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Full Description
This book is a scholarly study of a virtually unknown aspect of the history of horology (timekeeping), compiled from Chinese and Japanese historical and literary records, some of which are translated and published here for the first time. Incense timekeepers played an important role in early Chinese social and technological history, in addition to their use for time measurement. They were used in temples for religious rites, in agricultural regions for regulating water for irrigation, in palaces and government offices, and in the studies of scholars. A fascinating compendium of knowledge about a neglected aspect of Oriental culture, this book will appeal not only to historians of China and Japan, but to the growing number of collectors and museum curators who are interested in incense clocks.
Contents
List of illustrations; Preface; Acknowledgements; Conventions; Part I. Time Measurement and Incense in East Asia: 1. Early East Asian time measurement; 2. Incense and the populace; 3. Incense in religious rites; 4. Incense for time measurement; Part II. The Incense Seal in China: 5. The incense seal of Avalokitésvara; 6. In Chinese Buddhist rites; 7. In Chinese civil life; 8. In Chinese social life; 9. In Chinese and foreign writings; Part III. The Incense Seal in Japan: 10. Japanese kobandokei; 11. In Japanese Buddhist rites; 12. In Japanese civil life; 13. The fire in the smoke; Appendices; Bibliography; Illustrations; Index.
