White Copper Guan Yu Relief Gourd Pendant

Guan Yu’s face is red on the stage, date-red in temples, and by the time it reaches a New Year print it is full scarlet. The histories say only that he had a fine beard and never mention his colour. The red face was dyed on in layers, and by now if it is not red he does not look like Lord Guan, and nobody intends to change it back. When a Guan Yu opera opens, the audience knows who has walked on without being told the name.

A few things cannot be left out of the image: phoenix eyes, silkworm eyebrows, a five-strand long beard, a green robe, the Green Dragon crescent blade. The blade is the hardest: the curve of the head and the straightness of the shaft have to agree, and too much curve makes it a billhook, too little a dagger. The beard is hard too — five strands that must be separated, since blurred into one mass it becomes a bearded monster. Silkworm eyebrows are a ridge raised on the brow bone, not thick brows painted on, and only made properly do they carry authority.

A gourd is two spheres stacked, small above, large below, with a waist between. Made into a pendant, the waist is the thinnest place and breaks easily, so the back needs a reinforcing edge. Gourd sounds like “blessing and salary”, which is the line to take when giving one and need not be laboured. If a cord is carved at the waist, the narrow point has something to rest on and is less likely to snap. Get the proportion of small to large slightly wrong and the gourd becomes a pear.

In relief on a curved surface, the figure’s head has to align with the upper sphere and the body follow the curve of the lower. That composition tends to ball the figure up, so the hem of the robe and the shaft of the blade should push outward a little to open the silhouette. On a narrow face the blade can be shown only in part, which looks better than forcing the whole of it in. The lines of the beard follow the curve of the jaw downward; cut straight they look like a brush.

In folk custom Lord Guan is a martial god of wealth and a byword for loyalty. Business people keep him for credit; the rivers-and-lakes world keeps him for honour. When giving one, “keeping faith” fits the subject better than “getting rich”. The sandalwood-cord version comes ready to wear. Some buy it for someone in construction, for keeping contracts; some for a younger relative at police college, for the single word honour. Pad the box with soft paper — a copper piece rattling in a box chips its corners first. Whether the recipient holds with any of this you will learn by asking once; do not decide it for them.