Incense timepieces of East Asia

© 2010 National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, Inc. Reproduction prohibited without written permission.
The National Watch and Clock Museum
by Guest Curator Doug Cowan
Incense Timepieces of East Asia
Introduction
ost of the devices currently displayed in the Sense of
Time exhibit at the National Watch and Clock Museum are commonly called incense clocks, or fire clocks.
They do tell time by burning various forms of incense, but they
are not properly called clocks, because they do not strike the
hours, nor do they tell the time as we expect—as the immediate delivery, night or day, of the hour, minute, and even second.
Instead, they measure the passage of time, as a sandglass, egg
timer, or chronograph does. For this article we will call them
simply “timepieces.”
M
HUGH DOUGHERTY
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NWCM
East Asian timekeeping was historically concerned with the passage
of time, and the epoch, for example,
of the ruling dynasties. The vast majority of Chinese people did not own
Western-style clocks and relied on
the sun and the motions of the stars.
Actionable time, such as the start of
meetings or ceremonies, was used in
temples and palaces, and by city officials. Even these were not pursued by
time to the level required in the West
since the nineteenth century. Figure 1
shows an ancient Chinese city clepsydra, or water clock. These public
clocks displayed the time by means
mean of
a floating gauge.
These
dev
devices
and sundials w
were
the main official
timekeepers until
u
approximately
approximat
A.D. 1000. C
Can-
Figure 1. Traditional Chinese water clock.
dles and a sort of fuse cord,
ord, knot
knotted along its length to indicate
time intervals, were also used. To
further complicate matters,
ers, there
was more than one timee telling
standard in the vast Chinese
hinese territories, and throughout East Asia
the actual length of the time intervals was adjustable and varied
aried with
the seasons.
Why incense?
Because it was there
in everyday life!
I
ncense burning in the West is connected to various religions, and
usage has spread somewhat into the
mainstream via youth and “counter” cultures. But in the Middle and
Far East its use is much more ancient
and inclusive. Buddhist ceremonies
undoubtedly had most to do with its
spread from India to the Orient in the
sixth century A.D., as that religion
rapidly converted China, Korea, Japan, and other East Asian cultures. In
worship, the smoke from incense was
thought to carry prayers to heaven
as well as to enable communication
with souls of the dead. Nonreligious
uses were also prevalent: to ward off
demons; to perfume clothing; to aid
concentration; mood enhancement;
to cover unpleasant smells; and simply as a “must-have” ambience in everyday life at all levels of society.
Figure 2 shows four incense burners, called censers. These burners are
not timepieces; you can readily tell
this by looking inside. They tend
to be round bottomed, whereas the
timekeepers must have flat fire pans
to ensure even burning rates. Vastly
more censers exist than timepieces,
and they tend to be somewhat more
decorative and were often made
Figure 2. Chinese censers dating from
the eighteenth century to the present.
NAWCC Watch & Clock Bulletin • February 2010 •
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Figure 3. Wooden dragon boat.
Incense Coils
I
from more exotic materials, such as
porcelain or stone. Most timepieces
are made from metal, specifically,
bronze paktong or pewter.
For a more complete history of
incense, see S. A. Bedini. The Scent
of Time, volume 53, part 5 (Transactions of the American Philosophical
Society, 1963).
Incense Timekeeping
Incense Sticks
A
ncient history is circumstantial,
but it is likely that common incense sticks were adapted for telling
time quite informally. A literature
reference alludes to a meeting to take
place “in the time of two incense
sticks.” The approximate amount of
time that was meant must have been
well known, but for us it could vary
widely, depending on the size and
composition of the sticks.
It became the custom to mark the
desired time intervals on the incense
sticks, which were then burned standing vertically in a bowl or censer. An
example is shown in Figure 2. An unmarked stick is a censer; marked for
time intervals, it becomes a timepiece.
