S925 Silver Zhao Gongming Pendant

Zhao Gongming is the Marshal of the Dark Altar in Taoism; in folk usage he is the martial God of Wealth. Black face, thick beard, an iron whip in one hand, a black tiger under him: all three together and it is him. New Year prints and wall paintings keep the image much the same, with little variation. He is not the only martial wealth god — Guan Gong is also installed by shopkeepers under that title — but Guan Gong's foundation is loyalty and righteousness, while Zhao Gongming's is the Taoist office of Marshal of the Dark Altar. Two different lines. What his line governs is the driving out of evil and the keeping of wealth, which were originally one job.

The division of wealth gods into civil and martial is a very widespread folk idea. The civil ones, Bi Gan and Fan Li, look after calculation and trade; the martial one rides and carries a whip, and looks after protecting what has already been earned. Shopkeeping families like to install the martial god, and the word they use is keep. On a pendant that idea sits lighter than it does on an altar, and closer to the body. In New Year prints he is usually accompanied by a wealth-attracting boy and an official of good business, one master and two servants, in a fixed composition. On an altar the left-right placing matters; on a pendant it does not.

This one is a half figure. The head takes a large share of the surface, the beard and crown are cut deep for layering, and the iron whip is tucked to one side where it is easy to miss. The back is flat so it sits against the chest without digging in, and it will not push a lump through a thin shirt. Thickness is held at the point where it still lies on the skin: too thick and it tips away and knocks the collarbone as you walk; too thin and it cannot carry the depth of the carving. The whip's segments are individual beads of metal, reduced at this size to three ridges.

Men wear it more, but women buy it for a father or a husband. A black or dark brown cord works; a gold chain muddles it — two yellows together and neither reads as the main event. With a collared shirt, keep it inside and let one button show a little of it; that looks better than hanging the whole piece outside. If you are buying for someone in business, ask first which god they keep. Someone who keeps Guan Gong will be pleased with a Zhao Gongming, but put the two together on one altar and it gets muddled.

Silver blackens, and deep carving shows it first: the recesses go dark before anything else, which conveniently saves the work of artificial ageing. Polish lightly and do not clean the dark out of the recesses — that is the ground the pattern stands on. To brighten the whole piece, take a silver cloth in one direction, not in circles. Tarnish is not damage; it is the metal dealing with the air.