S925 Silver Nine Dragon Sons Qiuniu Chaofeng Pendant

The list of the dragon's nine sons is not the same in every source. Li Dongyang set one down in the Ming dynasty, in his collection Huailutang ji, and the version that circulates in folk use is another: qiu niu, ya zi, chao feng, pu lao, suan ni, bi xi, bi an, fu xi, chi wen, and it stops at nine. The number is fixed; the names and the order have never stopped moving. So when you come across two accounts that disagree, there is no need to referee. Huailutang ji is not the only attempt either. Shuyuan zaji records a version of its own, the entries differ in places, and the scholars never settled it among themselves.

Qiu niu is fond of music. The head of an old huqin was carved with it, a dragon's head lying at the top of the neck, its ears a size larger than an ordinary dragon's, said to be because it can hear. The neck of a huqin is slender, so the head has to be made small, and the proportion is not far from the one on a pendant: both have to be held back. Chao feng is fond of danger and likes to crouch high up; it is one of the beasts on the corner of a temple roof. The two temperaments are far apart, one heading into sound and the other into height, and yet as a pair they hang together well enough.

The pendant gives only the head and neck. The horns are pressed back, the muzzle is shortened, the qiu niu version enlarges the ears and the chao feng version draws out the whiskers under the jaw, and everything else is left off. Leaving things off is not laziness. At this size, scales carved over the whole surface would feel like sandpaper, while a single horn and a single whisker still stand up. Silver flows well enough to hold points as fine as the tip of a horn, provided the metal is hot enough when it is poured.

Use a dark cord. Ink black, dark brown and navy all sit steadily; red also works, and red with a dragon is hard to get wrong. The pendant hangs at the centre of the chest. With a stand collar it shows half of itself, which wears better than hanging the whole piece outside. Tie the knot two fingers above the pendant; any shorter and it presses on the throat. With a crew neck the pendant stays out, with a high collar it tucks in, and both are fine. Choose a muted red rather than a true one. True red is too loud to hold silver down.

The horns are sharp, so store the piece horn upward and never underneath anything else. Silver dims with sweat; wipe along the horns with a soft cloth, since rubbing in circles will round off the tips. The groove on the inside of a horn is the hardest place to reach: press the cloth in and twist. Two dragons kept in one compartment, horn against horn, will knock and leave a white mark at the point of contact.