S925 Silver Five Jambhalas Gourd Pendant

The scheme of the five directions' wealth gods settled after Investiture of the Gods: Zhao Gongming at the centre, Xiao Sheng the Lord of Summoned Treasure in the east, Cao Bao the Lord of Gathered Rarities in the west, Chen Jiugong the Bringer of Wealth in the south and Yao Shaosi the Immortal Official of Profit in the north. Five figures, one to each direction, together called the five routes. Shops often keep them, and the New Year welcoming of the wealth god follows the same scheme; in practice it is used quite matter-of-factly. In earlier Daoist texts the name Zhao Gongming belongs to a commander of ghosts with no connection to money at all — the wealth god identity was fixed by a Ming novel.

The gourd serves as the vessel in this grouping. The folk pun on fortune and rank is one layer; the Daoist gourd holding medicine and elixir is another. The two point in different directions, but in sculpture both come down to the same curve, narrow above and wide below. That curve should be drawn in one breath without a stutter in it, and the way to judge a piece is to look at the profile line first — you can see at a glance whether it runs clean. The belly should be round: too flat and it looks like a persimmon, too pointed like a pear, and the middle curvature wears best.

Here the names or figures of the five are set on the belly of the gourd, on a silver ground with deeply cut characters. The waist is drawn in tight, and it is both the thinnest part of the piece and the part most likely to go wrong in casting; run a finger over the waist when examining one, to check that it is smooth and free of porosity, which shows up there more than anywhere else. Where characters are cut deep, the edges carry a slight draft angle — a trace of the mould, not a mistake in the cutting.

The back is usually left flat or lightly patterned, which sits comfortably against skin. Silver white on the curved gourd gives a vertical band of light that shifts as the piece turns. The fivefold division matches the five directions, one figure for each of east, south, west, north and centre, the point being that no direction is left unguarded; this scheme of directions runs right through the tradition, from sacrifice to architecture. If the silver ground is sandblasted the characters read more clearly, and the same surface holds dust more readily — the two arrive together.

Drawing wealth is folk belief, not a promise. What can be said for the piece is that the scheme is complete, the characters are clear, the silver is marked S925, and it doesn't fight with everyday clothes. If you hang it from a metal ring straight through the waist, the ring will wear at that thin section; run a short length of leather cord through instead, so the cord takes the wear rather than the silver, and cord is cheap to replace. If you mean to wear it long term, choose a chain you can swap: a worn-through chain is a small cost, a repair on the piece is not.