History
In addition to water, mechanical, and candle clocks, incense clocks were used in Asia, and were fashioned in several different forms. Incense clocks were first used in China around the 6th century; in Japan, one survives in the Shōsōin, Although popularly associated with China the incense clock is believed by some to have originated in India, at least in its fundamental form, if not function. Early incense clocks found in China between the 6th and 8th centuries CE all seem to have Devanāgarī carvings on them rather than Chinese seal characters. To explain this, Edward Schafer asserts that incense clocks were probably an Indian invention, transmitted to China. Silvio Bedini on the other hand asserts that incense clocks were derived in part from incense seals mentioned in Tantric Buddhist scriptures, which first came to light in China after those scriptures from India were translated into Chinese, but holds that the time-telling function of the seal was incorporated by the Chinese.
Read more about this topic: Incense Clock
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“History is more or less bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history we make today.”
—Henry Ford (1863–1947)
“What has history to do with me? Mine is the first and only world! I want to report how I find the world. What others have told me about the world is a very small and incidental part of my experience. I have to judge the world, to measure things.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)
“There is no example in history of a revolutionary movement involving such gigantic masses being so bloodless.”
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940)