S925 Silver Tibetan Nine Palace Bagua Tag

Small enough to tuck inside a collar, which is its most practical advantage. The nine-grid bagua plaque has three layers, read from the inside outward: a nine-square grid at the centre with the numbers one to nine in the order of the Luoshu, nine above and one below, three to the left and seven to the right, two and four at the shoulders, six and eight at the feet. Around that sits a ring of eight trigrams, one to each direction. The outer ring often carries the twelve zodiac animals. Each layer says something of its own, and together they form a coordinate system of direction and time. In the nine-grid the numbers add to fifteen in every row, column and diagonal, a property the Luoshu already carried.

This one is the small size, and small has its reasons. A smaller face sits unnoticed on the chest, does not show through a thin shirt, and is easier to wear hidden under clothing. In Tibetan areas the habit is to hang it at the waist with the cord threaded through the belt so the face lies against the hip as you walk. In Chinese use it is mostly a pendant below the collarbone, with a plain back when it is turned over. Both are correct. Cord length is adjusted to the body: too short and it pulls at the throat, too long and it flips over. At this diameter the cord hole can only be opened at one side of the top.

The difficulty with the small size is the characters. Nine numerals shrunk into cells this small run together, and a hair's difference in the casting polishes out into a blob. A trigram is three lines, broken or unbroken, and everything depends on the two gaps. Cut them too shallow and you have three solid lines, which is the wrong trigram. So a small plaque is no less work than a large one, and it is harder on the eyes. A good small plaque still shows its strokes separately under a lens.

The zodiac ring connects with the idea of the birth year. Some people find the position of their own animal and wear the plaque for that; others pay no attention and see a ring of ornament. The twelve animals correspond to the twelve earthly branches, a fixed correspondence that has nothing to do with fortune. There is no need to take it off after New Year either. The plaque does not belong to any particular year.

Use a dark cord: dark red and ink black both hold it. The face is artificially aged with the recesses left dark, and with wear it darkens naturally until the characters read more clearly than they did at the start. Do not soak it in silver dip, because it comes out white and the aged look is gone. If the swivel collects dust and stiffens, hold both faces and turn it a few times to work the dust out. The face dislikes sweat, so after a summer day against the skin, press it with a soft cloth when you get home.