Brass Five Elements Totem Inlaid Pendant

The five elements are not five materials but five states: wood feeds fire, fire makes earth, earth bears metal, metal carries water, water grows wood, one linked to the next with no beginning and no end. The scheme took shape in the late Warring States period, and Zou Yan's line carried it into the court; later medicine, military theory and divination each took a section of it for their own use. The term itself appears first in the Great Plan chapter of the Book of Documents, where it concerns the uses of five materials. The matching colours are fixed as well: green for wood, red for fire, yellow for earth, white for metal, black for water.

A brass plaque, the face divided by element with the main motif at the centre and inlays set around it. Of the six options, water, earth and wood come as plaques, fire as a necklace, and metal in both forms. Check whether the listing says plaque or chain before ordering, so you are not surprised by what arrives: the necklace version carries a length of chain the plaque does not. The plaque is a rounded rectangle with eased corners and the hanging hole centred at the top. The back is flat and does not dig in when worn against the body.

Watch the rim around an inlay. Copper is softer than the stone set into it, so on impact the metal gives and the stone does not, and the edge chips. Keep it clear of hard objects and off the same wrist as a watch; one on each hand is safer. Take it off to shift furniture, because a single knock will bother you for six months. If an inlay works loose, do not reach for glue. 502 and its like dry to a white haze that shows immediately. A brass plaque is heavier than a white copper one, and you notice it on a chain.

Five element pendants are often bought to make up a deficiency, which is a folk reading. Worked out properly from a birth chart, the whole picture has to be read; you do not simply add the element that is missing. Choosing by colour is the sounder approach, since colour is in front of you every day and the theory came from someone else. If you cannot decide, start from the colours you actually wear; a pendant is only worth having if it leaves the house. Some people collect the set, some take one element. That is personal.

Brass takes a patina. It moves from bright yellow to deep, then to brown, and the process does not reverse. Some people treat it as a handling piece and work it daily; a few months will show the change. To hold it back, handle it less and keep it bagged, and the colour will stay in the pale yellow range. Do not handle it with sweaty hands, because the salt in sweat mottles a patina as it forms. Once the patina has built, the relief on the face stands out more and the pattern actually reads more clearly.