White Copper Cloud Pattern Constellation Long Tag, White

Dividing the sky near the ecliptic into twenty-eight sections, each called a mansion, and then grouping them by direction into four, is a very old practice in China. The four groups correspond to the Four Symbols: the Azure Dragon of the east, the White Tiger of the west, the Vermilion Bird of the south and the Black Tortoise of the north. The system was first used to fix the seasons and count the days, and only later for choosing dates and for astrology. The names of the mansions are still in use; it is the people who know them that have grown fewer.

The plaque is a tall strip, rounded at the top and straight at the bottom, with just enough surface for a column of stars. A constellation is drawn as dots for the stars joined by fine lines; the spacing has to be even, because join them wrongly and you have described a different mansion. The dots are all the same size and the lines all the same weight, which is the rule for this kind of diagram. If the plaque is too small the dots crowd into a single field and the shape of the mansion is lost.

Cloud fills the lower part of the plaque as a ground. The heads curl to the left, the tails trail long, and several join into one bank. Cloud and constellation together are a familiar combination on Han objects: one belongs to the sky, one to the earth, and the cloud bridges them. The curls turn inward and the tails are drawn out, one after another, and the direction cannot be broken. Some versions add a water wave inside the cloud, but that belongs to another pattern; this one has none.

White copper, silver-white in tone, and the name of this piece carries “white” to indicate the colourway. The same mould also produces a yellowish version, warmer and closer to old copper. Both surfaces have a matt finish, so the light breaks up on them. The yellow one pairs with a brown cord and the white one with a black cord. The pattern is cut to the same depth in both; only the surface treatment differs.

A long plaque hangs at the chest with its weight low, so tie the knot firmly or it will swing from side to side as you walk. Use a dark cord; a pale one eats the outline of the plaque. Wipe sweat off before putting it away, and do not pick the dark out of the hollows with a needle, since the bright patch left behind is worse than the shadow. The edges have been chamfered and will not cut. Store it in soft cloth, because a plaque this size shows scratches more than anything else.