumes. All are matters after one has eaten one's fill and dressed warmly.
Placing "Incense and Tea" in the final volume as the conclusion is the author's editorial intention: the preceding sections set out the living environment and scholar's implements, and the end settles on incense and tea—the two most daily and most private enjoyments in life. Incense comes first and tea after, placed side by side, because the functions they served in Ming literati life were almost identical:clearing the mind, entertaining guests, solitude, and completing rituals.
Volume twelve opens with a thesis (excerpted):
The uses of incense and tea are the most extensive: when a lofty recluse beyond the world sits and discusses morality, they can clear the mind and gladden the spirit...
Translated: The uses of incense and tea are the most extensive—when a lofty recluse beyond the world sits and discusses the Way, they can be used to clear the mind and gladden the spirit. (The following sentence continues with different situations and is omitted here.)
Next he discusses incense burners, the most substantial passage in the whole piece. The gist is this: the ding and yi of the Three Dynasties, Qin, and Han, as well as the porcelain of the Guan, Ge, Ding, Longquan, and Xuan kilns, can all be used for connoisseurship, but they are not suitable for daily use;what is truly good for use is a burner of the Xuande bronze type, with proper form and somewhat larger size. The book also makes selections among bronze vessels of successive dynasties: old castings from the Song onward are listed as usable, while religious burners of strange form are excluded.
(The above is the gist of this passage in the common edition, not a verbatim definitive text; for collation, please consult a photocopied or critical edition.)
This passage conceals a judgment shared by Ming and Qing literati:objects have two identities—the seen and the used. Ancient ding and yi are artifacts, and their value lies in "antiquity"; if you burn incense every day, don't use a Shang-Zhou ding to burn charcoal—that wastes the object and ruins the experience. The reason Xuande copper censers are regarded as the first choice for daily use is very practical: copper conducts heat evenly, withstands long-term heating, has a stable form, is moderate in size, and does not steal the scene.
This standard still holds today. If you take an unearthed ancient porcelain censer and use it for daily electric heating, the glaze will crack sooner or later; but a well-made copper censer can be used by three generations and still work.The first virtue of a "daily-use vessel" is durability; only the second is good looks.
The general outline of Zhangwuzhi's discussion of vessels is summarized in the common edition as three sentences (excerpted):
Prefer the ancient over the fashionable, prefer the plain over the clever, prefer frugality over vulgarity.
Translated:Better ancient and unadorned than trendy; better plain than ingenious; better frugal than vulgar.
Three sentences, three directions.
"Prefer the ancient over the fashionable" points to time.Fashion expires; ancient plainness does not. In the late Ming, the commodity economy was developed and novel styles emerged endlessly; Wen Zhenheng's attitude toward "fashionable styles" was vigilance. This reads a little sharply today—we live in an age that encourages chasing the new. But if you understand it as "choosing forms verified by time," it is very practical: there are only a few classic censer forms, and choosing them makes it hard to go wrong.
"Prefer the plain over the clever" points to craftsmanship.Excessive carving, inlay, and colorful embellishment are, in Wen Zhenheng's view, "clever," and cleverness borders on vulgarity. A censer is meant to be smelled, not shown off. A plain censer is more pleasing to look at than one covered in engraved flowers—anyone who has used a censer for a few years will understand this.
"Prefer frugality over vulgarity" points to propriety.It is not that the more expensive the better; it is enough not to be vulgar. How do you judge vulgarity? Wen Zhenheng's standard is roughly:The form has provenance, the decoration has a source, and the size is commensurate with the use. A palm-sized small censer placed on a large desk in the living room has lost propriety.
Ming dynasty incense practice speaks of the "three items of censer, vase, and utensils"—censer, incense box, and chopstick vase(a small vase for holding incense chopsticks and an incense shovel), the three forming a set. Wen Zhenheng discusses aesthetic choices; Tu Long's Qiyao of Burning Incense discusses the list of objects. The two books must be read together to be complete: one says what to want, the other says what not to want.
What is interesting is the difference between the two. Tu Long's seven essentials lean toward function: censer, incense box, censer ash, incense charcoal, fire-insulation sheet, incense spoon and chopsticks, and incense vase—clear enough to set up a censer by buying them all. Wen Zhenheng leans toward judgment: among censers of the same kind, which type should be appreciated, which should be used, and which should not be placed on the desk.The functional list solves "whether it can be used"; aesthetic judgment solves "whether it is fitting."
This siteRecord of Incense Vessels · Ming DynastyOne page has dedicated illustrated notes on Xuande censers and the "three items of censer, vase and box," which may be read alongside this article.
Translating Wen Zhenheng's three principles into today's shopping language gives three points:
The shopkeeper adds one blunt truth:The censer is the supporting act, the incense is the lead.An eight-hundred-yuan plain bronze censer paired with good incense beats an eight-thousand-yuan chased censer paired with poor incense. Before buying a censer, settle the incense first, then come back to match the vessel.
The shop regularly stocks several kinds of bronze censers, porcelain censers and electric warmers, so you can weigh them in hand, look at the patina, and try the size — things photos cannot show, three seconds in hand will tell you. If you are in Beijing, you are welcome to sit in the Songzhuang shop; if it is inconvenient to go out, call 400-809-1913 and we will send you dimensions and real photos.
It is in Volume Twelve, "Incense and Tea," the last volume of the book, where incense and tea are discussed together. The twelve volumes in order are Dwellings, Flowers and Trees, Water and Stones, Birds and Fish, Calligraphy and Painting, Tables and Beds, Utensils, Placement, Clothing and Adornment, Boats and Carriages, Vegetables and Fruits, and Incense and Tea. The selection and aesthetic judgments of incense vessels such as censers, incense boxes and chopstick vases are all concentrated in this volume.
His distinction is between two sets of standards, "appreciation" and "daily use": the ding and yi of the Three Dynasties and Qin and Han, and the wares of famous kilns such as Guan, Ge, Ding, Longquan and Xuande, are objects of appreciation, valued for antiquity and rarity; for daily incense burning one should choose practical vessels such as Xuande bronze censers with proper form, moderate size, and resistance to long-term heat. This thinking still holds today — museum-grade objects should not be used as daily consumables.
In shopping terms, three points: choose classic forms proven over time, not novelty fashions; in craftsmanship, value proper form and reliable material rather than paying a premium for elaborate carving; and match size to use and the space where it is placed, avoiding any loss of proportion. The core is "not vulgar," not "the more expensive the better."
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