S925 Silver Thunder Talisman Ziwei Peace Buckle Pendant

The peace buckle is simple: a disc with a hole, plain, with no front or back. Several origins are given for it. One traces it to the ancient jade bi, a disc with a small hole used in sacrifices to heaven; another to the copper cash, keeping the round outline and replacing the square hole with a round one; a third to the core left when a bangle is cut, the remaining disc being just right for a buckle. The bi is a ritual object with a small hole, the buckle a personal ornament with a large one, and that is the whole difference.

This one places two hui glyphs on a single face. Both the Thunder glyph and the Ziwei glyph are compounds, strokes layered over strokes, but their density differs: the Thunder glyph runs tall and lean, the Ziwei glyph bunches. Set together, they have to be scaled first so that the two halves look equally weighted, or the eye keeps sliding to the heavier side. Their densities should alternate; two dense knots and the face becomes two dark patches. The bunched Ziwei fits a round face naturally, while the lean Thunder glyph has to be widened or shortened to match.

The hole and the rim of a peace buckle stand in proportion. Too small a hole and a thick cord will not pass, leaving you with a fine chain; too large and the face narrows to something like a ring. A rim too thin chips, losing a piece at one knock; too thick and it looks blunt, hanging like a wheel. There is no fixed answer to the proportion, only whether you want the piece decorative or steady, and turning it in your hand once will tell you if the hole is true and the rim well judged. The mouth of the hole should be chamfered: a cord rubbing there raises fuzz, and frayed cord breaks.

A silver peace buckle is lighter than jade and almost no burden to wear, and if you forget to take it off, it does not dig in overnight. What you give up is jade's warmth of touch: silver is cold, cool against the skin at first and only slowly coming to body temperature. Nothing in silver replaces the feel of jade, and if lightness is what you want, silver is the better choice. Its cool white reflects strongly against deeper skin tones, which often looks better than expected.

A plain silver surface hides nothing, and a peace buckle is nothing but plain surface. Keep it apart from keys in daily use rather than letting it roll among hard objects. Silver oxidises, and when the face yellows, wipe the whole of it with a silver cloth instead of working at one spot; a patchy rub looks worse than none. The two faces are identical, so it cannot be worn the wrong way round, which is one of its consolations.