Modern incense sticks are usually
wooden strips dipped into an incense
paste and dried. This does not work
well enough for timekeeping because
the burn rate is hard to control. Instead, time telling sticks were made
by extruding a paste of ground ingredients through a “draw plate,” just
like making wire, and cutting and
drying the extruded line. Duration of
burn would be determined by the incense paste formula and the diameter
and length of the stick. It seems likely
that one of each batch would be calibrated for burn rate before the other
ncense coils were made much
like incense sticks but were much
longer and bent into a coil shape.
When suspended from one end, they
formed a cone-shaped coil (picture
an oversized mosquito repellent
sticks were marked for time intervals. coil). The main advantage was that
Time-calibrated beeswax candles the length of burn easily surpassed
were in use at the same time, but the a day if desired. The time intervals
incense sticks would have been pre- could be painted onto the coil to
ferred because they burned without more accurately measure time passopen flame and were probably also ing. They had one other advantage:
less expensive and more available.
the coils would support the equivaIncense formulas for all forms of lent of a clock’s passing strike or an
timekeeping were based upon finely alarm. To achieve this a
ground sandalwood or heartwood small bell was susfrom very dense woods such as aloe.
To this, ingredients were added to adjust the burning rate. Clay was used to
retard burning and various resins accelerated it. Of course, key additions
were fragrance components, such as
frankincense, patchouli, or clove;
some of those compounds could
affect burn rate as well. The
paste was made in a portion
of wine or water, and if the
sticks proved brittle when
dried, a binding agent was
included as well. Powdered
incense did not require
the preparation of a stick
and so it was much easier
to prepare. (See more under Incense Powder Seals
on page 5.)
Documented examples
of nonreligious timekeeping uses of incense sticks
include the following: timing miners’ underground
shifts; medicine use intervals
at home; ship’s watch timing;
court ceremonies; timing official executions; civil service lunch
breaks; and early morning messenger departures. And the form lasted!
Stick timepieces that were two feet
long and lasted half a day were still
being sold in China in 1899.
4 • February 2010 • NAWCC Watch & Clock Bulletin
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pended at the desired spot by means
of a thread. When the fire reached
the thread and burned it, the bell
fell onto a metal plate that served as
a one-note strike or alarm. Most of
these coils were used in temples to
time prayers or to alert the monks to
announce the time by drums to the
townspeople. In remote areas of East
Asia, they were seen still in use in the
mid-twentieth century.
There are two types. The most
common is of heavily lacquered and
painted wood, lined with a pewter
firebox and using nine wires to suspend the horizontal incense stick
laid along the axis of the dragon.
These timepieces were approximately
16-24 inches long. While most represent dragons, there are also examples
that depict human figures, or snaillike scrolls at each end of the timepiece. They may have been intended
to
burn for half a day. The second
Dragon Boats
type, made of cast bronze, is very
ragons hold a special place in ornate and somewhat smaller. Both
East Asian mythology. The types could announce a preset time
dragon boat incense timepiece (Fig- by the thread and bell system menure 3) was in use by about A.D. tioned above. It is interesting to note
1100, and was designed to that most pictures erroneously show
simulate real dragon the thread to be above the incense
boats raced as stick. It should be below the stick to
part of spring ensure burn through. These imagifestivals.
native timepieces were used well into
the nineteenth century, but toward
the end their timekeeping job was
unknown or ignored and they became novelty censers instead.
D
Incense Powder Seals
(hsiang yin)
I
Figure 4.
Example of a
powder seal.
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ncense seals are so named because
the trail for the incense burn and
the timepiece decoration often resemble “picture words” from the ancient Chinese pictographic language.
This version of the Chinese written
language has not been formally used
for many centuries, but it is still admired and was used for artists’ signatures and sometimes for marks
on porcelain well into the twentieth
century.
Early examples circa the eleventh
century looked very much like Figure
4 and worked in the same way.
