White Copper Heavenly Official Open Ring

Among the Three Officials, the Heavenly Official comes first. His full title runs too long to recite, so folk tradition keeps only four characters: the Heavenly Official bestows blessings. The fifteenth of the first lunar month, the Lantern Festival, is his day. Daoist temples held rites on it, and households lit lamps and set out plain fruit and clear tea. Those four characters are what this ring carries, spaced to fill the face with no ornament left over. The cult of the Three Officials had taken shape by the Northern and Southern Dynasties, earlier than the cults of Wenchang or Lord Guan. Old records say the lamps were kept burning until dawn.

White copper band, open at the back. The gap means there is no ring size to report: slide it on, pinch the two ends and it closes to fit, and a knuckle that runs thick will still go through. The characters are cut in relief and stand proud of the face. A fingertip drawn across them finds real relief, and while you work you can feel them press. Relieved characters need their feet kept; the ground cannot be cut too thin or the edges chip away. The gap sits at the side of the band, where it does not show unless you look for it. The inside is polished and the rim will not cut into the finger.

Two sizes: the small for ring and little finger, the large for index and middle. Men with heavy knuckles mostly take the large, and a woman who wants presence on the index finger can wear it as well. Open rings have one weakness, which is that pinching them often enough will slacken them. Adjust in small steps, easing the band closed rather than forcing it shut in one go. Measure the finger in the afternoon; in the morning it runs slimmer and you will size down.

Relief has a way about it: the raised part wears first. Worn daily, the sharp edges round off and the strokes end up looking gentler. Some people like that change and call it the look of a piece that has been lived in. Others find the characters going soft, in which case keep the ring off rough surfaces and raise your wrist a little when you type. The characters are a name, not a spell, and reading them or not makes no difference. Parents of exam candidates buy this one in numbers, mostly for the reassurance it gives them on a child's behalf.

Storage needs nothing special. Take it off, wipe it dry, put it away. White copper dulls where sweat touches it, and a few passes with a soft cloth will bring some brightness back, but no steel wool or anything abrasive. Small pieces like rings are the easiest things in the world to lose, so give it one fixed box rather than the corner of a desk. Keep the gap clear of sweater threads; one pull and the shape goes. In the dry north copper darkens slowly. In the humid south a single rainy season will show the difference.