White Copper Beast Head Meander Heavenly Secret Pendant

The beast head sits on the upper half of the plaque, brows pressed low, the bridge of the nose ridged, two horns curling inward. The lower half is meander pattern, one line folding back and forth into a square spiral and filling what is left. A horizontal ridge divides the two: face above, ground below, the boundary clear. The mouth is closed, with only a line left at each side, and anyone who does not look closely will miss it.

This mask on Shang and Zhou bronzes is called the taotie, or animal-mask, pattern. The typical composition is symmetrical: a flange down the centre serves as the nose bridge, with an eye on each side and tusks below the eyes. The ancients cast it on ding and gui vessels, mostly for sacrificial pieces. The meander came later, evolving from the thunder pattern on bronzes: one line to the end, turning without a break, known in folk usage as wealth without an end. Its lines have to be even, because once the weight varies it turns into visual noise at a distance.

The two characters tianji have two sources. One is Zhuangzi, who says that where desire runs deep the heavenly mechanism runs shallow: the natural clarity in a person dulls when wanting grows heavy. The other is the Tianji star in Ziwei dou shu, one of the fourteen primary stars, attributed to wood among the five elements and traditionally tied to strategy and calculation. This plaque leans to the second sense. The characters sit below the beast head, square-cut and unassertive, and they are cut shallower than the head, so you have to catch them in side light.

The Chopin chain supplied is a flat-link chain: the body lies flat and does not twist against the skin. The clasp is a lobster claw, stronger than a spring ring, though harder to fasten one-handed, since it takes both hands. The hole sits between the two horns at the top of the head, placed high, so the weight of the pendant hangs low and it will not flip; walk quickly and it only sways a little. The tail of the chain has three notches of extension, so it goes over the head without undoing the clasp.

The grooves of relief work want a soft brush, and a blower after the brush leaves it cleaner than a cloth does. The copper darkening is normal, and in summer the salt in sweat speeds it up. To bring the colour back, polish the raised surfaces with a brass cloth and leave the recesses dark. Brightening everything flattens the pattern and the beast’s expression goes with it. Turn the cloth to a clean side as you work, because the dirty side only puts the black back.