The containers in which ancient people put spices were called incense boxes. As the name implies, the incense box is a small container specially used to hold incense, also called incense pot, incense box, incense letter, incense box and so on. In ancient times, scholars used to read and write in the study, play the piano, drink tea and play chess. They always liked to burn a stove to add elegance and taste, and at the same time, they could purify the indoor air. Because the incense is mostly fragrant pills, sweet cake, natural fragrant wood and so on. Incense is easy to volatilize and disperse, so the literati added the wenwan of the incense box.

The history of the incense box can be traced back to the era of sweet cakes and fragrant pills made of resin spices and He Zhongxiang. Since then, the history of incense has continued to this day. Resin spices unearthed from the tomb of Nanyue King in Han Dynasty were packed in a red lacquer box with a diameter of 9.5 cm. There are incense burners and incense burners flying in Longmen Grottoes in the Northern Wei Dynasty.

After the late Tang Dynasty, Xianghe was no longer limited to the practical use of holding spices, but gradually formed a trend as a gift. As recorded in Song Yaohui, Wu Yueqian's gifts after he first entered Henan in the second year of Taiping Xingguo included "a red rubber golden lion, a golden incense stick and a golden ball of * * * 520". After the Song Dynasty, the use of incense became more ritualized, and there was a saying of "three things in furnace and bottle", in which "furnace" refers to the furnace for burning incense, while "bottle" is for placing chopsticks and ashes. As a container for placing spices, the incense box is considered to be the crown of all things.

Generally speaking, ancient people used incense boxes to put spices, and the materials, styles and uses of incense boxes were different in different periods.