Powdered incense is very much
easier to prepare and these timepieces were designed specifically for powder use.
Figure 4 is actually a modern
three-hour burner, sold as a censer.
It is 5.5 inches in diameter. Slightly
larger six-hour burners are also avail-
able. Both would function well as
timepieces with longer burning incense and time interval markings.
The ancient ones would have been
made from wood or stone and been
about 12 inches in diameter. These
served many civic uses, but two of
the most important were the calibration of the town clepsydra and the
timing of the important night watch
terminating with the morning opening of the town gates.
Water clepsydras, despite frequent
upgrades by Chinese engineers, were
unreliable in times of water shortage
or freezing weather. Their replacement was at first sand clepsydras,
which were hampered by the inability to control humidity. Sundials were
normally used to check clepsydras
timekeeping, but this was of no use
when the sun was not shining.
Circa 1073 the invention of the
24-hour seal timepiece became the
standard for timekeeping. These were
marked with “notches” to mark the
desired intervals and were lit at noon
each day. Examples of these early seal
timepieces could be made to run for
more than a lunar month.
The night watch incense seals
came in five different lengths of incense trail. East Asian countries used
the ancient timekeeping standard
as affected by the seasons. That is,
night and day intervals (about two
of our current hours) were counted
separately. As the seasons changed,
the length of the night (darkness)
changed and the night watch timepieces had to reflect this.
Few records have been found describing timekeeping with incense
seals during the Middle Ages. But in
the 1870s a Chinese scholar named
Ting Yün (courtesy name Moon Lake)
revived interest in the seals, which
were then made in metal. These objects comprise the main part of the
Museum exhibit. I have not found
when metal incense timepieces
gained common use, but they had
several advantages over stone and
wood incense timepieces. They were
NAWCC Watch & Clock Bulletin • February 2010 •
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Figures 5 and 6. Paktong and copper leafshaped seal.
more robust, would not wear out,
were draft/windproof, easily portable,
and certainly more artistically attractive.
The metal incense timepieces kept
better time, in particular because
of the innovation of an ash fire bed
for the incense trail to burn within.
Wood ash allows the penetration of
air, thus making the top and bottom of the burning incense trail to
be close in temperature and oxygen
availability—two important variables unavailable with stone or wood
substrates. Their enclosing covers
and built-in trays, which contained
incense tools and the firebox, allowed for portability. The incense
burning trail, instead of being engraved into the base, was provided by
a cut metal template also carried in
one of the trays.
Figure 5 shows an incense seal in
the shape of a leaf, dated 1878. It is
made of paktong metal with invisibly
soldered copper beading. The object
is about five inches long. The cover
is translated as “know the way of the
picture,” the date made, and the sign
of Moon Lake (Ting Yün). This is one
of the few dated examples that the
writer has seen, out of approximately
100 seals examined. In Figure 5 we
see the cover, template for the burning trail, an ash-flattening tool, and
the spoon for the incense. The seal
would have been used as follows:
The middle tier of the seal shown
in Figure 6 contains the firebox. This
is a flat pan containing about one
quarter of an inch of wood ash. This
is dampened, and the flattened with
the handled flattening tool. The
fire trail template is laid on the ash
and with the handle tip of the little
shovel, a groove is made in the ash
following the pattern of the template.
In this case the template pattern is
meant to signify the thought “green
sky.” The incense is poured into the
groove with the template in place,
deepening the incense level. The
template is carefully removed, the
incense trail lighted at one end, and
the cover placed over the fuel pan
to shield draughts and prevent fires.
Ting Yün’s incense seals typically
burned for one quarter or half a full
day. This one is probably a six-hour
(Western) example.
The first incense seals were made
of bronze though few of those survive. Most seals are made of paktong
or pewter. Paktong is considered as
the second and most popular metal
used throughout the Middle Ages
and until the eighteenth century. It is
an alloy of approximately 60 percent
copper, 25 percent zinc, and 15 percent nickel. Refining paktong was a
6 • February 2010 • NAWCC Watch & Clock Bulletin
Figure 7, above. Seals in various shapes.
