The Religious and Technological History of the Tang Dynasty Spherical Incense Burner

This article introduces and explores, for the first time in any Western language, the gilded-silver xiangnang 香囊 (spherical incense burner) from Famen Temple, one of the largest xiangnang incense burners found in the Tang dynasty. The spherical incense burner evolved from censers for bedclothes known as beizhong xianglu 被中香爐 (literally “perfume burner [to be placed] among the covers [of the bed], used as a warming device), which are chronicled as early as the Han dynasty in texts such as Xijing zaji 西京雜記 (Miscellaneous Records of the Western Capital). The silver spherical incense burner spread from China to the Islamic world and Venice, possibly influencing the development of the gyroscope for maritime navigation in Europe. This paper further examines the spherical incense burner’s relation to a device known as the Cardan Suspension (used to facilitate seafaring) and to the ritual of incense burning (imagined as a way to figuratively reach another world). It also discusses the spherical incense burner’s impact on similar objects from the Islamic world and Venice.