Brass Ten Thousand Talisman Thunder Seal Script Ring

Thunder-seal script is a form of seal script used in Daoist thunder rites. The strokes coil, beginning and ending in hooks, as though cloud vapour and thunder patterns had been kneaded into the characters. It was never for everyday writing and appears mostly on talismans; reading it depends on transmission. The same character is written differently from one school to the next, and to a layman it looks like a drawing. Thunder-rite talismans insist on continuous qi, so carved as seal script the stroke may break but the intent does not. Read seal script by structure first and strokes second. The uninitiated see pattern; the initiated see characters.

Brass is close to gold in colour and warmer than white copper. It is not very hard, which makes fine lines easy to cut and equally easy to wear away. A ring meets desk edges and door handles every day, and after a year the lettering has rounded slightly. That is the nature of copper, not a fault in the work. New brass is glaringly bright; half a month of wear settles it, and then the colour is good. To hurry it along, wipe with a cloth dampened with mild vinegar and rinse. The metallic smell it leaves on the hands washes off.

The phrase "ten thousand hui" means a great many deity names gathered in one place. A full circuit of the face means many characters, and each one is small, so slightly poor engraving turns the whole band into a strip of texture. Here the spacing is fairly even, so it doesn't go dense and sparse as you turn the ring. A baseline has to be kept between characters, or they read as a single string; the face is narrow, so more characters means shrinking them, and below two millimetres they blur. The lettering has to stand up and the ground be flat, or the reflections hide it.

Brass darkens where it meets sweat, and a green mark inside the band is verdigris: it washes off, and it is not the colour flaking. Some people like that aged tone and some find it dirty, which is a matter of taste. To hold the colour at a given stage, a thin coat of clear wax is enough. Verdigris on pale fabric does not wash out, so watch your cuffs. If you want it bright, wipe it often; if you want it old, leave it alone. Don't wax it thickly, because thick wax goes sticky.

Measure ring size over the knuckle, and don't bend a copper band back and forth; bend it enough and it cracks. Dry it and bag it when it isn't worn, and keep it away from silver, because the two metals stain each other on contact and silver picks up a copper tone that is harder to clean than copper itself. Adjust it at the opening rather than pressing the sides, which deforms the circle. Make sure it is dry before it goes in the bag, since stored damp it goes patchy.