Chinese state secret during the third
century when it was used for coinage.
Called “white silver” the metal is
moderately hard but can be cast or
rolled, folded, and polished. Paktong
is corrosion resistant and long lasting.
The color of the metal varies from a
silvery sheen to a mellow brass yellow, or even coppery red, depending
on the specific content of the individual metals.
Pewter is well known to us and
was in use by the late seventeenth
or eighteenth centuries. It is soft and
easily worked, but not very heat resiswww.nawcc.org
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Figure 8. Scepter-shaped seal.
tant. Therefore, pewter seals usually
have a brass vent in the cover and
sometimes brass firepans to resist
melting. Pewter seals are also more
likely to bear trademarks of the makers or sellers, perhaps indicating relatively less age. Brass was well known
to the Chinese from early times but
for reasons unknown was seldom
used to make entire seal timepieces.
late nineteenth century, more than
enough of them around to make incense seals unneeded. It seems likely
that the love of incense that continues today was the driving force for
this revival of incense seals.
The seal shapes (scepter, melon,
lute, leaf) as well as the patterns of
the templates (long life, auspicious,
marital fertility, peace of mind, etc.)
and the decoration of the covers
(prunus blossoms, butterflies, fruit
Incense Seal Shapes
bats, marital happiness, etc.) were
t is probable that simple-shaped all happy feelings symbols. Figure 9
seals were most affordable and shows a seal timepiece in its wooden
common. Figure 7 shows examples of presentation box, and it is believed
round, rectangular, and urn-shaped that many incense seals were gifted
seals in paktong or pewter. As time in this way. Also in the more detailed
went on, more elaborate shapes and objects, the sides were engraved with,
sizes were produced. Figure 8 shows a for example, the many ancient pictovery large j’ui (scepter)-shaped time- graphic drawings for long life, script
piece with a carved wooden stand. It expressing thoughtful ideas, or with
is 20 inches long and is made of cast peaceful landscapes.
and rolled paktong with elaborate
dragon and fruit bat decorations in Ting Yün (1800-1879)
the cover. The j’ui scepter was particularly popular in the late 1880s,
his Chinese scholar was the
and this shape had many subjective
stimulant for the great popularmeanings, including “wishes ful- ity revival of incense timepieces in
filled” or “the arm of Buddha.” It is the late nineteenth century. Living
said to have been copied from the on a remote island
shape of a sacred mushroom and is a in the mouth of the
truly graceful design, found through- Yangtze river, late in
out Chinese art.
his life he completed
Late nineteenth-century seal Chi- a study of the annese incense timepieces were likely cient designs of seal
symbolic gifts to newlyweds, friends, incense timepieces
and business associates. China had and composed a
converted to Western timekeeping book of 100 such
in the late seventeenth century, and designs “in honor of
though most Chinese found maintenance of the Western mechanical
Figure 9. Seal
timepiece and wooden
clock baffling, there were, by the
I
T
the ancients.” This book published
in Shanghai in 1878, shortly after his
death, is titled Yinxiang tupu. Only
two copies are now known to exist,
one is in the U.S. Library of Congress,
OCLC #12335689. It is, of course, in
obsolete Chinese, but the drawings
should be interesting, indeed. Ting
Lun also made or commissioned several incense seal products that bore
his name and attribution to “the ancients.” A large number of contemporary obituaries from other Chinese
scholars and artists clearly show that
he really did do these things. What
we do not know is how many of the
designs are really copied from much
earlier incense seals, and how many
were original designs based on ancient symbols not relating to incense
seals.
