White Copper Thick Silver-plated Black and White Guards Open Ring

One black, one white: the two deputies who fetch the souls of the dead, known in folk address as the Seventh and Eighth Lords. The legend makes them sworn brothers, Xie Bi’an and Fan Wujiu, who died one after the other because of a rainstorm and a bridge, and afterward took service in the underworld with the task of collecting the dying. The white one’s tall hat reads “see it and prosper”; the black one’s reads “all under heaven at peace.” Those two lines are the ones most often painted on temple figures. One is merry, one severe, and only together are they a pair.

“Thick silver plating” needs explaining. The core is white copper, electroplated with a layer of silver heavier than the usual thin flash. The advantage is wear: a year or so of daily use without the copper showing through. The disadvantage is unevenness — the inside of the band and the bottoms of the character grooves plate thin, and those are the first places to go yellow. Turn the ring over and look at the inner band when you buy; if that is even, the rest will be. If there are already red points under the silver, the core is rusting. Leave it.

Black and white versions, one for each of the two. The white runs brighter, the black is pressed darker, and wearing one of each on the same hand is a common arrangement in the trade. Some people buy only one — the black takes, the white leads, and a customer with a feeling for the subject will choose accordingly. If you wear both, adjust the sizes separately, or one will be loose while the other pinches. White suits summer and black suits autumn and winter, so the pair changes weight with the season.

The band is open and the size can be moved, but plating hates being bent. Put the force into the inside of the band, or pad it with a cloth; a fingernail drawn across the surface leaves a white line. Adjust it once and then leave it alone, because the layer will not take repeated working. A marked plating cannot be spot-repaired — the whole ring has to be re-plated, which costs more than the ring did. And do not reach for pliers: one bite of the jaw and the plating is broken.

This is not an auspicious subject, and who you give it to matters. A younger customer who likes folk material or a dark aesthetic will be pleased; an older relative mostly will not wear it, and cannot quite say why, only that it sits wrong. The shop never talks anyone into it; people buy what they have already chosen. If someone asks whether it is frightening to wear, say it is a pattern and nothing more, and the question usually closes. Taste in this material runs to two poles: the people who like it like it a great deal, and the others do not look twice.