The use of incense in Chinese civilization goes back a long way, giving birth to a rich incense culture along with a great variety of instruments for incense burning, among which the censer, as the major type of instrument for the burning and holding of incense, bears the highest significance. Censers were used on various occasions: ancient folks burned incense as prayers and tributes to Heaven and the deities as well as to purify the interior environment and calm the mind; the intelligentsia regarded incense appreciation and contests as pursuits of elegance; the nobility, the bureaucrats and the tycoons scented their clothes and offered incense as a demonstration of..........