Strings Attached
A simple Buddhist rosary, with the reminder string emerging from a sober stūpa bead - wikicommons.jpeg
When using prayer beads to recite mantras, it helps to keep track of the number of mantras that have already been recited. Every time a mantra is finished, you move another bead down the string and take hold of a new one. The concentration lies with the recitation, with the intention of the mantra. You count with your hands. However, the prayer beads form a ring, it is not just a string with a beginning and an end. If you count using a circular string of beads, will you ever stop reciting?
This is what the stūpa bead was originally intended for. This bead is the point of departure and the finish line when reciting. Out of its other end come the final ends of the string, but instead of tying them off directly, they each have several more beads attached, producing two short strings. When the hand touches the stūpa bead and its two short strings again, it serves as a reminder that 108 recitations have been completed. For this reason, these short strings are called ‘reminders’ (Ch. jinian 紀念).
They are also found on the Qing imperial necklace, but as with everything, they have become more stylized. Now they consist of two times five beads on a string, terminating in yet another gemstone. Curiously, they have also moved and multiplied. Suddenly, they have become three, and they have departed from the stūpa bead in different directions. The distribution seems random at first glance; two on one side, one on the other. This is due to regulations that prescribe that men wear the necklaces with two reminder strings on their right side, and one on the left. Women were supposed to wear the necklaces with one string on the right and two on the left. In practice, however, this rule seems to have been mostly neglected, as we can tell from plenty of official portraits.[cf, p 134-5] [cf, p137]
Furthermore, the three reminder strings symbolize the three highest officials on whom the emperor leans for support, called the Three Aids (Ch. san tai 三台), though this might reference a Han dynasty explanation that lists not three officials, but three different types of officials.[cf, (6) p103]
Evidently, the original purpose of the reminder strings were forgotten. They did serve a new purpose, though: officials would use them as an abacus to be able to quickly and discreetly perform calculations.[cf, p 68]