White Copper Command Enamel Open Ring

Qian and Kun are the first two hexagrams of the Book of Changes. Qian's six lines are all yang, Kun's six all yin — one pure yang, one pure yin — and the other six trigrams are woven from these two breaths crossing. The ring sets the pair side by side, and that contrast is the whole point. The six lines are counted from the bottom up: the lowest is called chu, the topmost shang. Different positions carry different readings, which is the first threshold in reading the Changes.

A chiling is the opening phrase on a talisman, written at the very top. It means that the thing is done by command, and the body of the text follows. The format is fixed in Daoist talisman writing, and the two characters have a set form: the dot at the left of chi is often drawn out long. The “jin” in the name is most likely a miswriting of “ling”; the casting carried on with an old mold and the error came down with it. There is another opening, “feng,” as in “by command of the Supreme Lord Lao, swift as the statute,” longer than chiling. Both are common.

Enamel is glass paste filled into metal cells and fired, then ground flat and polished. Cloisonné cells are crisp and the edges of the color blocks stay clean; dropper enamel is cheaper and the color tends to creep. White copper carries an oxide layer and holds enamel less firmly than pure copper, so the glaze here is on the thin side. Don't scrape it with anything hard. Enamel's worst enemy is a sudden change of temperature: wear it into a sauna and the glaze crazes with fine cracks, dust settles in fast, and washing won't reach it.

An open ring holds the finger by the spring of the metal. Bend it once or twice and nothing happens; bend it daily and sooner or later it goes slack, and once slack it lives in the box. Men's and women's versions differ in the opening and the width of the face; the women's is a touch narrower and doesn't look clumsy on the index finger. For thick knuckles an open band passes more easily than a closed one. Push the opening with your thumb: if it gives half a millimeter, the fit is about right. If it doesn't move at all, it will pinch.

Wearing this ring, keep your nails short; the edge of the enamel suffers most from knocks. Take it off to wash your hands or the dishes — hot water and dish soap both dull the glaze. As a gift, qian and kun speak of yin and yang supporting each other, which suits a couple or a pair of partners; don't drag anything else into it. Setting the two side by side has another advantage: the design is square, so it doesn't look narrow across the finger, and it sits well on a man or a woman.