Researchers believe that the incense seal was made in various forms
from circa 700 until the end of the
Ch’ing dynasty in 1912. The sources
of production are not understood,
though a small amount of data suggests that the later pewter examples
tended to be made near Canton and
the paktong ones near Shanghai. The
following 70-plus years of war and
revolution caused this historical record to be lost. Most modern Chinese
are not aware of the timekeeping aspects of the seals, and most owners
obtained their examples as unidentified artwork or incense burners (censers) from the Hong Kong antique
shops in the 1970s, due to the emptying of warehouses filled with Maoistera confiscated personal property.
Silvio A. Bedini, who passed away
presentation box.
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NAWCC Watch & Clock Bulletin • February 2010 •
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in late 2007, was the source of virtually all of the organized information regarding timekeeping with
incense. He worked at the Smithsonian Institution as curator of the
Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering, but his life’s passion
was historical research including
horological topics (he authored at
least 14 books). His first important
publication on the incense timekeepers, The Scent of Time (American
Philosophical Society, 1963), was
guided by at least 40 other translators, historians, collectors, and professors from many countries. Bedini
was quite involved with the collector who assembled the collection
now on display at the Museum.
Bedini’s last publication on this
subject was the 1994 book from
Cambridge University Press, The
Trail of Time, a 341-page tour de
conclusions in the book are uncertain and speculative. I am sure that
he learned much more between
1994 and 2007, since I know that he
was still interested in the subject. I
came along too late in my own interest to talk with him, and unless
his heirs discover and contribute
more of his research we will have
to await another like him to take on
the problems of researching in Chinese, a language that has changed
dramatically over many centuries
on a topic of little interest to Chinese historians.
Japanese Incense Timepieces
J
apan adopted Buddhism and incense burning about 100 years
later than China. The main difference is that the country was intentionally isolated from the 1600s
until 1873 when, by dictate, Japan
adopted Western timekeeping. All
of their previous timekeepers became obsolete, and the purpose of
their incense timekeepers is mostly
forgotten. Japan knew and used incense sticks and incense seals for
keeping time but their contribution
was the wooden kobandokei (incense
clock). These articles as shown in
Figure 10 were almost entirely made
of fire-resistant wood such as cryptomeria, including even the tools
(Figure 11) and the firebox.
The principles of operation were
just like the Chinese metal incense
seals—an incense trail laid into a
bed of wood ash, with a cover to
protect the burn from drafts and
wind. They came in various sizes,
from about 8 inches tall with no
storage drawers, probably for home
use, to 20-inch tall models with two
drawers below to store tools, template, and incense powder, likely for
temple use. In general, the Japanese
incense timepieces were used in the
temples, to time temple prayers, decide when to strike the drums for
community prayer, and to make
sure that there was a “holy fire” that
never was extinguished. Japanese
tools included a wooden rake, to
smooth lumps out of the ash before
starting another burn cycle.
Unlike Chinese seals, the templates of Japanese timepieces were
smaller than the area of the firebox.
This allowed the incense burn pattern to be varied slightly, according
to purpose. In addition, the template often had ridges on its underside. These would leave lines in the
ash that could be used to count the
progression of the burn—in effect
telling the time. Small time or event
markers could be
stood upright in
the ash alongside the incense
trail, with little
horizontal plates
indicating
the
time or event
to be started or
stopped. Finally,
these little markers could be made
of small incense
tabs of different
scents so that
you could “read”
the time without
even looking at
the timepiece.
8 • February 2010 • NAWCC Watch & Clock Bulletin
Another novel incense Japanese
timepiece, in use well into the
twentieth century, was the geisha
“clock.” Visits to the geisha of your
choice were charged according to
the number of 30-minute incense
sticks burned while you were with
her. A long box contained vertical
slots holding the sticks for the ladies
working in the house.
For a good general summary of
East Asian timekeeping see Bernard
Stoltie’s December 2006 Bulletin article, “Asian Timekeeping.” D
Figure 10. Japanese Jokoban.
Figure 11. Toolkit for a Japanese Jokoban.
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