After Zhu Di passed away, Zhu Zhanji's father was only emperor for ten months, and when he ascended the throne, no one in the world could control him anymore. Therefore, not long after Zhu Zhanji came to power, the impulse that had been suppressed for a long time finally broke out completely.

As soon as Zhu Zhanji came to power, in order to satisfy his hobby of enjoying incense burners, he ordered the import of 39,000 kilograms of wind-milled copper from Siam, now Thailand, and instructed the court craftsman Lu Zhen and the Minister of Works Wu Bangzuo to design and supervise the production of incense burners with reference to the styles of famous porcelains from the Chai Kiln, Ru Kiln, Guan Kiln, Ge Kiln, Jun Kiln, and Ding Kiln stored in the imperial palace, as well as historical books such as "Xuanhe Bogutu" and "Archaeological Map".

In order to ensure the quality of the incense burner, Lu Zhen reported to the emperor tremblingly that in order to make a good incense burner, the copper had to be refined six times. After refining it once, there would be less, and after six times, only half of the raw material would remain.

But who was Emperor Xuande? He was the Son of Heaven, not only was he wealthy, but he also had a strong sense of quality. So Emperor Xuande immediately ordered that the number of refining times should not be reduced, but doubled, that is, twelve times, and precious metals such as gold and silver should be added. So the craftsmen selected dozens of precious metals such as gold and silver, and carefully cast and refined them together with red copper for more than ten times.

After tremendous efforts, in the third year of Xuande, the top-quality copper incense burner was finally successfully produced.

This batch of wind-milled copper was used to cast more than 3,000 incense burners, and no more were produced afterwards. When Emperor Xuande saw these incense burners that he personally took care of, each of them was so magnificent and radiant, he felt a great sense of accomplishment.

Most of these incense burners were displayed in various places in the palace, and a small part was rewarded or distributed to the royal family, distinguished ministers, large and popular temples, and envoys from vassal states who came to pay tribute.

Ordinary people only know the names of these Xuande incense burners but have never seen them. After hundreds of years of ups and downs, the copper incense burners cast in the third year of Xuande are almost no longer seen.

The first batch of Xuande incense burners were so exquisite that they attracted many people's covetousness. Even after the imperial court stopped casting incense burners in the third year of Xuande's reign, some people still wanted to continue to imitate Xuande incense burners.

Among them, the supervisor who was in charge of supervising the production of the first batch of Xuande incense burners gathered the original craftsmen together again to cast another Xuande incense burner. However, due to the shortage of raw materials, the wind-milled copper had been used up and could not be produced again, so the casters could only use yellow mixed copper instead. Although the workmanship was as exquisite as before, the shape was more varied, but the copper quality was finally inferior. At the same time, the bottom style changed. The number of characters increased, such as "Made by Wu Bangzuo, the Supervisor of the Ministry of Works in the fifth year of Xuande in the Ming Dynasty" and "Supervised by Li Chengde, the Foreign Minister of the Ministry of Works", etc., with both regular script and seal script.

In addition to the imitations of the Xuande Dynasty, there were also imitations during the Zhengde period in the mid-Ming Dynasty. A large number of imitations also appeared in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the Qing Dynasty, and the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.

Therefore, in modern times, there are many imitations of Xuande incense burners from the Ming Dynasty on the market, as well as many imitations from the Qing Dynasty and even the Republic of China period, but the real Xuande incense burner produced in the third year of Xuande is hard to find.

Currently on the market, you can hardly find a genuine Xuande incense burner produced in the third year of Xuande. Many people even say that the genuine Xuande incense burner produced in the third year of Xuande is no longer available!

Yang Jing originally thought so, that the real Xuande incense burners had long been gone, and all the collections on the market and in museums were imitations. But these two simple and elegant Xuande incense burners appeared before him, what was going on?

There is no standard type of Xuande incense burner made in the third year of the Xuande reign. The two Xuande incense burners in front of us also have different styles.

One of the copper incense burners was round, open-mouthed, with a base and two plain dragon ears on both sides, and the style was very unique. However, Yang Jing recognized the style of this copper incense burner at a glance. This was the Xuande incense burner with dragon ears, which was the smallest number of surviving incense burners in the world.

This kind of dragon-ear stove is usually used in the emperor's study. It can be placed alone on an incense table, or five feet west of the desk, or on a long table or a display cabinet. Large ones over six inches can be placed in halls, rooms, palaces, etc.

Like this dragon-ear stove, its diameter is more than 20 centimeters, or more than six inches, and it can obviously be placed outside the study.

As for the other copper incense burner, its shape is very simple, with three legs and a flat round belly. Although it looks very simple, its lines are extremely elegant.

Yang Jing also recognized the style of this bronze incense burner. It was the li furnace, which was second only to the fire burner with dragon ears in its number.

Although the styles of these two copper incense burners are extremely rare, the color of the wind-milled copper is very pure, and the patina is very round. There is also a six-character regular script inscription "Made in the Xuande Period of the Ming Dynasty" on the bottom, which does not look like imitations of later generations at first glance.

However, to be on the safe side, Yang Jing still used the holy ring to identify it, and the result was as expected, the two copper incense burners were exactly the Xuande incense burners cast in 1428 AD, which was the third year of Xuande!