Why do temples use tripod incense burners?

Walking into a temple, you will always see a variety of different sizes and shapes of incense burners, incense burning has a special connotation in many religious cultures, people believe that through the "incense burning" will be able to reach the sky, carrying incense ash stove is naturally very important and sacred objects. But in fact, the tripod was not used to burn incense for rituals from the very beginning, but was a common cooking utensil in life.

The bronze ritual objects of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties played an important role in ancient rituals such as sacrifices, banquets, funerals and other ceremonial activities, and had the effect of marking the user's status. Therefore, this time the bronze ritual not only a large number, there are a variety of types, according to the artifacts can be divided into: food, jade, musical instruments, wine, water, miscellaneous weapons and weapons, and food ritual shape can be subdivided into: beans, tripod, Li type, Gui type and bottle type, but the casting of the tripod ritual is the most special.

According to archaeological research, the tripod was one of the ceramic vessels used for cooking in daily life in prehistoric times. The three legs of the tripod were the mouth and support of the stove, and the fire was burned under its belly to boil and cook food. Fire, smoke and incense were important channels for ancient people to communicate with heavenly spirits and ancestors.

The practice of burning incense was quite early, people in the pre-Qin period believed that the odor, can be up to the gods, "Poetry. Daya. Shengmin" in: "Ang (sound Ang, I) Sheng in the beans (beans, a tall container), in the beans in the Deng (Deng, tile container). Its incense began to rise, God Juxin", the offerings will be loaded in the bowl, the aroma overflowed the entire hall, the gods will be able to come to enjoy. The food containers that hold the offerings to the gods naturally have an extraordinary significance.

The bronze ritual tripods of the Shang and Zhou dynasties had two kinds of tripods: the round tripod with three feet and two ears, and the square tripod with four feet and two ears, which were mostly cast in metal, with elaborate decorations on them. However, the tripods of the Shang Dynasty showed the status of the owner by their huge size, while the Zhou Dynasty showed the status level by their quantity.

By the Spring and Autumn period, the technology of making bronze ceremonial vessels had gradually become popular, and all the lords were able to master their mining sources and technology, and cast their own bronze vessels, which led to obvious regional differences in the appearance of bronze vessels, but invariably made the dignity of bronze ceremonial vessels fade away

It so happened that during this period, the status of the Son of Heaven of the Zhou Dynasty was being challenged, and the Nine Tripods, which were only available to the Son of Heaven, became the symbol of the "world" of the various countries competing for the throne of heaven. For example, the familiar idiom of "asking for the tripods in the Central Plains" was used by King Zhuang of Chu (?). -591 years ago) sent someone to ask about the size and weight of the tripod, the king of Zhou's emissary, Wang Sunman, replied: "In the virtue but not in the tripod," and he emphasized: "Although the virtue of Zhou has declined, the fate of heaven has not changed. He emphasized: "Although Zhou's virtue has declined, the destiny of heaven has not changed. The weight of the tripod is not open to question.

Even if no longer have a practical social function, the Shangzhou bronze rituals have not been forgotten, but was mythologized, tripod and the three kings and five emperors, become part of people's historical memory, even if the bronze rituals to the Qin and Han dynasties has become a yellow flower, but the tripod is to leap to become a symbol of auspiciousness, the destiny of the charm of Switzerland. Although after the Qin and Han Dynasties, because of the progress of craftsmanship, people no longer make large-scale bronze, let it out of the stage of history. But the deified tripod, then turned into the realm of religion, no longer stay in the secular world.

In traditional Chinese folk beliefs, incense is a medium, and the burning of incense, ash and incense burners are paired together, i.e., the display of the deity's spiritual power. As people sacrificed to the gods with the smell of food or wine, such a custom was transformed in the Han Dynasty into the ritual of burning incense to the gods, linking the rising smoke with the smell of the offerings, so which object could bear the incense ash offered to the gods? Naturally, only the tripod incense burner can take up this heavy responsibility.

From the point of view of the ritual process, people hold incense to worship God and Buddha, and insert the incense into the incense burner in the hope that their wishes will be fulfilled, this process is actually through the incense burner to fulfill their prayers. The incense burner is full of ash, which is an important "incense" for the gods.